The interim police chief of Chippewa Township is warning the public not to believe what he describes as false information being circulated by Deanna Maria Romigh, the founder and administrator of “The News Alerts of Beaver County,” a Facebook group boasting 38,000 followers.
Interim Chief Eric Hermick told BeaverCountian.com late this evening that Romigh’s repeated false allegations are creating public alarm that is “putting our community at risk.”
Hermick took command of the Chippewa Police Department following last week’s retirement of longtime chief Clint Berchtold.
In posts to her group Tuesday night, Romigh alleged a connection between the Nov. 25 murder of 31-year-old Richard Jackson in Aliquippa and a search conducted by state police on Nov. 29 in Chippewa for a man who fled a traffic stop. Romigh also falsely told her followers that Jackson’s murderer was in custody.
Romigh told her 38,000 followers that she was talking directly to a police officer who informed her there was a cover-up going on.
“I’m confused … ” wrote BJ Wildes in response to Romigh’s post, “you’re saying this incident had something to do with the police chase from 376?”
“A police told me… yes and they covered it up to not fear the neighborhood,” wrote Romigh. “A good police, i meant.”
Hermick told BeaverCountian.com that Romigh is spouting nonsense and the public should stop believing information she is disseminating to the tens-of-thousands of people in her group.
“I talked to state police and there is no connection, there is no threat to Chippewa, there is no cover-up, she should not be believed,” Hermick said.
“She is causing the community to be alarmed unnecessarily and she is putting our community at risk. She needs to stop it right now.”
Romigh seemed unfazed with the statement by Hermick after it was first published by BeaverCountian.com, and instead lashed out at the reporting.
“He better hope that the two weren’t connected,” wrote Joe Spalivich in response to BeaverCountian.com’s reporting. Spalivich is another of the group’s administrators.
“Hes gonna regret this. I dont care. Lol,” responded Romigh. “Hes just mad that he lost some viewers for past few days now.”
Romigh later went on to tell her followers she is working on filing a lawsuit against BeaverCountian.com’s John Paul for defamation.
“He slandered me all for nothing,” wrote Romigh. “It get him nowhere but he got to be punished for this. So im on it.”
The Chippewa Police Department previously issued an official statement to its Facebook page on Nov. 30 also denying the individual being sought in their town by PSP was wanted for murder.
See Also:
– Chippewa Twp Police Issue Statement Denying Facebook Rumor Of A Murderer Loose In The Community
– Monaca Police Chief Says False News From Facebook Group Causing Unnecessary Alarm About A Kidnapping
Jesus John Paul she is “on it”.
LOL (that really made me laugh)
Better watch out. Next you will be seen driving around in a white van.
Does she just make this stuff up to stir folks up or is her head full of conspiracy theories for real? Either way, she shouldn’t be allowed to post such nonsense.
She sounds like a nut job. She will say or do the wrong thing sometime and Hermick will grab her up. What she is doing is pretty close to running into a building and screaming fire.
Let’s quote the movie, “Mulholland Drive” – the cowboy scene specifically.
“Just stop for a little second and think about it. Will ya do that for me? … Now I want ya to think …. Can ya try that for me?”
A “good police” (unnamed) tells one and only one person that there is a cover up of a connection between a murder in the southern part of the county and a traffic stop in the northern part of the county. So law enforcement is covering up this connection? Exactly why? What is there to gain from a cover up? What is there to lose if the public knows there is a connection between a serious crime and someone running from a traffic stop? If the guy ran from the traffic stop it is likely that the police did not identify him. How, then, would they know he was connected to the other crime? A murderer is allegedly in custody but has not been identified publicly; for what reason? Why the secrecy?
None of this makes any sense. I hope the 38,000 people who belong to the group (about 22.3% of Beaver County’s population according to the 2010 census) are thinking through the things they read and asking themselves if any of it sounds plausible.
How is someone that illiterate even being taken seriously? Her comments are entertaining as she is making an ass of herself.
She sounds like a person desperate for validation of the meaningfulness of her life. Gauging her own importance on the number of ‘likes’, views or attention she can gather. In all seriousness, it seems like she might be in crisis and needs help. I wonder if her family realizes that, or if they care. Maybe that’s her crisis.
The impact of social media on mental health really needs to be better understood. I believe that many of the horrible things we read about people doing stems from a warping of perception and reality. We all have an inner dialog, but it seems to get perverted in some people by a dependence on a certain volume of attention regardless of the source. If there isn’t enough health attention, then any other kind will have to do. I hope for her sake that telling lies to get attention is as far as it goes, and I hope she has a support network aware enough and caring enough to see the warning signs that are going off. Eventually, she will lose her FB audience. Then what?
In my opinion: I would be more inclined to attribute it to apparent rank amateurism, technical incompetence and poor appreciation for societal norms. “Freedom and Responsibility” often go together, and that is missing there. She is an apparent unschooled amateur trying to do a professional’s job, and it doesn’t work, especially on the social Facebook platform. It might not even be intentional or done with an awareness of the limitations. But there seems to be a likely misunderstanding or unrealistic appreciation for the consequences of the postings. There are few first person, validated data collecting “boots on the ground” — usually just recall and reports several levels away from observed actual events. That leads to speculation, misinterpretation and sensationalizing, things to avoid in reporting “news.” It gets attention, but it is of questionable value in reporting on events. Add to that the posting dissemination algorithms of Facebook, and it can become very problematic for those who tap into the site.
This site is becoming a gossip column like the National Inquirer. Has all the corruption and criminal activity been solved by the election or is this site slipping beneath the waves of relativism? Come on JP get back to giving us news, otherwise you’re becoming the online version of the BC Times. Irrelevant and boring.
Be thankful that we have a lull in really bad news that shakes the County Courthouse, reveals more organized crime machinations, or tackles subversions by elected officials. The Romigh story might lack fireworks, but it is at times a source of disinformation that makes for confused reality. People act on that, and it is problematic. The personal attack on JP was lowbrow, inaccurate, and just plain wrong. It deserved an answer, and it got one. Don’t worry, someone at the Courthouse will once again argue that he/she wants a manger in an office at Christmas, and we’ll be back on track.
Messing with former State Trooper Eric Hermick is messing with the wrong guy. There is probably no one better as a law enforcer in Beaver County than he has long been. He is honest, intelligent, professional, effective. If he is saying that the postings of the site are problematic, you can believe they are.