WILKES-BARRE — As Luzerne County Judge Stefanie Salavantis begins her tenure as president judge, the Court of Common Pleas will continue the process of disposing of recent and some old open criminal cases.
One case that could come to a resolution in 2025 has been ongoing for more than three years with the arrests of John Watson, 48, and William Smiley, 52, on allegations they sexually assaulted a teen girl inside a Luzerne Borough apartment in October 2021.
Watson allegedly abducted the girl and sexually assaulted her several times before she managed to call for help from a Plains Township motel on Oct. 25, 2021…