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THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012 PAGE 3A
LOCAL
Harness-racing jobs at Downs at risk Gov. wants $72M from Race Horse Fund By STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Frank Kratz will kayak from Sayre to Danville during a 10-day fundraising event to benefit Children’s Miracle Network at Geisinger. WILKES-BARRE
HARRISBURG – Some of the 1,200 jobs that revolve around harness racing at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs – and another 10,000 to 15,000 statewide – could be in jeopardy if Gov. Tom Corbett gets his way, horse race industry representatives say. Corbett’s 2012-13 budget calls for taking $72 million from the Race Horse Development Fund to plug other holes in the agriculture budget, and members of the state Senate Democratic Policy
Committee got an earful on the issue Wednesday at a hearing in Harrisburg to examine the economic impacts of the proposal. Mohegan Sun President Bobby Soper couldn’t attend, but a letter he sent to Committee Chair Lisa Boscola was entered into record. Soper noted Mohegan Sun invested more than $10 million in improvements to the track and related facilities since 2006, and that racing supports 234 of the 1,844 jobs at the facility. He also said the track was selected to host the 2010
east Pa., selling out hotels for miles around and spending tourist dollars in restaurants and stores. Breeders Crown Breeders Crown, one of harness racing’s was front page news in all of the local papremier events that marked the first na- pers,” Battoni said. “The millions of doltional broadcast of Pennsylvania harness lars that were spent, as well as the priceless … publicity, will go elsewhere.” racing in years. Ron Battoni, executive director of the Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Asso- Purses breed investment Battoni said the Race Horse Developciation, testified the association was invited to host the Breeders Crown again ment Fund has enabled tracks to offer in 2013 but, because of the proposed much larger purses to horse owners, funding reduction, was forced to de- which has resulted in breeders and horsemen investing millions of dollars cline. “This is unfortunate, because in 2010, to promote horse racing in the state. Breeders Crown participants and fans had a major economic impact on North- See JOBS, Page 12A
He’ll kayak to help clinic
Geisinger Wyoming Valley employee Frank Kratz is turning his love of kayaking into a 10-day fundraising excursion to benefit Children’s Miracle Network at Geisinger. Kratz, a registered nurse in the emergency room, will spend May 14 to 24 paddling 180 miles from Sayre to Danville, near Geisinger Medical Center’s Janet Weis Children’s Hospital, to raise money to help sick and injured children. He will sell sponsorships and advertising to raise money. For additional information or to offer a sponsorship, call 1-800-3225437.
“I have seen day after day the selfishness, fearlessness and valor that characterized every officer we commemorate here today.” — state police retiree Sgt. Chester Zaremba
By SHEENA DELAZIO sdelazio@timesleader.com
PLAINS TOWNSHIP
And the winners are…
At a special awards dinner Wednesday night at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, the Great Valley Technology Alliance announced the winners of its 10th Annual Business Plan Competition. Collegiate team “Kuhcoon,” an interactive social media education and management platform, and non-collegiate team “Prova Systems,” developers of vehicle telematics and telemetrics hardware, will each split a $100,000 cash prize for their winning business plans. “Kuhcoon” consists of University of Scranton student Andrew Torba and King’s College students Mike Toma and Charles Szymanski. “Prova Systems” consists of team members John Collins, John Yaron and Franco DiRosa. WILKES-BARRE
Event to benefit patient
Friends and family of 21-year-old leukemia sufferer Casey Kearney will hold a benefit on Sunday, May 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the River Street Jazz Café in WilkesBarre. The event will feature a free pasta dinner, live music, donation baskets and a Chinese auction. Proceeds will go toKearney ward treatment and medical costs. Donation tickets cost $10 each. For questions, contact Dianne Colleran at 287-2012 or Mary Ann Spagnolo at 287-2805. SCRANTON
Lupas arraignment set
U.S. District Magistrate Judge Thomas Blewitt has scheduled the arraignment for attorney Anthony Lupas for Thursday at 11:45 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Scranton. Lupas, 77, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday on five counts of Lupas mail fraud. Federal prosecutors say Lupas stole more than $246,000 from a client through a bogus investment scheme. Lupas, first arrested on March 29, is free on bail. HARRISBURG
Three join women’s panel
Three local women – one from Luzerne County and two from Lackawanna – are among the appointees made by Gov. Tom Corbett to serve the interests of women and girls as members of the Pennsylvania Commission for Women. Margaret Phillips, Luzerne County, Dr. Linda Barrasse and Marie Lalley of Lackawanna County, were among the 28 women appointed by Corbett.
Westbrooks admits role as pimp in taped talk
AIMEE DILGER PHOTOS/THE TIMES LEADER
At the end of the program retired State Police officers were asked to join current troopers in formation to recite the Call of Honor during a program at the Wyoming barracks Wednesday.
The call of honor By EDWARD LEWIS elewis@timesleader.com
W
YOMING – Once a trooper, always a trooper, State Police Troop P Commander Capt. James E. Degnan said at the annual memorial service at the Wyoming barracks on Wednesday. Degnan ordered the 30 state police retirees attending the service to fall in formation with current troopers to cite the “State Police Call of Honor.” Troopers killed in the line of duty were honored at the service, which included the reading by state police Lt. Richard Krawetz of the names of 10 troopers at Wyoming who made the ultimate sacrifice. Statewide, 93 troopers were killed in the line of duty since the beginning of the Pennsylvania State Police on May 2, 1905. “Today is a testament to the role of the Pennsylvania State Police in honoring and sacrifice to those who died in the line of duty,” state police retiree Sgt. Chester Zaremba said. “For more than three decades I worked in law enforcement, I have seen day after day the selfishness, fearlessness and valor that characterized every officer we commemorate here today.” State police retirees placed a wreath at the memorial stone in front of the Wyoming barracks. Then state police
Troop P Commander Capt. James E. Degnan directs the placing of the wreath in memory of fallen officers.
