Buena Vista Township

UPS driver hit by car on Route 40

after dog chases him into road

A UPS driver was struck by a car Thursday after he was chased into the road by a dog.

Ryan Bekeshka, a 25-year-old employee of the delivery firm, had stopped to drop off a package at an address on Route 40 at about 1:30 p.m. when, according to State Police, a dog ran out of the residence.

Officers said Bekeshka backed away into the road, where he was hit by a car driven by Leonard Trachtenberg, an 86-year-old resident of Glassboro.

The accident occurred near Saw Mill Park, in the Richland Village section of the township. State Police from the nearby Buena Vista barracks attended the scene, along with the township Rescue Squad, Richland Fire Department and Landisville EMS staff.

Police said Bekeshka was airlifted to the Tauma Unit of AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City, where he was treated for head trauma, a broken leg and facial lacerations.

He was listed as in stable condition late Thursday afternoon.

Cape May Court House

Murder suspect's brother pleads

guilty to hindering apprehension

Middle Township resident Riley Cooper pleaded guilty Thursday to hindering the apprehension of his brother, Seth Cooper, after Seth Cooper allegedly shot a man in December 2006.

The victim, 23-year-old John Cavicchio III, was shot once in the head Dec. 10 and died the following day at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, City Campus, in Atlantic City.

Riley Cooper, 22, told Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten that he knew his brother fired a gun that night and that he then drove him and another man, Raymond Fryar, to Atlantic City after the shooting.

On Jan. 31, Fryar also admitted helping Seth Cooper evade capture by traveling with him from Atlantic City to Philadelphia.

Philadelphia police arrested Fryar three days after the shooting at a family home in the 6200 block of Ellsworth Street.

Both Fryar and Riley Cooper pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension, a third-degree offense.

First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer said Riley Cooper would receive probation and a maximum of 364 days in county jail in exchange for his plea, at the judge's discretion.

Meyer said he intends to ask for jail time.

Riley Cooper, represented by attorney Michael Schreiber, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 12 after his brother's murder trial is finished.

Seth Cooper's trial is scheduled to start Dec. 1.

He is charged with murder along with weapons charges and the attempted murder of Ernest Dominquez.

Dominquez, Cavicchio and Charles Griggs III all traveled together the night of the homicide to the area near Pennsylvania Avenue in Burleigh, where they met Seth Cooper.

The meeting, according to statements at previous court hearings, involved a dispute between Cooper and Dominquez over a mutual girlfriend.

Seth Cooper was arrested 13 days later at a South Carolina restaurant.

Sea Isle City

Coast Guard rescues two boaters

Two boaters were rescued Thursday evening after their boat capsized about 250 yards from the beach, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard said it got a call from local police at 5:05 p.m. that a 20-foot boat with two people aboard had flipped over in the water.

A boat crew from the Townsends Inlet station responded and pulled the boaters from the water, the Coast Guard said. Both of them were wearing life jackets.

The two people, whose names were not released, were taken to Cape Regional Medical Center for treatment of hypothermia, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard reminds boaters to wear life jackets while on the water. Nearly 90 percent of people who die in boating accidents are not wearing life jackets.

Compiled by staff writers Steven Lemongello, Juliet Fletcher and Trudi Gilfillian.