A Coatesville Area Senior High teacher who lives in East Goshen Township is accused of having sex with a 17-year-old female student, police said.
Detectives from the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department arrested 35-year-old Mark V. Hostutler outside the West Chester East High School on Thursday, Feb. 5. Police said Hostutler was taken into custody after a three-week investigation into events reported by a former student.
Police said Hostutler, an English teacher at Coatesville, also coached the junior varsity boys’ basketball team at East High.
The alleged victim told police that in June 2008, when she was 17 years old and attending school in the Coatesville School District, she was taken to Hostutler’s East Goshen home, where the teacher provided her with alcoholic beverages and had sex with her on three occasions. According to the victim, Hostutler also took her to a relative’s home in West Brandywine Township where Hostutler again gave her alcoholic beverages and had sex with her.
Hostutler was arraigned on Friday, Feb. 6, on four counts of corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children. (If the girl had been younger, he would have faced more charges). He was released after posting 10 percent of his $20,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 11, police said, adding that the Chester County District Attorney’s Office assisted with the investigation.
“My Boston show has eaten into valuable time, yet I do not begrudge it, for I have received encouragement which I never expected,” wrote artist N.C. Wyeth in a 1921 letter to a friend. “The show has been especially well-attended …”
“Southern Light,” a 1994 enamel and oil painting, is one of the works in the retrospective featuring Jamie Wyeth’s wife, Phyllis. Photo courtesy of the Brandywine River Museum
More than 90 years later, his grandson Jamie Wyeth broke attendance records at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with a sweeping retrospective that is now running at the Brandywine River Museum. That’s just one of many parallels between the two, curator Elliot Bostwick Davis told an audience recently at the Chadds Ford museum.
Davis, the John Moors Cabot Chair at the Boston museum’s Art of the Americas, said she owed a debt to Jamie’s mother, Betsy, who enabled her to start at the beginning. In addition to holding onto treasures such as N.C.’s letters, Betsy Wyeth also collected and annotated 1,100 of Jamie’s childhood drawings.
“To start the story at the beginning was very important,” Davis said, explaining that many of Jamie Wyeth’s early works not only showed his precocity, they also reflected themes that would recur throughout the next six decades.
Davis, whose talk was titled “The Art of Jamie Wyeth: Loves and Obsessions,” explained that the artist was home-schooled after 6th grade. He received art tutelage from his aunt Carolyn Wyeth, a talented painter and colorful character who had inherited her father’s studio. N.C. Wyeth died in 1945 when his car was hit by a freight train at a railway crossing on Ring Road near his home.
Jamie Wyeth, 68, has often described his grandfather’s studio in mystical terms, a space strewn with reminders of the larger-than-life persona of a man he never knew. Giant illustrations of heroic figures that graced classic novels like Treasure Island and Robin Hood transported the young artist far beyond Chadds Ford’s boundaries.
In conversations with Wyeth, Davis said he explained his grandfather’s influence by borrowing a quote from Picasso: “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” Jamie Wyeth skillfully incorporated those thefts into a signature style, she said.
As Davis studied Jamie Wyeth’s work, she said she was particularly impressed by “Portrait of Shorty,” painted when Wyeth was 17. It depicts a local wayward man Wyeth found living in a shack who had to be cajoled into posing. Wyeth sat him in an ornate brocade armchair that Davis assumed sprang from the artist’s imagination.
Instead, she learned something about the interconnectedness of the area. The nearby Sanderson Museum, which boasts its own collection of Wyeth memorabilia, has a photo of the chair. Chris Sanderson, an educator and obsessive collector, lived for years in a rented house on Creek Road that now serves as the museum. Their landlord was N.C. Wyeth.
Jamie Wyeth’s 1976 “Portrait of Andy Warhol” captures the iconic pop artist’s unconventional qualities. Photo courtesy of the Brandywine River Museum
In her presentation, Davis juxtaposed Wyeth images with similar ones from painters ranging from Winslow Homer to Edgar Degas to showcase Wyeth’s distinctive take on similar objects. During the Boston show, she said many artists commented on Wyeth’s portraits of Andy Warhol, stating: “No one painted Warhol as intensely or interestingly as Jamie Wyeth.”
