{"id":5977,"date":"2013-01-26T11:44:21","date_gmt":"2013-01-26T16:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=5977"},"modified":"2013-01-26T12:47:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-26T17:47:27","slug":"hogan-announces-law-enforcement-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=5977","title":{"rendered":"Hogan announces law enforcement awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

County’s top cop, prosecutor honored; Pileggi, Simpson, Coatesville PD earn honors<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan presents commendations to (left) New Garden Township Police Chief Gerald Simpson and state Senator Dominic Pileggi for their efforts to create anti-gang legislation.<\/p><\/div>\n

WEST CHESTER \u2014 It was a gathering that would have been a nightmare to those who would seek to do harm to the people of Chester County.<\/p>\n

In a packed Courtroom 1 in the Chester County\u2019s Justice Center on a snowy Friday afternoon, a broad swath of the county\u2019s law enforcement community gathered to honor their own as District Attorney Tom Hogan announced his annual awards for police and prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The room was packed with a veritable who\u2019s who of the county\u2019s law enforcement and justice system, including three Court of Common Pleas jurists – Judge David Bortner, President Judge James P. MacElree II and Judge Jacqueline C. Cody – county Sherriff Carolyn \u201cBunny\u201d Welsh, County Commissioner Terence Farrell, and dozens of other luminaries from local and county law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The ceremony \u2014 which included the swearing in of two county detectives promoted to sergeant \u2014 comes after an admittedly challenging year in the county for law enforcement, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

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Coatesville Police Chief Jack Laufer (left) holds a commendation from Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan for his department’s work on the murder of Aaron Turner as Sgt. James Audette looks on and Hogan offers his congratulations.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of crazy things happening\u201d he said, running through the list of events of the year, specifically citing the seizure of gold plated <\/a>dog heads during a drug-related arrest in Caln in June as an example of the odd and often challenging events of 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut through it all, our county\u2019s law enforcement personnel were there to stand up to keep the bad guys from hurting the people of Chester County,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Three main awards were presented along with a number of commendations during the hour-long ceremony.<\/p>\n

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West Goshen Township Police Detective Darren Sedlak (left) is named Chester County Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by District Attorney Tom Hogan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Detective Darren Sedlak of the West Goshen Police Department was named Chester County Law Enforcement Officer of the Year; Deputy District Attorney Ronald Yen was named County Prosecutor of the Year and County Detective Kenneth Beam was named Chester County Detective of the year.<\/p>\n

Sedlak, Hogan said, earned his honor \u2014 informally called the \u201cLeo\u201d award because the permanent trophy for the award features a lion \u2014 from his overall excellence as a police detective, but shone in three specific cases.<\/p>\n

First, Hogan said, Sedlak\u2019s dogged work in the so-called \u201cplatinum posse\u201d case \u2014 a case in which local thieves organized a plot to rob cars\u2019 catalytic converters to harvest the valuable platinum within.<\/p>\n

Second, Sedlak was praised for his work on the Morgan Mengel murder case \u2014 Mengel faces a March retrial after her initial case was declared a mistrial in February 2012, an obstacle Sedlak handed professionally, Hogan said. Mengel is accused of plotting with a lover to murder her husband in 2010.<\/p>\n

Noting that Sedlak worked the case as it evolved from a missing person’s case to a homicide, Hogan said that the detective never wavered, and even the mistrial \u2014 which would frustrate virtually anyone who had worked a case for nearly two years \u2014 did not dissuade him.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarren\u2019s reaction was: \u2018There are things we can do better next time.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

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Deputy District Attorney Ron Yen (left) succinctly accepts his award as Prosecutor of the Year from District Attorney Tom Hogan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, Hogan praised Sedlak for being \u201cthe first guy who volunteered\u201d for Silent Night, Hogan\u2019s series of raids on Coatesville drug dealers during the summer of 2012, raids coordinated with county detectives and police personnel from all over Chester County.<\/p>\n

Hogan said he sent Sedlak to photograph some evidence, but that the detective came back to the office sporting facial injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came back with his eye split open,\u201d Hogan explained. When the District Attorney asked him if he fell, Hogan said, Sedlak said no, but that he had tackled one of the suspects \u2014 \u201cthe main bad guy\u201d Hogan said \u2014 because he was trying to get away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s typical of Darren,\u201d Hogan said, who also praised him as a \u201cteam player.\u201d<\/p>\n

And throughout all of this, Hogan revealed, Sedlak was helping his wife battle cancer \u2014 she\u2019s in remission now, and the couple have become advocates for those battling the disease \u2014 he said.<\/p>\n

Sedlak, though, refused to take sole credit for his actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything I do, someone else is directly responsible for making it happen,\u201d he said, saying he would only accept the award on behalf of his fellow officers.<\/p>\n

In praise of Yen, named Prosecutor of the Year, First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone said he was equally skilled at prosecuting violent crime as well as white-collar crime, a rarity among prosecutors.<\/p>\n

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Flanked by Detective Lt. Kevin Dykes (from left), Chief Detective James Vito, and Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan (right), Chester County Detective Kenneth Beam (center) is recognized as Chester County Detective of the Year.<\/p><\/div>\n

Another anomaly among normally loquacious prosecutors: Yen was a man of few words during the ceremony, initially limiting his acceptance to \u201cthank you.\u201d He later explained that he was trying to follow the example of Ulysses S. Grant \u2014 who issued similar comments at the ceremony where he was promoted to Lt. General during the Civil War.<\/p>\n

Beam was named Chester County Detective of the Year, in part, said Chief Detectives James Vito, because of his skills as a forensic investigator.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been recognized by multiple law enforcement agencies for his skill,\u201d Vito said.<\/p>\n

Hogan also announced five commendations \u2014 three to police departments \u2014 and two to individuals.<\/p>\n

Coatesville \u2014 new Chief Jack Laufer and Sgt. James Audette were on hand to accept \u2014 was honored for its work in the arrest, conviction and ultimately, the death sentence for Laquanta Chapman in the murder and dismemberment of Aaron Turner.<\/p>\n

Hogan said that the department\u2019s officers went above and beyond having \u201cspent a freezing winter looking through a landfill for Aaron\u2019s remains.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Upper Uwchlan Police Department was honored for the arrest and conviction of James Hvizda in the murder of his wife, Kimberly Hvizda, while the Willistown Police Department was honored for the arrest and conviction of Kim Nguyen for the robbery of a TD Bank.<\/p>\n

The individuals honored \u2014 New Garden Township Police Chief Gerald Simpson and State Senator Dominic Pileggi \u2014 were honored for the inception and adoption of new state laws involving gang recruiting, which followed a gang-related double homicide in New Garden in December 2011. Simpson was honored for the idea for the law \u2014 which includes making gang recruiting a crime \u00a0\u2014 and Pileggi, the Senate Majority Leader and state Senator for most of southern Chester County, because the law went from concept to law in a matter of months, a real rarity, Hogan stressed.<\/p>\n

The ceremony also included the swearing in of Michael McGinnis and Robert Dougherty, two county detectives who were promoted to sergeant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County’s top cop, prosecutor honored; Pileggi, Simpson, Coatesville PD earn honors By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times WEST CHESTER \u2014 It was a gathering that would have been a nightmare to those who would seek to do harm to the people of Chester County. In a packed Courtroom 1 in the Chester County\u2019s Justice Center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1727,1728,15,370,551,1729,19,1730,1731],"class_list":["post-5977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-aaron-turner","tag-awards","tag-chester-county","tag-coatesville","tag-dominic-pileggi","tag-law-enforcement","tag-new-garden","tag-thomas-p-hogan","tag-west-goshen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}