Herald-Standard - Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association

Monday
inside
Health
Shape Up
Worry’s impact
Insanity live
Fretting over life’s
troubles can have a
negative impact on
your body and mind.
Week 7 entails
more nutrition talk,
cardio pulmonary
conditioning.
See D1.
See E1.
www.heraldstandard.com
S E R V I N G FAY E T T E & G R E E N E C O U N T I E S
MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2015
71,000 READERS EACH WEEK
VOL. 34 NO. 191
$1.00
STATE REPORT REVEALS
Cancer at SCI-Fayette below Pa. rate
BY CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@heraldstandard.com
According to a report prepared for
the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) by the Pennsylvania
Department of Health (DOH), the
cancer rate at the Luzerne Township
prison is lower than the state cancer
rate.
The “Review of Cancer Burden at
the PA State Correctional InstituteFayette” was released to the HeraldStandard through an Open Records
request and posted on the DOC
website mid-February, after the paper
filed a motion to compel the release of
documents as ordered by the state’s
Office of Open Records (OOR).
An attorney for the HeraldStandard has contended that the DOC
has failed to produce other documents
that the OOR ordered released.
Health concerns related to the proximity of the prison to a coal ash dump
were raised in August 2013 by the
Abolitionist Law Center in a report of
illnesses including respiratory, throat
and sinus conditions, skin irritations
and rashes, gastrointestinal issues,
precancerous growths and cancers,
thyroid disorders and other problems.
The DOH was asked by the DOC
only to review cancer cases at the
prison, which was done using information from the Pennsylvania Cancer
Registry.
The report studied the cancer rate
from Sept. 1, 2003, when the prison
opened, through the end of 2012 and
compared it to the statewide cancer
rate for men from 2007-2009. While
the registry offers both three-year
averages and annual reports, the DOH
declined to say why the three-year average was selected.
“The (DOH) is prohibited by law
from discussing disease investigations but other state agencies are not
subject to the same prohibition on disclosure. The (DOH) also believes the
report speaks for itself. You will need
to direct your questions to the DOC,”
said Holi Senior, DOH deputy press
PRISON, Page A3
DOC objects
to court’s
intervention
in records case
Outside at last
BY SUSY KELLY
skelly@heraldstandard.com
KELLY TUNNEY | Herald-Standard
From left, Elijah Moore, 10, Kany’e Fitzgerald, 11, Lalonnie Farrell, 7, and Amarion Farrell, 10, play basketball at the Grant
Street Park as the weather hit a sunny 50 degrees on Sunday afternoon.
IN FERGUSON
Man charged with shooting officers
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A
20-year-old man charged
Sunday with shooting two
police officers watching over
a demonstration outside the
Ferguson Police Department
had attended a protest there
earlier that night but told investigators he wasn’t targeting
the officers, authorities said.
St. Louis County Prosecutor
Robert McCulloch said
suspect Jeffrey Williams told
authorities he was firing at
someone with whom he was in
a dispute.
“We’re not sure we completely buy that part of it,”
McCulloch said, adding that
there might have been other
people in a vehicle Williams is
accused of firing from.
Index
Community . . C1
Classified. . F1-4
Comics. . . . . . C6
Law & Order . A6
Williams is charged with
two counts of first-degree assault, one count of firing a
weapon from a vehicle and
three counts of armed criminal
action.
McCulloch said the investigation is ongoing.
The police officers were
CHARGES, Page A3
The state Department of Corrections (DOC) has lodged a preliminary
objection to a petition the HeraldStandard filed in Commonwealth
Court seeking judicial intervention in
a dispute related to an open records
request.
The preliminary objection filed on
Monday by Chase M. Defelice, the attorney representing the DOC, asks the
judge not to grant the Herald-Standard’s request because there remains
a question as to whether the records it
asked for exist.
On Sept. 25, the Herald-Standard
first reached out to the DOC seeking
documentation of illnesses contracted
by inmates and/or staff members
at the State Correctional Institution
(SCI) at Fayette in Isabella. The request clarified that no identifying information was being sought, only the
types of reported contracted illnesses,
particularly respiratory ailments
and various types of cancer, and the
number of inmates or staff with those
illnesses reported at the prison since
its opening.
“The department’s position is that
a portion of the responsive records
exist, and they were provided to (the
Herald-Standard), but the remaining
responsive records do not exist, and
never did exist,” wrote Defelice.
“(The Herald-Standard)’s position is
that the department has the records,
but does not want to provide them.”
Defelice indicated the HeraldStandard misinterpreted a Nov. 4 declaration from Christopher Oppman,
director of the Bureau of Health Care
Services, that said the records were
part of a noncriminal investigation.
“(The Herald-Standard) submits
DOC, Page A7
Williams
Obituaries
Obituaries . . . C2
Opinion . . . A4-5
Puzzles . . . . . C7
Sports . . . . C1-4
Blaney, William “Jerry,” Chalk Hill
Chaney, Charles, Uniontown
Garlick, Kenneth, Smithfield
Groover, Millard “Tobe” Sr.,
Fairchance
House, David Jr., Dawson
Knight, Bethany, Connellsville
Myers, Janet, Uniontown
Rubis, Regis, Uniontown
See details on C1.
