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Thursday, April 11, 1996     Page: 3A

Something to bet on
   
Excuse me for thinking that Luzerne County employee Tom Gaughan would have
learned from his first brush with the law. The same can be said about Luzerne
    County officials who supervise Gaughan in his $40,000-a-year county
jobGaughan works in the county drug and alcohol unit entrusted with the
important task of fighting compulsive addictions. Although gambling is as
compulsive and destructive an addiction as there is, the point is lost on
county leaders.
   
Illegal gambling is a crime.
   
So is much of what passes as public service at the courthouse.
   
This week a federal grand jury indicted Gaughan on charges of running an
illegal gambling business and laundering money. The most recent indictments
are part of an ongoing federal probe into what could be a billion dollar
Northeastern Pennsylvania business.
   
Gaughan ran the illegal bookmaking business with five others between
November, 1993 and April 1994, according to the indictment. During that time,
he also tried to hide about $99,000 in illegal proceeds, the indictment said.
   
If the feds are correct, that would pay for a lot of addiction counseling
sessions.
   
If, however, Gaughan pleads guilty the way so many of his former brothers
in the area gambling fraternity have done, he should qualify for group therapy
at any number of federal prisons. With his background as a county drug and
alcohol specialist, he should lead the group.
   
Gaughan came to public attention back in 1991 when police charged him and a
gaggle of other gamblers with running illegal area sports betting operations.
   
Area gambling raids around that time were momentous.
   
A long-time state employee, a World War II hero, the hot shot of the local
sports bar scene and Gaughan were among the most illustrious local bums.
   
The biggest bum of them all, however, didn’t even break the law.
   
Police wiretaps caught Luzerne County Commissioner Frank Crossin placing
bets and using what some of his campaign supporters might otherwise consider a
pornographic alias.
   
Voters re-elected Crossin overwhelmingly in November.
   
Back then, Gaughan hung up on me when I called to ask who he was voting
for.
   
Most men charged in 1991 entered a program for first-time offenders,
supposedly behaved themselves for a year and then qualified to have their
official records erased.
   
Some went on with their lives. Some went on with their bookmaking.
   
Kenneth Bradshaw is one local fungus who continued to thrive in the petri
dish of public service. Then one day Bradshaw hatched into an upper level
mold.
   
This time, the feds brought the threat of “penal penicillin.”
   
Bradshaw pleaded guilty and agreed to become a federal snitch.
   
So did Luzerne County employee Vincent Savoca, an assessor’s office field
investigator who went the route of the rodent in this year of the rat.
   
“I can’t say anything,” Savoca said Wednesday when asked if county
officials have mentioned firing him the way state officials fired Bradshaw
after he pleaded guilty to a felony.
   
Although county commissioner Chairman Tom Makowski has said he would
explore firing Savoca, he has failed to take action.
   
Ironically, in 1987 Makowski represented well-known bookie Dan Decker when
Makowski was in private law practice. Decker confessed and went on to run for
Wilkes-Barre City Council last year. The Democratic Party endorsed him but he
lost.
   
Meanwhile, William Ruzzo, a law school graduate who cops picked up in the
same 1987 raid that netted Decker, has landed a wonderful new job. After Ruzzo
passed the state bar exam, county commissioners Makowski, Crossin and Red
Jones hired the admitted bookie in January as a public defender.
   
Pinch me, somebody.
   
Steve Corbett’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.