South Williamsport area man faces numerous charges

When a South Williamsport patrolman approached a 2001 Subaru Forester that was stopped in the middle of the 300 block of West Southern Avenue with its hazard lights activated about 10 p.m. on Dec. 12, he saw a distraught woman sitting in the front passenger seat and three children ages 4 to 9 in the backseat. The driver’s seat was empty.

“My boyfriend was driving us while drunk, and I made him stop the car,” the woman told the officer. “He walked off,” the woman added.

The boyfriend has been identified in a police affidavit as Austin Travis Engel, 31, of 776 Route 15, South Williamsport.

The couple and the children had been at a downtown business, where Engel had been “consuming alcohol,” the woman told police. When they all left the business, Engel got behind the wheel, police were told.

The girlfriend started recording Engel with her cellphone because he was “acting like a total (expletive), driving crazy. I told him to pull over, but he wouldn’t,” it was stated in the court document.

In reviewing the video taken by the girlfriend, the officer could hear her pleading with Engel as he “was driving erratically, abruptly turning the steering wheel, accelerating and then hard braking,” the affidavit stated.

When Engel stopped at a stop sign on West Southern Avenue, the woman “took the keys out of the ignition, because she was worried about the children’s safety. Engel then exited the vehicle, walked off, abandoning the woman and the children,” the officer wrote in the affidavit.

The woman said that while her family was at the business, she told employees there to stop serving Engel because he was “very, very drunk,” the court document stated.

Within an hour after the officer came upon the woman, Engel was taken into custody at his Armstrong Township home, just outside the borough, by a state trooper. Engel was “highly intoxicated,” and struggled with the trooper, it was alleged. Engel submitted a blood sample, but the results were not available Monday.

He was arraigned on charges of felony endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, DUI, resisting arrest and two summary offenses, including driving with a suspended license.

Jailed in the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail, Engel was recently held for court on all charges following a preliminary hearing before District Judge Gary Whiteman.

DuBoistown man allegedly threatened brother with handgun

During a verbal confrontation outside their DuBoistown home about noon on Jan. 20,

Jermaine Frederick Jr. with a gun in his hand, told his brother “Bro, you walk up on me, I’m shooting you right in the face,” it was alleged in a South Williamsport police affidavit.

No shots were fired, and Frederick, 25, of 2612 Columbus Ave., was taken into custody without incident minutes later by an officer near Riverside Drive and Brown Street, according to the court document.

Officers seized a loaded handgun that was discovered in a shoulder bag Frederick had been carrying, police said.

Police said the victim was very upset because he saw his girlfriend riding around with Frederick in a vehicle. Frederick denied “grabbing his firearm, and stated his brother tried pulling him out of his vehicle,” and that the brother “got in his face, telling him to shoot him,” it was stated in the court document.

Police said Frederick already has a protection from abuse oder filed against him, which prohibits him from possessing a firearm.

Following his arraignment before District Judge William Solomon on misdemeanor charges of terroristic threats, carrying a firearm without a license, illegal possession of a firearm and simple assault, Frederick was jailed in lieu of $75,000 bail.

Lehigh County man jailed on identity theft-related charges

Adolfo Garcia Rivera, 23, of Allentown, was arrested and jailed last week on felony charges that were filed after he used a fake Pennsylvania driver’s lincense in an attempt to pick up three delivered cellphones at the FedEx ship center in Fairfield Township in late June 2024, state police alleged. The total value of the cellphones was just under $5,000, police said.

It was alleged that Garcia Rivera purchased the cellphones online on three separate accounts without the authorization of those who held the accounts, police said.

Garcia Rivera was never given the cellphones because he fled the building when FedEx employees suspected fraud, police said.

Following his arraignment before District Judge Christian Frey on charges of identity theft, illegal use of a communication device, attempted theft by deception and attempted theft, Garcia Rivera was locked up in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Inmate faces new charges for allegedly forging attorney’s signature

Lycoming County Prison inmate Kevin Maurice Wright faces additional charges for forging his attoney’s signature on a motion in which Wright was withdrawing the lawyer’s services because of various issues, it was alleged in an affidavit filed by a county detective.

From the prison, the 40-year-Wright mailed a document in early November to the Lycoming County Clerk Office that was a false “motion to withdraw the appearance” of his attorney, the detective said.

It was alleged that Wright, awaiting trial on assault charges, forged the attorney’s signature on two pages of the document, the detective said.

Upon seeings the signatures, an employee in the Clerk of Courts Office, familiar with the lawyer’s signature, knew they were bogus, the detective said. The document was given to the county prothonotary, who showed it to Wright’s attorney, who confirmed they were not his signatures, the detective said.

Wright, whose last known address was of Altoona, has now been charged with unsworn falsification to authorities and fabricating physical evidence. Following his arraignment before District Judge Aaron Biichle, Wright was recommitted in lieu of additional $5,000 bail. He has since been held for court on both misdemeanor charges.