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WILKES-BARRE — A Mountain Top man who worked with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board until recently is suing a woman, claiming she defamed him to get him fired.
The lawsuit says he met the woman at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Robert Lynch filed the suit in Luzerne County Court on Tuesday through his Wapwallopen-based attorney, James Brando. According to the suit, he worked with the PGCB as a self-exclusion intake report producer for 11 years before he was let go in mid-September.
Lynch’s suit names Hanover Township’s Shannon Turner as a defendant. According to the suit, Lynch and Turner became “casual friends” while they both attended Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon meetings. The suit says Lynch is a 31-year recovering alcoholic.
Turner, who allegedly has a gambling problem, came to Lynch to add her name to a list so she would not be allowed into casinos due to her alleged problem. But Lynch said Turner did not complete the self-exclusion, as she would “miss her friends at the casino,” the filing states.
The suit says Turner began to make claims of inappropriate behavior on the part of Lynch. It says the allegations began in April 2018, with Turner making the reports to casino security.
According to Lynch, Turner accused him of stalking her while she was gambling; groping and sexually assaulting her; and encouraging her to remove herself from the self-exclusion list, prompting her to gamble away $70,000.
Lynch says he was fired Sept. 13. He believes his termination was “solely as a result of Shannon Turner’s representations,” which Lynch says Turner knew were false.
Lynch is accusing Turner of defaming him and intentionally interfering with his contract, causing him no less than $5 million in damages.
To date, no charges have been filed against Lynch in Luzerne County for the crimes he says Turner alleged.