Deputy hurt in fall through ceiling during search

(Chambersburg) — A sheriff’s deputy was injured when he fell through the ceiling during the capture of a man who failed to show up for the weekend program at the Franklin County Jail.

Alfonso Torres was apprehended at 3 p.m. Thursday at 343 Channing Drive, according to Franklin County Sheriff Dane Anthony.

Torres, 32, is scheduled to appear in court on assault charges, and had been participating in the weekend program as a result of another charge. The Weekender Program allows people convicted of a minor crime, such as driving under the influence, to do their jail time on weekends.

Deputies obtained a consent to search the house, but did not find Torres in any of the rooms, according to Chief Deputy Randy Stroble.

“We knew he was in the house,” Stroble said. “We saw him.”

The Chambersburg Police Department’s K-9 unit alerted officers to a closet that hid an attic crawl space, according to Stroble. Deputies entered the attic. One of them lost his footing on a floor joist and fell through the ceiling and onto the floor below. The three other deputies found Torres hiding in the loose insulation and apprehended him without further incident.

The injured deputy was taken to Chambersburg Hospital for observation and later was cleared medically, according to Stroble.

Torres was wanted on two active warrants, both stemming from his failure to appear for the weekender program on Dec. 5, according to Anthony.

Torres is charged additionally with flight to avoid apprehension, a second degree misdemeanor.

Torres is scheduled Monday for trial in Franklin County Court on charges of aggravated assault and simple assault. He also is to be arraigned Jan. 21 on charges of simple assault and terroristic threats.

Torres previously had been removed from the weekend program on an earlier charge.

The program, initiated in 2009, allows a person pleading guilty to a minor crime to pay to spend weekends at the jail instead of serving a sentence of consecutive days. That way the person can hold onto his or her job.

A recent assessment of the program by the Justice Management Institute and a population study by Community Resource Services Inc. recommended no changes to the weekend program, according to Franklin County Jail Warden Daniel Keen.

This story is posted as part of a content-sharing partnership between WITF and the Chambersburg Public Opinion.