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By BONNIE ADAMS; Times Leader Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 03, 1997     Page: 3A

PLYMOUTH- Patrol officer George Gocek Sr. grabbed a suspect’s hand and
reached for his handcuffs as the man gashed his face with a beer bottle.
   
Blood filled Gocek’s eyes as he made his way back to his police cruiser.
    The violent, early morning encounter ended his 32 years as a part-time
police officer and 25 years as a truck driver.
   
Since James J. Stone injured him in 1993, Gocek has been unable to work.
   
Now the state Board of Probation and Parole has granted parole for the
Plymouth man serving a 4- to 8-year sentence at the State Correctional
Institution at Retreat.
   
Stone, 38, could be freed as early as Dec. 17 after serving his minimum
sentence.
   
“I’m still suffering,” Gocek said. “Why should he get out?”
   
Luzerne County District Attorney Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. opposes the
decision.
   
“I think it’s an absolute disgrace. He’s a convicted, violent felon who
severely and permanently injured an on-duty police officer,” Olszewski said.
“I’m going to hold the members of the board who voted for his parole
personally and professionally responsible should this violent felon injure or
hurt any member of my community or any member of the community.”
   
Olszewski said he will discuss with his staff what actions might be taken.
His office, which responds to all offenders facing parole, wrote two letters
to the board in opposition to Stone’s release.
   
“Obviously they didn’t pay attention to our letters,” Olszewski said. “The
guy is a menace to society.”
   
At least three board members must approve parole for violent offenders,
said acting board spokeswoman Jennifer Hitz. The board’s decision came on Nov.
5.
   
Public input will be taken into consideration if it sheds new light on the
case, Hitz said.
   
Police Chief John Z. Thomas, who worked with Gocek for 25 years, is asking
residents to write letters opposing the parole.
   
“I really feel he should serve the eight years,” Thomas said. “I see
officer Gocek several times a week. My heart aches for him. His life is
destroyed.”
   
A Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas jury found Stone guilty in October
1993 of aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
   
Stone must undergo drug and alcohol treatment as he is monitored by the
board’s intensive supervision unit, probably in Scranton, Hitz said.
   
“I’m not too happy about him getting out,” said Gocek, 56. “I think he
should stay in there longer.”
   
He remembers March 6, 1993, when he responded to parking complaints at a
Main Street bar at 2 a.m.
   
“I was just going up to put parking tickets on the cars,” Gocek said.
   
From his police cruiser he spotted Stone. “He had a beer bottle in his hand
and he was screaming and yelling,” Gocek said.
   
The officer called for assistance, got out of his cruiser and approached
Stone.
   
“F— you,” Stone told Gocek, according to an affidavit. Gocek, who said he
had arrested Stone previously, told him he was under arrest.
   
“I grabbed him by his one hand, and with my other hand I was reaching back
for my handcuffs,” Gocek said. “All I saw was that bottle coming around.”
   
The force of the nearly full beer bottle knocked Gocek several feet and
fractured his neck vertebrae.
   
“I remember hitting the ground, then I remember getting up again. I
couldn’t even see the cruiser,” Gocek said. “That’s how much blood was
squirting.”
   
He compared his injury to the mark left by an ax and said that until
surgery several months ago, pain shot from his neck into his ears. He has
experienced arm numbness, blackouts and headaches that last days.
   
The Plymouth man misses police work. He spends his days sleeping or
watching television, with his dog, Dusty.
   
“I can complain to him,” Gocek said.
   
Thomas said Gocek still visits him at the police station.
   
“He really gave his whole life to being a police officer.”