The trial for the man dubbed the "Swiss Cheese Pervert" was scheduled to begin Thursday at 10 a.m. but was continued again.
Christopher Pagano's trial was scheduled to begin on April 1, but was continued because the defendent changed attorneys.
Pagano, 42, is on trial for allegedly propositioning multiple women with Swiss cheese. Police say he approached these women, asking if they'd like to get paid to watch him rub the cheese on his genitals. They also say he exposed himself to the victims.
"He told me he liked to put Swiss cheese on his private area," one woman told police.
Dubbed the "Swiss Cheese Pervert" by a community activist group, Pagano was arrested at Norristown home last January after a joint investigation between Norristown and Philadelphia police.
Pagano is facing stalking, indecent exposure, harassment and open lewdness charges.
Trial Continued for "Swiss Cheese Pervert"
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Massive Waterfront Apartment Complex Proposed
A property along the Delaware River waterfront that had many bold ambitions that never came to fruition is back at trying to make progress.
It’s not Penn’s Landing.
Carl Marks & Co. is looking to revive a version of plans it created in 2002 to develop a massive residential project called Renaissance Plaza on 5.3 acres that front the Delaware River at Columbus Boulevard and Callowhill Street and had been known for the last 15 years as the future address of the Greater Philadelphia World Trade Center.
The dense project would include 1,342 apartments in four buildings that range in height from 21 to 31 stories. Plans also include 16 townhouses, nearly 70,000 square feet of retail space, 653 parking spaces along with more than an acre of landscaped public plazas. Read more about this story on PBJ.com
More NBC10.com stories:
- Trial Begins for Alleged "Swiss Cheese Pervert"
- 3 Generations of Valedictorians
- The Best 4 Years of David Hasselhoff's Life
For more breaking business news go to PBJ.com
Photo Credit: Carl Marks & Co.
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Old City Businesses Still Feeling Impact of Fire
One day after a fire ripped through the Suit Corner Store, neighboring stores see are feeling the impact.
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Stolen Truck Crashes Into Home
The driver of a stolen truck crashed into a house in the Grays Ferry section of the city around 1 a.m. Thursday.
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Woman Hospitalized After Apartment Fire
Firefighters rescue a trapped woman from an apartment building fire early Thursday morning.
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Stabbing Suspect's Dad Speaks Out
A day after a high school student went on a stabbing rampage at a suburban high school in Pennsylvania, doctors update the victims conditions as the suspect's lawyer looks to have his client evaluated for mental health issues.
Photo Credit: AP
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Philly Can You Dance? Debbie Allen Wants You
Emmy award-winning choreographer, Debbie Allen is looking for talented-young men in the Philadelphia area to star in her newest production, "Brothers of the Knight"
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Bartram High School Gets An Ex-Army Captain
An ex-army captain is appointed co-principal at Bartram High School after a rash of violent incidents at the school.
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Woman, Cat Injured in Apartment Fire
A woman and her cat were both injured in an apartment fire overnight in the Northeast section of the city.
Neighbors say they woke up just after 1 a.m. Thursday to the smell of smoke before the fire alarms in an apartment building on the 8200 block of Roosevelt Boulevard started going off. They also say that one of the residents began banging on doors to alert others of the fire.
One woman, however, a 60-year-old identified only as Elaine, was not able to get out of her bottom-floor apartment, fire officials told NBC10.
Elaine and her cat were stuck inside their unit while fire burned through the apartment because of a jammed door, according to crews that were on scene.
Firefighters from the Philadelphia Fire Company were able to rescue the resident and her feline.
Elaine was taken to Temple University Hospital where is in critical condition. Her cat was removed from the building on a stretcher, according a tweet made by the Red Paw Relief Team -- the Red Cross for animals.
@PhillyFireNews They also pulled this cat out of the fire & gave her O2 until we arrived! Shes currently @pennvet. pic.twitter.com/vnbamv3iUH
— Red Paw Relief Team (@RedPawRelief) April 10, 2014
The cat is being treated at Penn Vet, according to Red Paw.
Elaine is being treated for burns and smoke inhalation, fire officials said.
The fire, according to officials, began in the basement of the building. No word on what caused the blaze.
Check back with NBC10 for updates on this story.
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Love Your Sibling! It's National Siblings Day
Brotherly love and sisterly affection is celebrated today.
On social media, family units tweeted and shared photos of their sisters and brothers for National Siblings Day.
Around the Philadelphia region, photos from the past and present show the unique bond between siblings. The Philadelphia Eagles tweeted an image of Eagles player Jason Kelce and his younger brother Travis who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Tweet your sibling photos to @NBCPhiladelphia and some will be added to this NBC10 storify.
Photo Credit: @ashdavi / Instagram
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One Hurt in School Bus Accident
One student was hurt in a school bus accident in the Wynnefield Heights neighborhood of Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon.
