Senior Investigative Reporter
The North End Wilkes-Barre District Court 11-1-02 magistrate’s seat is currently held by longtime Magisterial District Judge Martin R. Kane. The Gazette has learned that current Wilkes-Barre City Controller Kathy Kane, wife of Magistrate Kane, has been observed in public with prominent members of the Democratic Party soliciting support for her son Jared Martin Kane as he prepares to run for his father’s magisterial seat.
Following Tuesday night’s city council work session, Wilkes-Barre City Mayor Tom Leighton convened a private meeting in his office with councilmen Tony George and George Brown to inform them of his intention to seek a fourth term as mayor in 2015. According to Tony George, Leighton stated that he wanted to notify the two men because he knew both councilmen were also planning to seek the office next year.
Wilkes-Barre’s newly appointed administrator, Gregory Barrouk, began his career with the Wilkes-Barre administration over eight years ago. The Independent Gazette attempted to obtain his employment history from Wilkes-Barre City Hall but city spokeswoman Liza Prokop advised Gazette reporters to file RTK (Right-to-Know) requests for matters involving an employee’s longevity and salary. Prokop stated in an email response, “I would advise utilizing the RTK process for your inquiries on employment status.”
The Independent Gazette has obtained security footage of a possible suspect in a downtown Wilkes-Barre vandalism spree that damaged some 40 vehicles as well as windows at the Times Leader printing facility. The incident occurred late Friday, September 5, or early Saturday, September 6.
A source within King’s College, who has requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, has informed the Independent Gazette that Wilkes-Barre Police Chief Gerard E. Dessoye has accepted a position at King’s College as head of campus security and will be stepping down as chief of the WBPD.
In the wake of an FBI raid on an LAG Transportation property located in Duryea today, the City of Wilkes-Barre condemned the LAG Towing property located at 307 Carey Ave, Wilkes-Barre. The notice posted on LAG’s Wilkes-Barre cite is time- and date-stamped “3 PM 8/13/14, by order of the City’s Bureau of Code Enforcement.”
While no evidence to support the claims against DiLiberto was produced, he informed the officers — while the alleged assailant was standing in their midst — that he possessed video footage of the woman’s action against him. DiLiberto claimed she had minutes earlier attempted to take his camera while it was hanging around his neck. At no time did DiLiberto divulge his association with the Gazette, believing his actions to be well within the purview of any citizen, and so not necessitating any sort of “journalistic cover.”
I brought forth an action for reconsideration because I truly believe that some further explanation was given with regard to the check and spreadsheet provided by the city. As fate would have it, there was more to this, and it was provided to another via an open records request. Yet I wasn’t aware of it until the story of my case was published following your initial court order of June 10, 2014. Mr. Lynott of the Times Leader made me aware of a city letter outlining what transpired, please see enclosed.
City resident Ted Priestash had planned to be out of town on a recent Tuesday and Wednesday, the latter day when his trash was scheduled to be picked up. Before leaving for work that Monday, he took his cans to the curb, but when he returned home he found a notice taped to his door notifying him of what the city called his “Final Warning.”
On July 23 the Independent Gazette contacted the city requesting the overall cost of the pond project, including a breakdown of the equipment rental from Franchelli Enterprises, whose equipment is pictured in the photos provided to the Gazette by an anonymous tipster. We also asked whether any part of the project was put out for bid and requested the start and end dates of the project.