Federal Investigation of Schools

October 17, 2009

Pizzella enters not guilty plea

Wilkes-Barre Area School Board president waives Monday arraignment.

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer
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SCRANTON – Beleaguered Wilkes-Barre Area School Board President Frank Pizzella Jr. filed a not guilty plea Friday to a charge he allegedly acted as go between in a $5,000 bribe someone paid for a teaching job in the district.

Through his attorney Joseph Blazosek, Pizzella also waived his arraignment set for Monday in federal court Wilkes-Barre.

A message left with Blazosek was not returned.

A federal grand jury indicted Pizzella, of Plains Township, on Sept. 15, alleging he took part in a conspiracy in 2004 with others to get someone hired as a teacher.

According to the indictment, Pizzella told a person seeking a teaching job that one could be obtained for a $5,000 cash payment to a school board member. Neither the person looking for the job nor the school board member was identified.

The indictment further explained that the father-in-law of the person seeking the job loaned that person and their spouse the money that was given to Pizzella who passed it on to the board member. The person seeking the job was hired as a full-time teacher and that person’s spouse issued three checks between Sept. 24, 2004 and Dec. 2, 2004 totaling $3,500 to their father-in-law according to the indictment.

Pizzella, who is free pending an outcome in the case, said he would not resign from the board. He issued a statement last month that read: “I will continue to serve as the president of the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board and as a member of the Wilkes-Barre Area Vo-Tech Board. I was elected in 2007 to serve the electorate and taxpayers, and I will continue to do just that.”

He was the third board member from the district charged in an ongoing public corruption probe in Luzerne County.

On Thursday Wilkes-Barre Area surfaced again in the probe that has ensnared 17 people including members of the Luzerne County court, probation office and government as well as two people from the Pittston Area School District. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Richard Emanski, president of King Glass & Paint in Swoyersville, provided and installed free carpeting in the home of a Wilkes-Barre Area board member in exchange for a contract benefiting Emanski’s business. Emanski agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense. Investigators said the carpeting was put into the home of one of the three board members already charged, narrowing down the list to Pizzella, James Height and Brian Dunn.

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader staff writer, can be contacted at 570 829-7237.

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