News

November 21, 2009

Former guard charged with selling painkillers

A former Luzerne County correctional officer who was sentenced last month for stealing a pair of women’s underwear has been charged with selling prescription painkillers.

Police allege Jacob Francis Heylek sold OxyContin and Vicodin pills to a confidential informant in Nanticoke on July 6, arrest papers state.

Heylek, 37, of Belles Hill Road, Shickshinny, was arraigned Friday and charged with two counts of manufacturing with intent to deliver and possession of the drugs.

The former jail guard resigned from his job in July.

Heylek was jailed at Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $10,000 straight bail.

State police at Shickshinny accused Heylek of stealing sunglasses from vehicles and a pair of women’s underwear from a glove compartment in Hunlock Township on June 16.

Heylek, a correctional officer at the time of the thefts, was suspended without pay pending the results of an internal investigation.

In October, Heylek was sentenced to six months in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program and to pay an assessment of $50 to defray the costs of supervision, court records state.

A preliminary hearing for the drug selling charges has been scheduled for Nov. 24.

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