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Charged 7.29

By Staff | Jul 29, 2020

When Hughesville Police Chief Rodney Smith arrived at a crash scene where a pickup truck driven by Francisco Pagan slammed into the corner of a structure at 48 N. Main St. in the borough, the officer found himself dealing with an intoxicated driver and a language barrier.

A native of Puerto Rico, Pagan was still behind the wheel when Smith pulled up about 9:40 a.m. on July 1.

“The man appeared to be under the influence of an intoxicating beverage to the degree that his speech was slurred and he was not understandable,” Smith said in an affidavit.

“There was a half-empty bottle of rum on the truck’s floor between Pagan’s legs,” the officer said.

Despite his intoxication and limited comprehension of the language, Pagan, a 44-year-old homeless man, could communicate a little bit with Smith.

Because the driver “could not stand or walk due to being under the influence,” he was taken by ambulance to UPMC Muncy to be evaluated.

To help them communicate with Pagan, whose last known address was in Milton, hospital staff used an online interpreter

service who provided an individual who could understand Pagan’s language to translate for the staff.

After being medically cleared by a doctor, Pagan told Smith-again through the interpreter service-that he had no family or friends in the area and that he wanted to go to jail. That is exactly where he ended up.

Following his arraignment before District Judge Gary Whiteman on charges of DUI, careless driving and driving with a suspended license, Pagan was committed to the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $2,500 bail.

Another case before Kemp involved a routine criminal mischief investigation conducted by state Trooper Richard Holz, who responded to 5511 Moreland Baptist Road, Unityville, on the afternoon of April 20 to take a report from Jodi Cisowski.

The 35-year-old woman told Holz that someone had slashed the tires to her boyfriend’s car while it was parked outside the home the two were sharing at the time. As he investigated the damage,

Holz saw puncture wounds on all the tires, causing them to go flat.

Cisowski told the trooper she did not know who damaged the tires on the Chevrolet Cavalier owned by Daniel Wooden.

However, at the end of May, Wooden came upon text messages on a cellphone he owned and had been used by Cisowski in which the woman allegedly implicated herself in the vandalism, Holz said.

Cisowski texted a friend, Alena Greiner, “I made a police report. He (Wooden) has no idea it was me,” Holz quoted the woman in his affidavit.

Upon being questioned on June 1 by police, Greiner told investigators that Cisowski admitted “to her that the police report she made was false and that the mischief to the tires was caused by her,” Holz said.

Charged with criminal mischief and false reports to law enforcement, Cisowski, now living in Quarryville, Lancaster County, has been sent a summons to appear before the judge.

In another case, Kemp arraigned Kallie Sherman, 23, of 659 Campbell St., Williamsport, on charges of criminal solicitation to commit prostitution and false identification to law enforcement stemming from a recent incident in which she allegedly offered to perform sexual favors for an undercover state trooper in exchange for $100 to $150, according to court records.

After the trooper and Sherman first met on the telephone, they met in person on Chippewa Road in Muncy Creek Township about 11:45 a.m. on July 3. She got in the officer’s car and the two drove a short distance before she was taken into custody by two uniformed officers. Initially she gave a false name and date of birth, but then gave her true identity. She was released on $5,000 bail.

In another criminal complaint before Kemp, Joshua Feigles, 33, of 203 Carpenter St. Muncy, faces one misdemeanor count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle for failing to return his mother’s 2016 Ford Fusion after she loaned it to him on June 7, according to state police. The mother alerted authorities a week after Feigles borrowed the car and still had not returned it. He has been sent a summons to appear before the judge.

In a sexual abuse case, Wayne Benson, 43, of 522 Route 442, Muncy, waived his preliminary hearing Friday before District Judge Jon Kemp on felony charges of sexual abuse of children, possession of child pornography, illegal use of a cellphone and two misdemeanor counts of illegal possession of obscene material.

The charges stem from Benson using a cellphone to take inappropriate photos of a female minor while she was in a bathroom in Muncy Creek Township in late June, state Trooper Brian Siebert alleged in court papers. Benson remains jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail.