Pennsylvania Fire Department Raided by State Troopers

Jan. 21--Armed with a search warrant, state police investigators raided the Wilkes-Barre Township Volunteer Fire Department on Friday, six weeks after its fire chief was charged with stealing from the organization.

After several hours inside the Watson Street fire hall, the investigators emerged around 5:30 p.m. with five cardboard boxes of evidence.

The object of the investigators' search was not immediately clear. Authorities declined comment, and a search warrant affidavit filed in the case remains sealed.

The raid follows the Dec. 6 arrest of controversial fire Chief John Yuknavich, who police alleged illegally wrote himself $11,865 in fire department checks and spent $3,706 on a Sam's Club credit card belonging to the fire department. Some of the same troopers involved with his arrest took part in Friday's search.

Yuknavich did not return a call placed to his cellphone. A woman associated with the fire department declined comment after shutting off the building's lights and walking to her vehicle.

A week after police charged Yuknavich with stealing from the fire department, its members unanimously reappointed him fire chief.

Township officials have repeatedly claimed no control over the independent, volunteer fire department, despite providing them with $100,000 per year, which helps pay for the mortgage on the department-owned fire house.

A marked state police vehicle and three unmarked vehicles arrived at the fire hall around 3 p.m. A state trooper was observed taking photographs of the exterior of the structure earlier in the search. At least five members of the state police were inside the building for hours.

State police have been investigating the department's finances since at least July 2006. At the time, the department was operating a bar and restaurant attached to the fire hall called the Firemen's Inn, of which Yuknavich was president. The state police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement cited the bar for failure to maintain complete and truthful financial records. Then, in 2007, an audit released by state Auditor General Jack Wagner found the fire department's relief association gave undocumented loans to the fire company, erroneously withdrew funds and failed to obtain a federal tax identification number. Yuknavich was secretary of the relief association.

In March 2008, the Pennsylvania Department of State's Bureau of Charitable Organizations issued Yuknavich a subpoena, requesting financial records. He refused, according to arrest papers. The bureau then ordered the department to "cease and desist" from fundraising for failing to provide proper records. The order also forced the closure of the Firemen's Inn.

Subsequent investigations determined Yuknavich illegally wrote himself $11,865 in fire department checks and made personal purchases at Sam's Club totaling $3,706 with the department's credit card, state police alleged in the charges filed Dec. 6.

Yuknavich's arrest for theft followed several recent run-ins with the law and a lengthy list of controversies spanning a decade.

He faces charges for allegedly attacking his ex-girlfriend Denise Pavlick and her friend, Kenneth Scialpi, around 3:45 a.m. Nov. 6 while they were sitting in a car outside Pavlick's Oak Street home. Yuknavich dragged her from the car, stole her cellphone, punched Scialpi in the face and "threatened to put bullets in both of their heads," police said. Pavlick later filed a protection-from-abuse order against Yuknavich. Police accused Yuknavich of violating that order for revving his engine outside Pavlick's house on Nov. 27, but he was later found not guilty in county court. However, he still faces drunken driving charges in that case.

A preliminary hearing for Yuknavich's theft case is scheduled for Feb. 22 in front of Magisterial District Judge Diana Malast in Plains Township.

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