5/11/17
by News Department on 05/11/17Plea rejected...
63 year old Ralph J. Caruano Jr., of Pottsville, who had more than $238,000 in his house when police searched it in April 2016, is headed to trial after a Schuylkill County judge again rejected his proposed guilty plea agreement with prosecutors.
Caruano is charged with selling heroin three times in less than a month in the city. President Judge William E. Baldwin, in February, had rejected another plea agreement prosecutors had made with Caruano.
The proposed new agreement would have allowed Caruano to serve his sentence in the county prison instead of a state correctional institution.
Pottsville police allege Caruano sold heroin on April 19, April 21 and April 26, 2016. Police also allege that when they searched Caruano’s residence on April 26, they found heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, digital scales, packaging materials along with the currency concealed in bags.
Baldwin then ordered Caruano’s case returned to the trial list; the next time it could be tried is during the June criminal court term, which starts June 5 and ends June 13.
