The Indiana County Court schedule today includes a motion for post-conviction relief for a drug defendant and two motions hearings.
24-year-old Derek Coker Jr. of Verona, Westmoreland County, has asked the court to reduce his prison sentence of 15 months to five years for a guilty plea last year to possession with intent to deliver. He originally asked in February for the reduced sentence, which Judge William Martin ruled will be considered by the court to be a petition for post-conviction relief. The hearing today will be conducted by Judge Thomas Bianco.
There will be a motions hearing today for 37-year-old Jennifer Marie Johnson of Indiana, who was one of six people taken into custody in a drug raid in Center Township last August. District Attorney Pat Dougherty is asking the court to revoke Johnson’s $100,000 unsecured bond. In the raid, police and agents of the state attorney general’s office seized 3.28 grams of raw heroin and fentanyl, thirteen grams of crack cocaine, cash, and “owe sheet”, and drug paraphernalia.
A hearing will be conducted on a post-conviction motion filed by 39-year-old Philip Cacurak of Blairsville, a convicted sex offender whom an Indiana County jury found guilty last month of failure to register with state police as required. He was sentenced to six months to a day shy of two years in prison, with three years of probation and credit for time served. Cacurak was convicted of invasion of privacy in 2016.
