EMS Building at Center of Pa. Township Malfeasance Case
July 17--A state trooper offered a detailed account Thursday of what sparked an investigation into four Exeter Township officials accused of misusing municipal funds, bid-rigging and tampering with records.
State police and the state Attorney General's Office filed numerous felony and misdemeanor charges in May against supervisors John E. Coolbaugh, Richard E. Overman, James W. Dowse and current secretary and former supervisor Mary F. Martin after an investigation, stretching back to 2006, found the quartet conspired in criminal activity involving township funding, authorities say.
A lengthy preliminary hearing began in Swoyersville on Thursday morning before Magisterial District Judge David Barilla, but was cut short after testimony from the first witness ran for over three hours. Barilla and defense attorney Michael Butera had prior engagements Thursday afternoon, causing the hearing to come to a halt just before 2 p.m.
The initial investigation surrounded a proposed project in Exeter Township to create a prefabricated pole barn to be used as an Emergency Medical Services center, authorities said.
Officials quoted the project to cost approximately $127,500, state Trooper Jennifer Kosakevitch testified. The township received a grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, or DCED, for $50,400 toward the cost of the EMS building in 2006.
Kosakevitch, of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the affiant in this case, testified the investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by township supervisor Benjamin Gadomski in 2011 concerning township finances.
A search warrant filed in March 2014 by Kosakevitch did not produce many financial records because the computer was "in the shop," Martin allegedly told the trooper. A second search warrant was issued in August 2014 and Kosakevitch testified she found at least eight additional boxes of financial records in a second room, which she did not initially find. According to officials, from June 2007 through May 2008, nearly $17,000 of the grant was spent by Exeter Township supervisors on various contractors, many of which Kosakevitch alleged had personal relationships with the defendants and who allegedly inflated their bills and billed for services and materials unrelated to the project.
John Filip, a good friend of late supervisor Don Hoffman, was hired by Exeter Township as the architect for the project to prepare blue prints and receive a building permit. But because Filip was no longer a registered architect, the Department of Labor and Industries rejected a request for a permit.
Construction and payments continued without the building permit, including $1,200 paid to Filip, $4,370 paid to the second architect, G & Albert, and $700 paid to Mike Dziedzic, another close fried of Hoffman and Dowse, for the removal of a tree branch, according to authorities.
Five hundred tons of stone was also brought to the site from the Buck Mountain Quarry to level the land and create a base for the pole barn to be built on, Kosakevitch said.
In the summer of 2008, the project was abandoned and the four signed a letter to DCED containing alleged false statements to conceal the misuse of the grant. According to an affidavit, the officials decided to use the remainder of the grant money on a police vehicle.
Watt and Butera alleged hearsay several times throughout Kosakevitch's testimony, as she repeated information told to her by witnesses during her investigation.
The defendants sat quietly in the courtroom during the trooper's testimony, occasionally whispering to those sitting next to them or shaking their heads at statements they appeared to disagree with.
During cross-examination, William Watt III, Martin's attorney, asked how his client, who was not a supervisor for the majority of the time the money was spent, was responsible for any of the decisions made by the supervisors. Martin was a township supervisor from March 2008 to December 2009.
Dowse and Overman also reported hours of labor in 2007 to help construct the stone pad at the site, which evidence showed they did not perform, authorities said, noting that Dowse was physically disabled and collecting Social Security for his disability.
According to an affidavit, engineer Brian Peck stated no one assisted him or did any work on the site during the days Dowse and Overman claimed to have worked.
Kosakevitch further testified that in a financial interest form filed by Dowse, he failed to report both income earned as an employed roadmaster for Exeter Township, along with the ownership of his business, Dowse's Gun Store.
Evidence also shows that Coolbaugh did not report his financial interest in his son's company, John Coolbaugh Excavating, for which he is the sole employee, business manager and authorized agent, Kosakevitch said.
Further investigation lead authorities to believe Coolbaugh rigged a bidding process in 2014, for the township purchase of a leaf vacuum by providing confidential information about other bids to a favored vendor, according to authorities. Coolbaugh brought an $11,445 bid to the supervisors from Highway Equipment and Supply Co, that he wanted the board to authorize for purchase.
The supervisors rejected this, claiming they needed to obtain at least three competitive bids for consideration. They presented F&S Supply Company, Inc. at $10,999, eBay vender SLE at $12,358.97 and Stephenson Equipment at $11,350.
Officials said Coolbaugh contacted Stacy Prest of Highway Equipment and Supply and asked her to lower their bid. Prest sent another bid at $10,850, the new lowest bid.
Police said when Coolbaugh presented the newer, lower bid from his favored company, the supervisors rejected the motion, saying he had manipulated the bidding process in favor of that company.
Kosakevitch will be on the stand at the start of the continuance to be cross-examined by Coolbaugh's attorney, Harry Skene. The hearing will be continued at a later date, which has yet to be decided on between Barilla, Barney Anderson, Senior Deputy Attorney General, and the defense attorneys.
cjacobson@citizensvoice.com
570-821-2061, @CVcljacobson
Copyright 2015 - The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
