Man sentenced for Minersville church vandalism

Kevin A. Smith Jr. apologized Wednesday in Schuylkill County Court for vandalizing Minersville's Church of Broken Pieces in February, but still received a prison sentence and extended probation.


"I thought it would be funny," Smith, 18, of Schuylkill Haven, told Judge Jacqueline L. Russell. "I really don't know why I did it."

What he admitted doing was spray-painting the 41 N. Front St. church, which has a primarily African-American congregation, with racist and satanic graffiti, including a swastika and a pentagram, on Feb. 21.

"I'm not really a racist," said Smith, who pleaded guilty Aug. 21 to ethnic intimidation, conspiracy, institutional vandalism, corruption of minors, desecration of venerated objects, criminal mischief and harassment.

What he received for it from Russell was a prison sentence of three to 23 months, plus an additional three years probation, payment of costs, $200 in fines and $300 restitution to the church, 80 hours community service, submission of a DNA sample to law enforcement authorities and mental health and drug and alcohol evaluations.

"I hope you are successful with any kind of treatment you might need," Russell said. "I hope your life starts to turn around."

What he left behind was a horrified congregation that its pastor said still wants to put the incident behind it.

"We are a product of the '60s. It brought back such horrible memories," said the Rev. Gloria Alexander, one of the church's two pastors. "Everyone came together to pray for healing."

Alexander, whose husband, the Rev. Harold, also is a pastor at the church, balanced the sadness she felt and the desire to forgive Smith, and indicated she was satisfied with the sentence.

"The people that I counsel and the young people that came together just find it so hard to understand," she testified. "As a mother, you wish you could protect them. You wish you could spare the young people."

Minersville citizens also rallied to support the church, which Gloria Alexander said has a congregation that is 65 percent African-American. Three days after the incident, 70 volunteers, including 55 Minersville Area High School students, turned out in bitterly cold weather to help remove the graffiti.

"One of the greatest things out of it ... was the students from Minersville," Gloria Alexander said.

Before being sentenced, Smith told Russell he has limited contact with his mother, is not certain where is father is and has a troubled past.

"I started (using drugs) when I was 14," he said. "I was intoxicated when I was brought to the prison. The last time I actually went to church was with my aunt when I was 6 years old."

Russell found the last statement particularly important.

"Perhaps you don't understand how upsetting it is for a group of parishioners to go to their house of worship and see it defiled," the judge told Smith.

Minersville police had charged Smith and a 16-year-old boy with defacing the building, which is the former St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge.

Assistant District Attorney William C. Reiley and Assistant Public Defender Andrea L. Thompson, Smith's attorney, each said afterwards the sentence reflected a proper result.

"I think the church detects a true sense of contrition by the young defendant, who not only learned for himself, but through coverage of the event, hopefully has taught others the effects of misguided attempts at a prank that has such serious consequences," Reiley said.

"I do think he's truly remorseful. I think he learned more from the church's forgiveness than anything else," Thompson said.

Gloria Alexander also told Smith outside the courtroom how much she wants him to learn from the incident.

"I will pray for you that you will get your life together and you will succeed," she said.

Want to make some extra cash

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The picture above shows the first day earnings.

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The PennDOT Valentine's Day Plowing Fiasco

If you are a resident of Pennysylvania, you had to feel the impact of the recent Valentine's Day snow storm that left many residents stranded on interstates,highways,and roads.

Recently, the Pennsylvania legislature held hearings as to why this happened. The truth is that no one stepped up to the plate and told the truth about it.

One of the main reasons road maintenance was so bad is due to budget rollbacks that cut funding for independent snow plowing. What exactly is this? Well, in the past, besides PennDOT, many independents, including construction firms, were paid to plow areas such as highways and township areas.

Officials gave the typical excuses of poor communication and not responding early enough but this storm still wasn't nearly as bad as past storms such as in 1996.

Schuylkill County-Why are jobs so low paying in this county

Schuylkill County seems to have some of the lowest paying wages around. While this may be good for employers, one has to wonder how to people get by.

If you talk to anyone who makes a good living they will probably tell you that they work out of the county such as in Berks, Dauphin, or Luzerne County.

It is also a well known fact that many college grads do not return to the area and why should they, no high paying white collar jobs are to be found here.

This all seems to contribute to the financial and social stagnation of the whole area. Look inside the local newspaper, such as The Pottsville Republican & Herald, and you will see most jobs are low paying while high paying jobs are usually in the health care field (caring for an aging population) or couseling services (caring for addicted youth and adults). So, add it all up and it is not hard to see why this area continues to lag behind the rest of the state and the country for that matter.

It should also be noted that a lot of individuals cannot speak, read, or write english.

What a poor shithole of a place. Then again where can you buy a house for $8,000 to $10,000.

Is the Purple Page moving soon?

Supposedly, the Schuylkill County Purple Page will be moving to a new home within the next month. The new website will have an easier to remember address, many features that are not currently available, more powerful moderation tools, and the ability of users to choose between posting anonymously or becoming a registered user.

The difference being that members will have access to more features than anonymous users.

Currently, the address for the Purple Page is http://www.members.boardhost.com/purplepage/ and the new address will be ......... well, you will find that out later.

Traffic on the site has been down and hopefully, the new address will provide users with a board setting that they are comfortable with, while at the same time avoiding total chaos.

So, look for something new and different for the Purple Page in the upcoming month or so.

Mr. Shields Trial in Schuylkill County

Probably one of the biggest trials in recent memory is the upcoming Coach Shields trial.

Coach Daniel M. Shields is accused of video taping female students at Nativity BVM High School while they were in various stages of undress in a school dressing room. This has outraged parents who accuse Shields of receiving preferential treatment.

Just recently, the lawyer for Shields, Emmanuel H. Dimitriou, had asked Judge John E. Domalakes for a change in venue for the trial and also separate trials for the charges. Domalakes dismissed the request.

Also, previously, Dimitriou, asked to have the video tapes not entered into evidence saying that police received them illegally. This was due to some teenagers taking the tapes without Shields' knowledge and later handing them over to police. Of course, this was after they viewed the tapes and shared them with friends.

This should be one interesting trial.