Contractor faces felony charges

Michel Kevin Taylor, a local contractor, has been arrested on felony charges of deceptive business practices and home improvement fraud after taking an advanced payment of $2,500 from an Old Lycoming Township woman for work to be done on her outdoor pool, but Taylor did not complete the work or return the money to the customer, Lycoming Regional police alleged in an affidavit.

Back in late April 2024, the woman gave Taylor, who also goes by TNT Home Improvement, two payments for the work, police said, adding that Taylor, 44, of 2091 Field Station Road, Trout Run, initially “ripped up some concrete” but allegedly never returned to the property after that. Three months later, in early July, the woman terminated Taylor and demanded her money back, police said. In a text message to Taylor two weeks later, the woman demanded “Where is my money? Do I need to contact my lawyer,” it was stated in an affidavit. In his reply, Taylor told her if she “wanted to waste more money, she could,” the court document stated. Following his arraignment last week before District Judge Aaron Biichle, Taylor was released on $30,000 bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled June 10.

Motorist admits to smoking marijuana ’24/7′

When suspected impaired motorist Grenile Gainey was committed to the Lycoming County Prison early Sunday morning, the 53-year-old city man had in his possession “a pocket knife and a suspected marijuana joint in his front right pocket,” according to a state police criminal complaint. Gainey, driving a 2021 Volvo, was stopped in the area of Edercrest Road and Westminster Drive in Loyalsock Township after committing a traffic violation about 3:20 a.m., police said. When the trooper got out of his cruiser, Gainey got out of his car, carrying a bag of suspected marijuana.

“I detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from Gainey, whose eyes were bloodshot and glassy,” it was stated in an affidavit. When the trooper asked him for his driver’s license as well as his registration and insurance card, Gainey handed him a credit card and hotel card, police said. When the trooper asked him the last time he smoked marijuana, he replied “I smoke every day, like 24/7,” the affidavit stated. The driver showed signs of impairment and became “very uncooperative once he was placed in custody,” police said. Gainey, while screaming, initially resisted the trooper’s efforts to seat belt him in the back seat of the cruiser, police added. After he was taken to UPMC Williamsport, where he agreed to submit a blood sample, he was taken before District Judge Gary Whiteman, who ordered him to the county prison on no bail after determining that he was unfit for arraignment.

It was while a corrections officer was conducting a search of Gainey’s clothing that the contraband knife and marijuana were discovered, police said. When he was returned to be arraigned before Whiteman on Monday afternoon , Gainey was charged with DUI, two counts of possession of marijuana and introducing a weapon into a detention facility. He was then released on $17,500 bail.

Police say Muncy area woman helped fugitive avoid capture

Although she was informed in mid-March that her friend Warren Wayman Swank III was wanted on felony charges, Mackenzie Rose Roberts “chose not to notify law enforcement of his whereabouts” while she continued to associate with him and live with him, Muncy police alleged in an affidavit. Roberts, 27, of 709 Musser Lane, Muncy, has now been charged with hindering apprehension, a misdemeanor. In the court document, police said Roberts admitted to officers that “this was not the first time she had assisted Swank, in avoiding apprehension by law enforcement. She said she fled with Swank to New Jersey” while he was a fugitive, police said. Roberts has since waived her preliminary hearing before District Judge Kirsten Gardner and is free on $5,000 bail. While Swank, 28, of the same address remains incarcerated on numerous charges, another woman who is alleged to have helped him avoid capture in March, Breann Burkholder, 25, of 227 S. Second St., Hughesville, waived her preliminary hearing on a Muncy charge of hindering apprehension and is free on bail.

Two state prison inmates face assault charges in separate cases

Deneshya A. Poole, 45, an inmate at the state Correctional Institution at Muncy, has been charged with three felony counts of assault by prisoner for allegedly scratching two corrections officers with her fingernails and spitting on a third officer at the prison on Oct 1, according to state police. She remains incarcerated in lieu of $50,000 bail.

A second inmate, Nyesha Simmons, 38, faces one count of the same offense for punching a prison staff member in the face and pulling her hair on Aug. 27 police alleged in court papers filed at Gardner’s office. She remains jailed in lieu of $25,000 bail.

City man arrested on several misdemeanor charges

After waiving his preliminary hearing before Biichle, Mychael Jamar Diggs, 47, of 1246 Memorial Ave., will face further court action on city police misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, possession of prohibitive offensive weapon (a pair of brass knuckles), disorderly conduct and defiant trespassing following a disturbance in the 300 block of Market Street on May 1. Initially jailed, he is now free on $5,000 bail.