Today
High: 67
Low: 51
See C8.
FAYETTE COUNTY
NETWORK
HERALDSTANDARD.COM | MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2015
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Police and emergency responders debris study thrown free from a Chevrolet Trailblazer
that wrecked on Matthew Drive in South Union Township at around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday
night. Fayette EMS, American Ambulance, Uniontown State Police, and South Union
Volunteer Fire Department responded. Police did not know why the driver, who was taken
to Uniontown Hospital, left the roadway.
Police identify man injured
in South Union Twp. crash
By Miles Layton
jmlayton@heraldstandard.com
State police have identified the
Uniontown man who was seriously
injured in a car accident Saturday in
South Union Township.
Police said Roscoe Valentine Jr.,
32, was traveling north at a high rate
of speed on Matthew Drive between
Walmart Drive and Duck Hollow
Road when he lost control of his vehicle, which rolled over as it crashed
around 7:41 p.m. into a curb and sign.
Police issued a press release
Sunday afternoon that said Valentine
suffered major injuries and was taken
to Uniontown Hospital.
Police are looking for the operator
of a motorcycle who was also part of
the incident for questioning.
Police were assisted by Fayette
EMS, South Union Township Volunteer Fire Department and Professional Auto.
Anyone with information regarding
this incident should contact police at
724-439-7111.
Lancaster
Carbon monoxide exposure
sends 7 to hospital; 2 critical
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Authorities in central Pennsylvania say exposure to carbon monoxide sent seven
people to the hospital, two of them in
critical condition.
LNP newspapers reports that
emergency responders were sent just
before 5 a.m. Sunday to a home in
Lancaster Township.
The township fire department said
in a post on its Facebook page that an
DOC
odor of gas and high carbon monoxide
levels were found throughout the
residence.
Officials didn’t cite a cause, but
the post included a photo of a disconnected flue pipe.
The department said the incident
highlights the importance of not only
having carbon monoxide detectors as
well as smoke detectors in a home or
apartment.
Department’s Bureau
of Health Care Services
maintains an extensive
database of all current
Continued from A1
cancer patients in state
prison facilities . . . A
director Oppman’s first
more detailed analysis
declaration indicates
of the 11 cancer deaths
the department is in
at SCI Fayette from 2010
possession of all the
to 2013, revealed that
responsive records,” De- four were transferred to
felice wrote.
SCI Fayette after they
“Admittedly, the first
had been diagnosed
declaration of director
with cancer at other
Oppman was poorly
institutions.”
worded and was not inAccording to Defelice,
tended to suggest that
the Herald-Standard
the department poswrongly interpreted
sessed all the records
communication from the
within the very broad
DOC regarding the exrequest,” he stated,
istence of a database of
adding that an exchange inmate illnesses.
of emails followed in
“The department has
which the DOC tried to
not asserted that the reclarify its position.
cords exist, but they are
On Dec. 31, the DOC
in a database,” Defelice
provided some data to
wrote. “But rather, has
the Herald-Standard,
stated ‘we do not have
but did not entirely
any such records that
fulfill the open records
are that specific beyond
request as submitted.
going through every
Oppman made another
medical record.’”
declaration, Defelice
If the records exist,
wrote, which stated,
the newspaper would
“beyond the records
have a clear right to
previously provided to
them, Defelice stated.
(the Herald-Standard),
“However, if, as the
the department does not department claims, the
have within its custody,
records do not exist, (the
possession or control,
Herald-Standard) does
reports of illnesses con- not have a clear right
tracted at SCI-Fayette,
to the records because
by type and quantity and impossibility is a decomparison of illness
fense to an enforcement
rates at other state coraction.”
rectional institutions.”
Under the Right to
The Herald-Standard
Know Law, Defelice
has argued that the
explained, “an agency
DOC indicated it does
shall not be required
have such records in a
to create a record
Dec. 31 press release,
which does not exist or
which stated, “The
to compile, maintain,
format or organize a
record in a manner in
which the agency does
not currently compile,
maintain format or organize the record.”
“In email correspondence . . . the department explains that
the records can only be
gleaned from reviewing
medical records, which
correlates to every
inmate medical file
from 2003 to the present
that has touched SCI
Fayette,” wrote.
The Herald-Standard’s
initial open records
request was pursuant
to coverage of a report
from the Abolitionist
Law Center and the
Human Rights Coalition
published a report in
early September titled
“No Escape: Exposure
to Toxic Coal Waste at
State Correctional Institution Fayette.”
The report alleged
the Luzerne Township
prison is surrounded by
“about 40 million tons
of waste, two coal slurry
ponds and a million
cubic yards of coal combustion waste,” calling
that site a “massive
toxic waste site.”
The report referred
to Matt Canestrale
Contracting, located
adjacent to SCI-Fayette,
which has taken coal
fly ash from area coalfired power plants, and
is listed by the state
Department of Environmental Protection as a
permitted coal disposal
site.
A7