Lt. Charles Sands played “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes. Trooper Joshua Miller, of Pittston Township, who was assigned to the Swiftwater barracks of Troop N, was also remembered. Miller was killed in a shooting while saving a kidnapped 9year-old boy near Tobyhanna on June 7, 2009. Troop P troopers who have died in the line of duty are: • Pvt. John Garcia, 30, was shot and killed while arresting a person in Jen-
kins Township. • Pvt. William J. Omlor, 29, was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle near Pottsville on Oct. 24, 1923. • Sgt. Edwin F. Haas, 35, died of an accidental shooting on Oct. 17, 1924. • Patrolman William G. Hamond, 23, was killed in a motorcycle crash while traveling to the Luzerne County Courthouse on July 13, 1930. • Patrolman Arthur A. Koppenhaver died on July 13, 1930, from injuries in a motorcycle accident on Main Street, Nanticoke, on April 21, 1930. • First Sgt. James A. Seery, 41, died from a fractured skull in an accident involving a horse on Sept. 10, 1934. • Pvt. Floyd W. Maderia, 34, was involved in a vehicle accident near Minooka on Dec. 10, 1034, and died the next day. • Pvt. John J. Broski, 40, was shot during a robbery at a tavern in WilkesBarre, on Aug. 14, 1937. • Pvt. George J. Yashur Jr., 25, died after he was struck by a vehicle while directing traffic on Market Street, Kingston, during a flood on April 1, 1940. • Trooper Thomas M. Kobeski, 39, died of a heart attack after a court hearing in Pittston on May 3, 2002.
REASSESSMENT
Four years later, resident’s challenge settled By JENNIFER LEARN-ANDES jandes@timesleader.com
The county reassessment Hanover Township resident resulted in more than 2,000 Vic Kopko is about to settle his court-level mediations.
property assessment challenge, ending a four-year battle he once hoped would throw out Luzerne County’s 2009 reassessment. Kopko filed an assessment appeal in 2008 when the county’s reassessment company, 21st Century Appraisals Inc., valued his property at
$392,300. The assessment was reduced to $285,200 by the county assessment appeals board, and Kopko advanced the challenge to court-level mediation. Kopko sold the property for $250,000 in October 2010, but
the sale was recorded at $268,000 because it included $18,000 in personal property. He attempted to pursue court action throwing out the reassessment as part of his mediation but was advised he’d have to take the legal matter to trial. Kopko said Wednesday he did not want to invest significant funds on further litigation because “the public seemed to have lost interest” in the cause.
He said he reached a verbal agreement on a reduced assessment at mediation, though he can’t disclose the amount until it is finalized. Property owners and county assistant solicitor David Schwager must sign off on all mediation settlements. Kopko’s settlement would be retroactive to 2009, which means taxing bodies must refund See SETTLED, Page 7A
WILKES-BARRE – In recorded jailhouse telephone conversations, homicide suspect Benjamin Tyrell Westbrooks, detailed his alleged role as a pimp and requested women to collect money for him. “I pimp, that’s what I do,” jurors on Wednesday heard Westbrooks tell a woman that prosecutors identify as the mother of one of his children. The conversation occurred in December 2010, prosecutors said. The recorded phone conversations from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility were played for jurors Wednesday, the third day of Westbrooks’ trial on homicide charges in the November 2010 shooting death of 20-year-old Alicia Weaver of Hazleton. Testimony will continue this morning. Prosecutors say Westbrooks, 22, of West Hazleton, shot and killed Weaver in a wooded area in Foster Township after the two argued about money. Westbrooks allegedly said Weaver owed him. Prosecutors identify Weaver as a prostitute and Westbrooks as her pimp. The phone conversations included Westbrooks telling the woman he was “pimping” women. A different conversation ordered another woman who is the mother of one of his children to collect money from three of his “workers,” Daphne, Jess and Luani. “They owe me money. Get in touch with them,” the voice on the tape said. Prosecutors said the phone conversations show Westbrooks was involved in prostitution, even though he denied the allegations to police. Other recorded conversations name a key person involved in Weaver’s homicide probe and how Westbrooks says he avoided being apprehended by police. Prosecutors also called forensic pathologist Mary Pascucci, who performed an autopsy on Weaver, to testify. Pascucci testified Weaver died from multiple gunshot wounds, and her death was ruled a homicide. Three of the four gunshot wounds Weaver received were deadly in and of themselves, Pascucci testified, including one that passed through her upper right abdomen and struck a large artery. A forensic scientist testified she submitted several items to be sent for DNA analysis, including a sexual assault evidence kit. Joseph Kukowski, a forensic scientist with the Pennsylvania State Police, testified about several DNA analyses he performed. Kukowski testified a shell casing found inside Weaver’s body contained DNA that matched Westbrooks’ brother, Dyrell, and that swabs from the sexual assault kit matched DNA from Weaver and her then-boyfriend, Dominique Frazier.