Davis said Wyeth’s entrée into the New York art world came about through his relationship with Lincoln Kirstein, an influential arts patron and founder of Lincoln Center. Kirstein is the subject of an intriguing 1965 Wyeth portrait that shows him from behind, his face profiled. Davis called Kirstein Wyeth’s greatest mentor “outside his family.”
To gain insight into the many paintings that feature Phyllis Wyeth, Jamie’s wife of 46 years, Davis said she interviewed them separately. Discussing “And Then into the Deep Gorge,” a painting that depicts Phyllis at the reins of a horse-driven carriage, Davis said Phyllis acknowledged never being happy with how low cut her blouse was while Jamie focused on the work’s alignment, showing how “the ponies were her legs.”
Phyllis Wyeth, a lifelong equestrian and owner of Union Rags, the horse that won the 2012 Belmont Stakes, broke her neck in a 1962 car accident. Told by doctors that she would never walk again, she fought back, alternately using crutches, horses, and now a motorized scooter to get around, Davis said.
Thomas Padon, director of the Brandywine River Museum, said the reception to the exhibit, so far, has been fantastic. He said attendance for the month of January represented a 90 percent increase from the year before. However, he said some of the difference might have resulted from the fact that last January’s weather was even worse than this year’s.
Still, even with repeated threats of snow, some of the special programs offered in conjunction with the exhibit, such as Davis’s talk, sold out. Padon said tickets for a March 6 conversation with Wyeth and Amanda C. Burdan, who curated the Brandywine show, were gone the first day they were offered.
“We’re trying to add other programs” to meet the demand, said Andrew Stewart, who heads the museum’s marketing and communications department.
Stewart said this Friday, Feb. 6, the museum will begin offering guided tours of both the N.C. Wyeth Studio and the Andrew Wyeth Studio, two of the places where Jamie Wyeth worked. The tours will leave from the museum on Fridays and Saturdays through March 14 at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., weather permitting. Limited tickets are available at the museum on the day of the tour and cost $10 in addition to museum admission ($5 for members).
Padon said in his two years at the museum, he’s been privileged to get to know members of the Wyeth family, gaining understanding into the reverence they inspire in the Brandywine Valley.
The exhibit, on display at the Brandywine River Museum through April 5, will then move to the San Antonio Museum of Art (April 26-July 5) followed by the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Arkansas (July 23-October 4).
The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art, located on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, is open daily (except Christmas) from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors (65+), and $6 for students with ID and children ages 6-12. Free for children ages 5 and under as well as conservancy members. For more information, visit http://www.brandywinemuseum.org.
Less than a year ago, Chester County authorities announced that a 65-year-old Mexican native running a landscaping business from his rented home in East Marlborough Township was actually operating a major cocaine cartel – despite having lost a son to drug-trafficking.
Chester County Detective Sergeant Robert J. Dougherty (from left), Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan, and Jeremiah A. Daley, executive director of Philadelphia-Camden HIDTA display Chester County’s award.
On Thursday, Feb. 5, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Strike Force received the award for outstanding national drug investigation at the annual HIDTA Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC. The award was based on the county’s work on Operation Telaraña (or Spiderweb).
The investigation, begun nearly two years ago and publicized on May 28, represented the largest drug prosecution in county history, said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan. He said the “family business” operated by Salvador Lopez Lemus distributed more than $100 million worth of cocaine over two decades. The arrests of 48 of its members dismantled a major Mexican drug trafficking-organization operating in Southern Chester County, Hogan said.
“I have always said that Chester County law enforcement is among the finest in the nation,” said Hogan. “It is gratifying to see our law enforcement colleagues agree. This is a proud moment for Chester County.”
Hogan said the Lemus organization had direct ties to one of the major Mexican drug cartels and had drug connections throughout the United States. It also enjoyed a reputation in the drug world as “untouchable.”
