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By BILL PEACE; Times Leader Staff Writer
Sunday, July 16, 1995     Page: 1B

HARVEYS LAKE — The part-time police officer was beginning his 11 p.m.
shift when he and a full-time officer began to argue.
   
The argument escalated, and the part-time officer increasingly felt
threatened by a police-issue revolver in a holster at the other officer’s
fingertips.
    But the confrontation was mild, says Mayor Richard Boice, who conducted an
investigation into a complaint filed by the part-time officer after the
argument two months ago in the borough police department.
   
As Boice’s investigation draws to a close, the mayor says he has found no
criminal wrongdoing on the part of full-time officer Mark Karlonis, 44, a
six-year department employee.
   
Boice also said he found no evidence Karlonis used the gun to threaten the
part-time officer. The mayor would not name the part-time officer or release a
copy of the complaint.
   
Although the original complaint mentions the gun, statements collected
during the course of the investigation that followed do not, he said.
   
Boice said he won’t rule out disciplinary action against Karlonis based on
the complaint filed by the part-time officer.
   
Boice said he expects to make a public statement by the end of this week.
   
Karlonis was disciplined less than two years ago. In September 1993, he
returned to work after three weeks suspension. He was paid for one week of the
three, officials said at the time.
   
Neither Karlonis nor borough officials would disclose the reason for the
suspension.
   
Karlonis acknowledges arguing with the part-time officer in the latest
incident, but denies a gun was involved.
   
Karlonis would not name the other officer. The borough has five part-time
officers, none of whom could be reached last week for comment.
   
Borough Solicitor Charles D. McCormick said under the state’s Right to Know
Act, the complaint was not released because records used for an investigation
or disciplinary action may be withheld from the public.
   
The ongoing investigation is the latest in a series of public embarassments
for the borough, including a bribery charge against the assistant police chief
and the discovery of a marijuana cigarette in the desk of a road department
worker.
   
Assistant Police Chief Ron Spock was acquitted in 1992 of a charge he
accepted a 20-inch color television in exchange for ignoring drunken-driving
allegations against a Wilkes-Barre driver.
   
However, Spock acknowledged receiving the television after discussing the
drunken-driving charge with a friend of the driver.
   
Spock is on permanent disability from the police department. He is
receiving disability pay through the borough’s insurance plan.
   
In October 1994, Harveys Lake resident Glen Eagleton accused the police
department of failing to completely investigate the discovery of an alleged
marijuana cigarette in the borough’s road department office two months
earlier.
   
Eagleton said he tape recorded a phone conversation with a borough employee
who admitted owning the marijuana. Eagleton claimed he was fired from his job
with the road department because he reported the tape recording to Spock.
   
Harveys Lake police dropped wiretapping charges against Eagleton. And
citing a lack of evidence, District Justice James Tupper dropped drug
possession charges against James Bauer, a borough road department employee.
   
Mayor Boice acknowledged the borough’s reputation for problems.
   
“Things like this just give us another black eye,” he said. “This is a
small community; it’s like a little Peyton Place here. You can’t get away with
anything without everyone knowing about it. Everyone knows everyone else’s
business here.”
   
Boice said he spearheaded the investigation of Karlonis on the advice of
the county district attorney’s office and the state police.