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By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.com
Law & Order Reporter
Terrie Morgan-Besecker on Facebook   |   @TLTerrieMorgan on Twitter

WILKES-BARRE – Wilkes-Barre Area School Board President Frank Pizzella Jr., charged with passing a bribe onto another school board member, has signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Superintendent Jeff Namey confirmed Tuesday.

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Pizzella

Related headlines

• W-B Area's Pizzella to plead guilty Thursday to corruption
• Pizzella resigns from WBA School Board, effective Feb. 8

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Namey said Pizzella called him Tuesday to advise him he had signed a deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office but did not identify the specific charge to which he would plead guilty.

“He just called and said I just want you to know I signed an agreement. He said he’d get back to me later with the details,” Namey said.

Pizzella, of Plains Township, was indicted by a federal grand jury in September on a charge of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.

The indictment says Pizzella acted as a go-between to pass on a $5,000 bribe to an “unindicted” board member from a person who was seeking a teaching position within the district.

The offense occurred in 2004, three years before Pizzella was elected to the board.

Federal prosecutors have not identified the other school board member or the person who paid the bribe.

Pizzella had pleaded not guilty to the charge and was preparing his defense. On Jan. 20, his attorney, Joseph Blazosek, filed a court motion that sought to force prosecutors to reveal the identity of the board member to whom Pizzella was accused of passing on the bribe.

Neither Pizzella nor Blazosek could be reached for comment Tuesday regarding why Pizzella opted to accept the plea agreement.

Pizzella has served on the school board since 2007. He was elected president of the board after fellow board member James Height was charged in May with accepting money in exchange for helping a contractor win a contract within the district. Pizzella was re-elected president in December despite the pending charges against him.

Namey said he expects Pizzella will resign as part of the plea deal.

He said Pizzella was a “very good” board member. He noted Pizzella had extensive knowledge about the construction trade, which allowed him to help the district save significant money on building contracts.

“He’d challenged pricing on different things. He’d check and read the contracts very carefully and make us go back and change things,” Namey said. “I can tell you, without question, we saved a lot of money through his persistence and knowledge.”

School board member Lynn Evans said she was picking up children in her bus to take to a sporting event on Tuesday when her husband called to tell her the news.

Evans said she was surprised that Pizzella signed a plea agreement so quickly.

“I think there are consequences with everything you do,” Evans said. “We asked the FBI to come in to do their job and they did their job. Karma is a wonderful thing. I just feel what you put out there is what you get back.”

Staff writer Jen Marckini contributed to this story.