Pa. Chief Allegedly Took $15K From Fire Company
Source The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
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Dec. 07--Wilkes-Barre Township Fire Chief John Yuknavich is in trouble again, but this time he faces charges he abused his position and stole thousands of dollars from the volunteer fire company.
State police filed charges against Yuknavich on Tuesday after years of unanswered questions about the department's financial irregularities.
The fire chief, who has become known for his run-ins with the law, was arrested Tuesday morning at the Luzerne County Courthouse immediately after leaving a hearing on a protection-from-abuse order.
Yuknavich, who also works full time for the township's road crew, was charged with theft, receiving stolen property and access device fraud. In all, police said audits show he illegally wrote himself $11,865 in checks and made personal purchases at Sam's Club totaling $3,706 with the department's credit card.
Police took Yuknavich, in handcuffs, from the protection-from-abuse hearing to the state police barracks at Wyoming and then to his arraignment at Luzerne County Central Court, where Magisterial District Judge Andrew Barilla set bail at $15,000. Yuknavich was released after posting bail Tuesday afternoon.
Police said the investigation began in 2008 when state police were looking into the department's financial irregularities. Yuknavich, 48, refused to release department financial records, triggering a series of audits.
"He refused to comply with a subpoena so they were planning on doing an audit of the Volunteer Fire Department, and he refused it. That threw up red flags," said Trooper Tom Kelly, spokesman for state police at Wyoming. "They went in and started doing an in-depth investigation and audit on what they could get and they realized there were some discrepancies in numbers."
According to the police criminal complaint, current and past members of the fire department told investigators that Yuknavich was the only person who dealt with bills, cash and checks. They also said they had not seen any bookkeeping ledgers or documents pertaining to the Volunteer Firefighters' Relief Association, of which Yuknavich is also the president.
Based on an audit completed by Edwin Tyler, special investigator for the Department of the Auditor General, Yuknavich made and signed cash withdrawals totaling $11,865 that were unrelated to fire department operations and expenses. Yuknavich also used a Sam's Club credit card, which was issued to the Wilkes-Barre Township Fire Hall, for personal purchases totaling $3,706.
"It looks like there were a bunch of small loans taken from the Volunteer Firemen's Association to the fire department and it looks like Yuknavich was doing it," Kelly said. "He was the only one signing the checks and depositing them. It was all him."
Yuknavich told Barilla he has two children and he is taking care of them because their mother's father died recently. Attorney Kelly Bray Snyder asked the judge to release Yuknavich on his own recognizance, saying he and his mother have ties to the community and he is currently taking care of his two children.
State Trooper Lisa Brogan, though, asked that monetary bail be set. Barilla set a preliminary hearing date for Yuknavich for 1 p.m. on Dec. 14.
During the PFA hearing Tuesday morning, Luzerne County Judge Lewis Wetzel ruled that the protection order be permanent. Police arrested Yuknavich after his ex-girlfriend, Denise Pavlick, reported that Yuknavich violated a PFA she filed against him by driving by her home and revving his engine last month. Wetzel scheduled a hearing on that charge for Dec. 13.
In an application for a PFA filed in November, Pavlick said Yuknavich punched her friend in the face several times. When she tried calling 911, Yuknavich took her cellphone, pulled her out of the truck and threw her to the ground and then continued to punch her friend.
"John has harassed me in the past. I did file before and got very ill over all the stress," Pavlick wrote in the application. "He is uncontrollable at this point, beyond reasoning with him. My life, and I fear others around me, is in terrible danger."
Township officials are now looking into ways to keep a closer eye on the fire department and to address employees with chronic legal issues.
"I never expected this to happen," Carl Kuren, the township's mayor, said Tuesday.
Kuren said he spoke with the township's solicitor and will meet with council members to propose more oversight over the township's contributions to the volunteer fire department. Altogether, Kuren said, the township provides roughly $100,000 to the department each year, and it might start requiring receipts and records from the department to show the money is being spent appropriately.
To have more say over employees with run-ins with the law, Kuren said the township would have to negotiate a better contract with employees.
Unless an employee's job performance is affected, Kuren said, legal issues cannot be used as grounds for termination. For the township to be able to fire Yuknavich from the street crew, the employment contract requires "just cause," an ambiguous stipulation.
"That's where all the gray area is," he said.
With a new council, Kuren said he would like the township to push for a clearer contract that outlines discipline for any municipal employee who gets into legal trouble.
"We're moving forward to correct stuff that should be corrected," he said.
Patrick Sweet and Michael R. Sisak, staff writers, contributed to this report.
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