By Rob Wheary
News Item
SUNBURY — Sentencing of an alleged drug dealer and a pre-trial conference for a man accused of attempted homicide were among the criminal cases postponed Monday when county prisoners weren’t transported to the courthouse as planned from their temporary home at SCI-Coal Township.
The confusion may have been related to the winter storm that dropped several inches of snow and mixed precipitation on the region Sunday evening into Monday morning, but that remained unclear as of late Monday.
Two Northumberland County Prison officials, working at SCI-Coal Township where 208 county inmates were moved when fire destroyed the county jail Jan. 14, said the transportation paperwork was ready for nine inmates and the van to transport them arrived as planned at the SCI-Coal Township parking lot.
“The transportation van was sitting in the prison parking lot at 8 a.m., but for some reason, we couldn’t get inside the gates,” said Lt. Jim Smink, public information officer for the county prison. The van was there for about an hour, he said.
Full story: Nine inmates miss court; reason van couldn’t enter SCI-Coal Township unclear