CHARGES FILED AGAINST HEMPFIELD MAN THROWN OUT

Child pornography charges filed against a Hempfield man are being thrown out.  The Trib reports that sixty-two-year-old Thomas Hibbard had faced 270 federal charges in the case that began with an investigation by a Texas-based vigilante group called Predator Poachers.  Hibbard was busted in 2023 after an adult member of the group — posing as a young girl — asked him to exchange explicit photos.  The group brought in state police and Hibbard later provided a confession.  The charges have now been thrown out after the defendant’s lawyer argued to the court that a search of Hibbard’s home — along with the obtaining of his confession — had been improper.