MONROE UNFILTERED: THE DAILY BUZZ | Sept. 29
Fourth Man Surrenders, Jury Sees the Video, Head Start Gets a Boost
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
DAILY WEATHER
After a soggy Monday, the nor'easter is finally out of town. Today starts with clouds and turns partly sunny, with a high near 71°F, a low in the low 50s tonight, and just an 8% chance of rain. Sunset is at 6:45 p.m., so take the walk before dark.
Then it gets downright pleasant. Wednesday runs in the mid to upper 70s. Thursday, the first day of October, is the warmest of the stretch, right around 80°F. Friday stays in the low to mid 80s with a chance of an afternoon shower. The weekend cools off, upper 60s to around 70 on Saturday, with showers in the forecast Sunday.
FOURTH MAN TURNS HIMSELF IN OVER MAIN STREET STABBING
The fourth man police were seeking in last Wednesday's Main Street stabbing has turned himself in. Tyler James Steigerwalt, 30, surrendered at Stroud Area Regional Police headquarters Saturday (Sept. 26) and was taken to Monroe County Correctional Facility. He is charged with simple assault, harassment by physical contact, and disorderly conduct, and his bail is listed at $5,000. Police did not list a hometown for him.
Steigerwalt is the man police had described as wearing an all-black T-shirt. According to police, surveillance video shows that man trading punches and grappling with Jonatan Regalado Gonzalez after the stabbing.
Here is where the case stands. The fight broke out around 10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 630 Main St. Police say video shows Gonzalez, 40, of East Stroudsburg, and Christopher Cucinello, 36, of Tobyhanna, trading punches and throwing outdoor chairs on the sidewalk. Gonzalez struck a woman who tried to break it up, police say, and Brendan Wells, 32, of Tannersville, then stabbed Gonzalez in the back. Gonzalez was treated at a hospital for injuries to his arm and back, then taken into custody.
Wells is charged with attempted criminal homicide and related offenses. Cucinello and Gonzalez are each charged with simple assault and related offenses. Steigerwalt's charges do not include the attempted homicide count Wells faces.
Police thanked the public for its help. All four men are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
THE DAILY RUNDOWN
Jurors Watch the Bar Footage. The Matthew Morales murder trial moved from testimony to video last week, the Pocono Record reports, following Monday's report on a witness's testimony about a prior threat. On Sept. 23 and 24, jurors watched surveillance footage from three cameras at My Place Bar and Grill in Middle Smithfield Township during the testimony of State Police Trooper James Poliskiewicz. Morales, 33, of Tobyhanna Township, is charged with criminal homicide and two felony firearms counts in the May 24, 2024, death of Henry Koroma Jr. Raymond Batiste, 40, of Allentown, faces two felony counts of hindering apprehension.
Defense attorney Alex Ward, who says Morales acted in self-defense, told the jury during cross-examination that Morales did not have the gun at the start of the video, that it was not chambered when he pulled it out, and that Koroma was gesturing for a fight. Ward also said investigators never checked the East Stroudsburg bar where he told jurors a gang meeting was held before the shooting. Batiste's attorney, Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, said Morales and a third man followed Batiste to his car.
Also on Sept. 23, Coroner Thomas Yanac and forensic pathologist Michael Johnson testified that Koroma died of a gunshot wound to the upper left chest and that the manner of death was homicide. Yanac told the defense that designation does not determine criminality. Bar owner Robert Spano testified that he supplied the footage to state police. No verdict had been reported as of Monday. Both men are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
THE VIEW FROM THE 8TH
Head Start Money Lands in Monroe. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R) announced last Tuesday (Sept. 22), from East Stroudsburg, two federal Head Start awards for Monroe and Lackawanna counties. His release calls it over $200,000, but the two awards add up to $248,247.
The bigger share, $217,747, goes to Pocono Services for Families and Children. Executive Director Kristi Hammond says it will pay to resurface the playground at the Eugenia S. Eden Early Learning Center in East Stroudsburg and the parking lot at the Ramsey Center in Stroudsburg, plus upgrades to technology, cybersecurity, and financial management systems. The other $30,500 goes to the Agency for Community EmPOWERment (ACE) of NEPA for nutrition efforts, including breastfeeding pods and parent education, across northeastern Pennsylvania, so it is not specifically a Monroe County project.
Head Start serves children from birth to age five, according to the release, and a fresh playground surface is hard to argue with. Two things worth knowing: the release does not say which federal agency the money comes from, and it describes Bresnahan as announcing the awards, not securing them. The timing is the kind of thing both parties enjoy, about six weeks before Election Day, when Bresnahan faces Democrat Paige Cognetti in a race both national parties have targeted.
Fetterman Joins Push to Revive Teen Pregnancy Grants. Sen. John Fetterman (D) joined 92 colleagues in a letter to HHS Secretary Kennedy on Monday (Sept. 28) urging the department to reinstate Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants before the federal fiscal year ends tomorrow. HHS canceled 53 of 67 grants nationwide in June. The letter says only $579,499 of the program's $101 million appropriation has gone out, all to a single grantee, and that a court order will keep the money from lapsing but grantees still cannot get at it.
Fetterman's office says two Pennsylvania groups, Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania and AccessMatters, use the grants to serve 24 counties and more than 10,000 Pennsylvanians. The release does not name the counties, and we could not confirm that a Monroe County program is affected. It also does not include a response from HHS. A letter cannot force the department to act, so the real test is Wednesday's deadline.