Witnesses on the scene told NBC10's Lu Ann Cahn that the bus had a mechanical issue and rolled into a tree on Neil Drive. That's near the intersection of City Avenue and Presidential Boulevard, right at the dividing line between the city and the suburbs.
A handful of students from St. Margarets and Waldron schools in Narberth, Montgomery County, were on the bus at the time.
One girl suffered a minor injury when she hit her head as the bus veered off the road.
She was being treated by paramedics on the scene.
Photo Credit: @beccah_h/Twitter
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Gosnell Movie Snubbed by Kickstarter
Journalist and filmmaker Phelim McAleer is always looking for a good story to tell.
While in Philadelphia producing his film "FrackNation" last year, he found himself with three days off and a break from film work. So he opened the newspaper to find out what the big stories were in Philadelphia. Something jumped off the page and was worthy of a next project, he thought.
The case of disgraced abortion Dr. Kermit Gosnell stunned him. Gosnell ran an abortion clinic in West Philadelphia for years and stored fetuses in jars. Gosnell was convicted of murdering three babies that were born alive, killing them by snipping their spinal cords with scissors.
The trial was dubbed the "House of Horrors" by local media. After the trial, there was a movement by religious entities, including the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, to bury the Gosnell fetuses, or "babies" as they were referred to.
Born in Ireland, McAleer who is based in Marina Del Rey, Cal. with Hat Tip Films says he had no idea how abortion worked in the U.S. before reading about the case. He decided to spend his three days off in court listening testimony to learn more.
The producer was left with a horrifying picture of abortion, as he didn't know a six-month fetus could be aborted, and a nagging feeling that the national media was for the most part void in telling the story. So he decided his next film would be a story on the Gosnell case and he'd rely on crowdfunding again to make the film possible.
Pictured at right: Producers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer
McAleer used the popular online crowdfunding website Kickstarter for his first project "FrackNation," which was supported by 3,305 people who donated $212,000. McAleer says the popular crowdfunding website censored him this next go round in his quest to tell the Gosnell story. McAleer and his co-producer Ann McElhinney submitted the Kickstarter project last month and patiently waited for the company to give the proposal a greenlight. He received word that his project description needed amending to fit Kickstarter community guidelines before the campaign could go live. The website requested via email that he amend this part of the project's description: "1000s of babies stabbed to death" and "1000s of babies murdered."
McAleer felt the response was a slap in the face after using Kickstarter for "FrackNation" and an attempt to censor his project.
"We just couldn’t start telling this story by buying into an act of censorship. We walked away," McAleer told NBC10. "(The subject matter) is going to offend. We are not going to be part of community that’s offended by the truth." 
So the film producer and project turned to Indiegogo, a rival crowdfunding website, to fund the Gosnell movie project. To date, the project has raised $546,752 of the $2.1 million goal with 32 days left in the campaign.
An email exchange provided by McAleer, shows Kickstarter requesting language changes, citing the community guidelines on March 27. McAleer wrote back to the change request with the filmmaker's decision to pull the plug on the project. In an email provided by McAleer, Kickstarter responded the next day via email and gave a greenlight to the project but did not address Kickstarter's previous request to amend the project's language.
McAleer feels comfortable with his decision to seek another crowdfunding outlet after the experience. He wants to work with a website that supports his art and voice and doesn't seek to censor it. Many crowdfunding platforms receive a portion of the proceeds after the campaign has ended and the total amount is raised. Kickstarter's guidelines can be found here.
"The project submission was accepted on Friday exactly how it was submitted for our review and the filmmakers are still welcome to launch the project on Kickstarter at any time," Kickstarter spokesman Justin Kazmark wrote via email to NBC10 today. "Kickstarter is a platform open to projects from across the creative spectrum that represent an incredibly diverse array of topics and viewpoints."
After the "America's Biggest Serial Killer" producers meet the Indiegogo fundraising goal, they plan to hire a writer, director and release the made for television movie sometime next year. McAleer descibes the movie as a docudrama that tells the story of abortionist Kermit Gosnell and the media cover-up.
In addition to first degree murder, Gosnell was convicted of 233 additional counts, avoided a death sentence and is serving life in prison. In a separate federal case, he was found guilty of running a "pill mill."
Contact Sarah Glover at 610-668-5580, sarah.glover@nbcuni.com or follow @skyphoto on Twitter.
Photo Credit: NBC10
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Excavator Gets Wedged in Toll Booth Lane
An excavator has been wedged stuck in a toll booth lane at the Burlington-Bristol Bridge in Bucks County, Pa.
A tractor trailer was carrying the large earthmover eastbound across the bridge, which spans the Delaware River, when the tracks of the excavator became stuck, bridge officials say.
The machine's tracks extend over the side of the trailer and became wedged between a barrier and guardrail in the lane on the Pa. side of the bridge.
Crews were forced to shut down the lane and divert traffic away from the mess. They are working to free the excavator.
Officials did not give a timeframe for when the lane would be reopened.
