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By DAVID WEISS [email protected]
Tuesday, December 09, 2003 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE – Trying Larry Tooley on drug charges could cost the county
almost $2,000 to transport, house and guard the convicted killer.
Prosecutors are still debating whether to prosecute Tooley, who is serving
life in prison for murder, on several heroin charges.
Last week, Tooley rejected an offer to plead guilty to a charge of delivery
of a controlled substance with the remaining charges in the case to be
dropped, forcing prosecutors to take the case to trial for a conviction or
dismiss the charges.
Convicting Tooley, 47, on the drug charges would do virtually nothing to
his prison status because of his first-degree murder conviction in the death
of 16-year-old Casey Zalenski. Tooley was sentenced to life plus 24 to 49
years.
Tooley and a woman went to Zalenski’s Demunds Road home in Franklin
Township in November 2002 to steal money to buy drugs. Tooley shot Zalenski
three times after the teen approached him during the robbery.
Shortly after the murder, police issued an arrest warrant for Tooley on
heroin charges stemming from a June 2002 incident. Police accused him of
selling $150 worth of heroin to a confidential informant in a home on Jenkins
Court in Pittston.
Carol Crane, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office, said
District Attorney David Lupas has not yet decided if his office will pursue
the drug charges against Tooley or dismiss them.
“That’s something David and his prosecutors are looking at right now,”
Crane said Monday. “They’ll be looking at all aspects of it.”
If Lupas decides to prosecute the case, it could cost close to $2,000 for
the sheriff’s department and county prison.
Sheriff Barry Stankus said his office would spend more than $1,100 to
transport Tooley from prison to court and guard him during a five-day trial.
Dealing with convicted killers requires Stankus to man the trial with extra
deputies. Normally, two deputies could monitor a trial. But because Tooley is
classified as a high-profile inmate convicted of murder, four deputies are
required to guard him.
Also, if there are other trials the same week, it could force Stankus to
call in per diem deputies to adequately staff the courts, he said.
If Stankus were to have four per diem deputies paid $55 per day for a
five-day trial, it would cost his office at least $1,100 for that week. If the
judge holds long court days, overtime pay could also increase the amount, he
said.
A prison employee said it would cost $60 per day to house Tooley at the
Luzerne County Correctional Facility. If he were held at the county prison for
10 days, as he was scheduled to be housed last week, that would be an
additional $600 in costs.
The costs do not include expenses that would be incurred by the District
Attorney’s Office, police or jurors.
The number could be avoided, though, if the charges were dropped. Tooley
also would not be repeatedly released from prison for court hearings.
Post-trial hearings in his murder case are scheduled to be done by video
conference. Trials can not be conducted that way.