During Operation Telaraña, the Chester County HIDTA Strike Force worked with cooperators, did intensive surveillance, and eventually engaged in a court-authorized wiretap of cellular phones used by the Lemus operatives. Hogan said the investigation was possible only because so many agencies assisted.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy administers the HIDTA program. Its purpose is to coordinate and assist local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to combat high level drug trafficking. The Chester County HIDTA Strike Force, an investigative arm of the District Attorney’s Office headed by the county detectives, is part of the Philadelphia-Camden area region, one of 28 HIDTA regions in the country, Hogan said.
Jeremiah Daley, executive director of the Philadelphia-Camden HIDTA area, called the coordinated effort among the myriad agencies “an excellent example of how law enforcement collaboration can yield major outcomes benefiting public safety in Chester County and other parts of the nation.”
Daley said not only did a well-entrenched cocaine trafficking organization get dismantled locally, but the investigation also disrupted a network that operated in four other states and reached into a Mexican drug cartel.
“The tenaciousness of the investigators from a dozen agencies, led by the Chester County DA’s Office, is most deserving of this national recognition, and is a great source of pride to the Philadelphia-Camden HIDTA,” Daly said.
In addition to the Chester County Detectives, the law enforcement organizations involved in Operation Telaraña included the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, the Pennsylvania National Guard, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, the Berks County District Attorney’s Office, and the police departments of Oxford, Kennett Square, Coatesville and West Chester, as well as the full-time participation of a HIDTA Investigative Support Center analyst.
Hogan said many of those agencies joined him at the National HIDTA Awards Ceremony to accept the honor for Operation Telaraña.
“No single agency could have run this operation successfully, from gathering the initial leads all the way through the final arrests,” said Hogan. “But working together, we were an unstoppable force, destroying a long-standing and sophisticated drug operation.”
Concord Township Supervisors Dominic Cappelli, left. and Dominic Pileggi update members of the Chadds Ford Business Association on Concord Township matters.
Members of the Chadds Ford Business Association received a little bit of a history lesson and glimpse into the future concerning Concord Township.
Concord Township Supervisors Dominic Pileggi and Dominic Cappelli addressed the association during its Feb. 5 luncheon at The Chadds Ford Tavern.
Pileggi said Concord was still a relatively sleepy, rural area until the 1990s. Some developers came along and paid for what was a needed upgrade to the township’s sewer system. Then came the people and the shops, he said.
Until those sewer improvements, he said, Concord was under a moratorium. There could be no developments of more than three homes. After the sewer upgrade, then came more homes and businesses.
The first of the major commercial developments was the Shoppes at Brinton Lake on Route 1, he said. Others followed, including the Concordville Town Center.
Pileggi said improvements to Route 1 would not have happened had it not been for those developers and others like them.
Cappelli said the township has been holding the line on taxes. The current property millage rate is 0.944 and has been since 2006.
He added to Pileggi’s comments about business, saying the shopping centers have been crucial to maintaining a strong economic base.
The pair also mentioned several of the more controversial issues in the township, Vineyard Commons — a proposed plan for Woodlawn Trustees property — and a request for rezoning the Hall property, a request that was rejected Feb. 3.
Woodlawn Trustees wants to sell 230 acres in the Beaver Valley Road area for development. A number of people from in and around Concord have been opposing that. But Cappelli, who recused himself in 2013 from any vote because of business relationships with developers, said it’s a matter of property rights.
“Some people don’t like it, but people have rights to build. You can’t block housing,” Cappelli said.
There was a move to rezone the Hall property, a 17-acre tract at Bethel Road and Featherbed Lane near Route 322, so 44 homes could be built where only 12 are permitted under current zoning.
Cappelli said rezoning to allow for the increased density would have served “the greater good” because it would have brought in public sewer facilities for 150 homes and added another access road for residents in Cambridge Downs. Residents there can only get in and out via the Conchester Highway, Route 322.
Pileggi said Concord’s Planning Commission is scheduled to vote whether to recommend the Vineyard Commons project later this month with the supervisors getting their vote in March.
“Property rights have to be allowed,” Pileggi said. “Emotions can’t enter into these decisions. Decisions must be based on fact.”
