Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By LAUREN ROTH lroth@leader.net
Friday, March 14, 2003 Page: 1A
MOOSIC – A Wilkes-Barre man who was a leader in the gay community was found
dead, with stab wound to the chest, in a lake Wednesday at the Glenmaura
National Golf Club, said the Lackawanna County Coroner’s Office.
Moosic police said Michael Pierson, 40, of Dodson Lane, was wanted in the
stabbing of his boyfriend Kenneth Stephens, 21, of Plains Township, in the
chest and neck Jan. 28 on Glenmaura National Boulevard. Police believed he
then fled the area.
About a week after Pierson’s disappearance, friends said they felt police
were unresponsive to their concerns about his safety.
“Right from the jump I thought he was dead,” said friend Debbie Scott.
Other friends said police were unwilling to conduct a more thorough search for
Pierson and wouldn’t grant them permission to do their own search.
Police back then did not agree.
“He’s all right. There are people who had contact with him afterward,”
said investigating officer Thomas McGovern about three weeks after the
stabbing. “We have not searched the woods. Where he ran was around houses. He
ran to Rockland Road to Montage Road to 502. He didn’t run into the forest.
There are tracks we followed that night.”
Stephens required hospital treatment for deep cuts with a 4- to 5-inch
serrated-blade Buck knife after the incident on Glenmaura National Boulevard
about 200 feet south of Fitzgerald Drive. He told police Pierson stabbed him
Jan. 28 about 12:14 a.m., then fled on foot after an argument in Stephens’
1992 Chevrolet pickup.
Stephens could not be reached for comment.
Pierson’s body was spotted by two elderly men looking for golf balls
Wednesday afternoon, said Moosic police. The body was submerged in water near
the shoreline of a lake between the 16th and 17th tees, said Joe Swoboda,
chief deputy coroner for Lackawanna County. Pierson had suffered a single stab
wound to the left chest area and was not dressed for the weather.
“He very well could have been there since the day he was allegedly
missing,” Swoboda said. “He was there for a while.”
Pierson was the vice president of Pride of Northeast PA, a gay social
group. He worked for the Red Cross as an HIV/AIDS educator as the Men who have
Sex with Men coordinator, said his boss, Mark Innocenzi. Pierson’s job
included going to gay clubs to educate patrons. He did not return to work
after the January stabbing.
“The work he has done for the community is immeasurable,” said Lee
LaChette of Wilkes-Barre, president of the Pride group. “It will take many
devoted people to continue the work of this one man.”
Several of Pierson’s friends say they are upset with police.
“The police did not handle it correctly,” said John Dawe of Lehman
Township, one of the friends who tried to organize a search weeks ago.
“Police said they didn’t think it was necessary,” he said at the time. “We
would have needed permission to walk through private properties.”
Officer McGovern could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Debbie Scott said she knew Stephens and Pierson well. For three years,
Stephens would play Santa Claus on Christmas Eve for her grandchildren. “He
was great at it. This past Christmas, Mike played his elf.”
The two had been together several months and the relationship was abusive.
“Mike was black and blue,” she said. Several friends took pictures of his
bruised face and they gave the photos to police.
Scott said she feared for Pierson’s life when he didn’t show up at her
house the night of Jan. 27 as scheduled to see workout equipment he was
considering buying.
Pierson’s disappearance left “a big void,” said Margie Bryant of Dallas,
treasurer of Pride of Northeast PA, several weeks ago. “Mike is the kind of
guy who was just trying to help (Stephens). He should have known better.”
“He was madly in love with Kenny,” Scott said.
Dawe said he is saddened Mike can never tell his side of the story. “We
knew Mike would never stab someone without being in self-defense.”
Pierson was wanted on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon,
simple assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and harassment.