Photo Credit: SkyForce10 - NBC10.com
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Rebuilding Burned-Out Boardwalks
NBC10 Jersey Shore Bureau reporter Ted Greenberg uncovers new information on the efforts to reconnect the boardwalks of Seaside Park and Seaside Heights.
Photo Credit: NBC10.com
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Vacant Home Sexual Predator Arrest
Camden police say this man is a predator who they say sexually assaulted two women.
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Gawkers Capture History Before Demolition
The day after a landmark store burned down in Old City Philadelphia, gawkers came with cameras to capture what's left before the demolition begins.
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Seniors Targeted While Shopping
Signe Kulp, 86, takes advantage of Senior Citizens Day at her local grocery store. But now, someone has taken advantage of her and she's intent on finding them.
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Drugs & Gangs Fueling Philly Homicide Increase
Coming off of a record-low year for homicides in Philadelphia, police are starting to see the number trend upward as drug and gang activity increase.
There have been 65 homicides in the city so far this year – 10 percent above the tally for the same time in 2013, according to the most recent data provided by the Philadelphia Police Department.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey tells NBC10.com drugs, particularly heroin, have been fueling many of these murders.
“Heroin has really increased. White heroin the purity level is really high -- anywhere from 70 to 87 percent at the street level. So drugs, obviously, is driving a lot of it,” he said.
The city’s 65th murder took place just before midnight on Wednesday when 28-year-old Omar Rodriguez was shot in the face inside his home along the 5500 block of F Street in the Feltonville section of the city. Another man, 27-years-old, who didn’t live at the house, was also shot in the left elbow, side and back and is listed in critical condition at Temple University Hospital, police said.
Investigators believe the shooting is drug related after finding an undetermined amount of a white powdery drug, believed to be heroin, inside the house.
Philadelphia has become the heroin capital of the East Coast. David Dongilli, Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) told NBC10’s Chris Cato in February that Philly has become a source city for distribution of the drug.
“We’re seeing quantities like we have never seen before in the city,” he said adding that high demand has forced the change. “Quite frankly the market is here. The addicts are here, the money is here,” he said.
Gang activity has also helped the homicide rate rise faster than last year’s average. Commissioner Ramsey says flare-ups between two groups in South Philadelphia has resulted in retaliation killings.
“We’re always mindful of that we monitor that very carefully,” the commissioner said.
The number of multiple shootings -- two or three people being shot at once – is another contributing factor, Ramsey said.
The department is coming off of a year where the homicide rate was at record-low levels. There were 247 murders in Philadelphia in 2013 – a 25 percent drop from 2012 when the murder rate stood at 331. But the record goes back decades further.
“We finished last year with the lowest total since 1967, we’re six above that right now with a lot of time left in the year,” the commissioner said earlier in the day on Wednesday before the murder on F Street. “We’ll continue to press as hard as we can and hopefully the outcome by the end of the year and hopefully the outcome by the end of the year will be lower.”
Ramsey was also quick to point out that all other violent crime, including rape, which had its classification expanded to include men last year, is down by 11 percent.
"Our shootings are down significantly. Burglaries, robberies, everything is down. There’s a slight uptick in homicides, but again we’ve had triple homicides, four doubles, so we’re not in too bad a shape," he said.
Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.
Photo Credit: NBC10.com
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Driver Deaths Skew Older
Take a look at the breakdown for driver deaths in the state of Pennsylvania.
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Tweets to Miley Seek to Make Cancer Patient's Dream
Christa Rodriguez, 18, is your typical high school student. She likes pop music and is looking forward to her senior prom, graduation and college.
However, the past year has been a roller coaster for Rodriguez.
She was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2013 and told she was cancer free in December. Rodriguez received news that the cancer returned in March about the same time she and her identical twin sister Julia turned 18.
"It takes a lot more chemo to get rid of it because it came back and it’s much harder to get rid of. I’m now missing a lot of stuff with my senior year and I have to pull back from college," said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez planned to attend her idol Miley Cyrus' concert in Philadelphia on April 22.
Unfortunately, her treatment is scheduled to start that day and she will have to miss the concert. Her twin sister Julia started thinking and came up with the idea to start a Twitter campaign to ask Cyrus to come visit her sister in the hospital since she will already be in Philadelphia. The hashtag #MileyVisitChrista began trending Thursday morning in Philadelphia.
The Upper Merion High School community has rallied around Rodriguez working to grab the singer's attention on social media.
"It’s surreal right now that people I don’t even know are showing their support. It’s a great feeling. It’s very emotional. I feel like I have the best community in the world, especially in Upper Merion," said Rodriguez. "When you put your minds to something you can do it."
Members of the school's softball team adorned their bus windows with the hashtag.
In support of childhood cancer research, Upper Merion High School is hosting its second Mini-THON tonight. The proceeds will go to the Four Diamonds Fund.
"We are going to dance and have a fun, all to help cure pediatric cancer," said student Thressa Kenna. "So far, $7,000 has been raised."
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