Looking ahead, Pileggi told the noontime crowd that Wegmans will be opening near the intersection of Routes 1 and 202 in early November.
In addition, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Main Line Health will be building medical facilities along Route 1. CHOP’s facility is under construction on the former Ethan Allen property. Mainline Health will have its facility behind Duffers, where Fiber Metal used to be.
Also coming is a Royal Farms convenient store slated for the split on Route 202 at Smithbridge Road.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
State Sen. Dominic Pileggi, who represents the 9th Senatorial District, which includes portions of Delaware and Chester Counties, announced his candidacy to fill a vacancy on the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas. Pileggi has served in the Pennsylvania Senate for 12 years, including 8 years as Majority Leader.
“I’m proud of my accomplishments representing the residents of the 9th District, but as an attorney I’ve always had a strong interest in how our legal system is administered and a great respect for the Delaware County bench,” Pileggi said in a press release. “As a senator, I take a very deliberative approach on public policy matters and would do the same as a judge, considering all sides of an issue to reach a fair result.
During his tenure in the, Pileggi championed efforts to improve openness and accountability in government by authoring an overhaul of the Open Records Law, strengthening the Sunshine Law, and creating an online database of state spending.
Following judicial corruption scandals in Pennsylvania, Pileggi led the effort to abolish the Philadelphia Traffic Court and pass juvenile justice reforms following the “Kids for Cash” scandal in Luzerne County. He has also led the effort to modernize Pennsylvania’s DNA laws to enable investigators to better use the information to fight crime and exonerate innocent individuals.
Prior to his service in the State Senate, Pileggi served as mayor of Chester.
He indicated that if his campaign for Common Pleas is successful, he would need to resign his position as state senator prior to his swearing-in.
PennDOT has announced the following road projects, which are weather-dependent and could affect residents in the greater Chadds Ford area during the week of Feb. 8 through Feb. 15. The department recommends that motorists allow extra time if they are traveling through one of the construction zones.
Motorists on Route 202 in both directions between Matlack Street and the Delaware County line in West Goshen, Westtown, Thornbury and Birmingham townships will experience intermittent lane closures. Crews will be working from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on pothole patching from Monday, Feb. 9, through Friday, Feb. 13.
Traffic signal installation in Kennett Square Borough will continue to require lane closures on Cypress Street at State, Broad and Union Streets and on State Street at Broad Street. Crews are scheduled to work from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. from Monday, Feb. 9, through Friday, Feb. 13. Lane closures are scheduled on State Street at Broad Street from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for traffic signal installation from Monday, Feb. 9, through Friday, Feb. 13..
Lane restrictions will continue on Route 41 in Avondale at East Baltimore Pike and Moxley Road from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Crews will be working on utility installation through Friday, Feb. 13.
Burnt Mill Road in Kennett Township is closed and detoured between Norway and Spring Mill Roads indefinitely while crews prepare for repairs to a bridge that collapsed on April 24.
Lane restrictions will be needed on High Street at Barnard Street in West Chester Borough through Wednesday, Feb. 11. Crews are scheduled for utility installation from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Route 100 (Pottstown Pike) in both directions will continue to require daytime lane closures between Route 113 and Shoen Road in Uwchlan and West Whiteland Townships from Monday, Feb. 2, through Friday, Feb. 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for widening, part of the $17.4 million project to expand the highway from two lanes to three lanes in each direction.
One lane will remain closed on Interstate 95 North at the Commodore Barry Bridge for construction through July 14.
If you want to report potholes and other roadway maintenance concerns on state roads, call 1-800-FIX ROAD.
State Rep. Chris Ross, R-158, use district includes East and West Marlborough townships, is now serving as chairman of the state House Liquor Control Committee.
Ross said in a press release issued Feb. 6, that he expects privatization of liquor sales to come up again this session.
“The Pennsylvania Liquor Code is outdated, confusing and difficult to follow. As chairman, I am intent on rewriting the law to update and clarify language, eliminate discrepancies and make it easier to use.”
The state House passed a liquor privatization bill last session, but that bill died in the Senate.
In the same press release Ross said he’s been reappointed to the House Urban Affairs Committee.
