Click here to subscribe today or Login.
DUPONT — A former borough police officer has been charged with sexually assaulting two children.
David Turkos, 42, of Wyoming Avenue, Dupont, was arraigned Tuesday on charges including three first-degree felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, two misdemeanor counts of indecent assault, and one misdemeanor count of simple assault.
Turkos was released from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility late Tuesday night on a $50,000 bail bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. April 22 before District Judge Alexandra Kokura Kravitz in Pittston.
According to court papers, Turkos allegedly sexually molested two boys between October 2001 and March 2008, sometimes forcing their hands through a railing or the back of a chair and securing them with zip ties or his handcuffs while he did so.
One of the boys told a forensic interviewer that Turkos threatened him and his mother with death if he told anyone, once holding a gun to the head of the family cat.
The boy also told the interviewer that Turkos would allegedly talk about how he would physically hide his body and the bodies of his mother and brother in Dupont and Suscon because there are mine shafts there in which no one would find the bodies, court papers state.
Turkos had been hired as a part-time patrolman in Dupont in February 2002.
While still a police officer, Turkos was arrested in March 2008, accused of beating his wife and stepson. He had been charged with aggravated assault and harassment and two counts each of terroristic threats and simple assault, according to court documents.
He later pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault and harassment, and was sentenced to six months probation.
Turkos was sentenced in March 2010 to six to 12 months in county prison on charges of corruption of minors in a case in which prosecutors say he masturbated in front of several young children in January 2009.
In December 2009, his wife had filed a federal lawsuit against the borough’s police department and two officers, alleging they refused to investigate allegations that her husband had violated a protection-from-abuse order she had obtained.
Donna Turkos alleged that after physically assaulting her sons, her husband later pushed her into a cabinet and a wall. During the dispute, she had told police, her husband yelled, “You can’t do anything. I am the law.”
Donna Turkos also alleged in the suit that officer John Saranchuk had falsely charged her with filing a false report, harassment and disorderly conduct in order to cover up and justify his conduct in failing to investigate the alleged PFA violations.
That suit was settled out of court.
Donna Turkos filed another federal lawsuit against the borough’s police department and two officers in December 2014, alleging they filed false criminal charges against her in retaliation for reporting PFA violations by her ex-husband.
She alleged officer Jason Kwiatkowski and former officer-in-charge John Saranchuk falsely charged her with tampering with public records and filing a false report in May 2013.
Turkos reported a PFA violation by David Turkos, who was by that time her ex-husband, to Dupont police on May 17, 2012. At the time, the PFA was valid and was extended by a Luzerne County judge to June 2014.
A district judge after a preliminary hearing in May dismissed the charges against Turkos.
Saranchuk either directed Kwiatkowski or had knowledge Kwiatkowski was going to file the charges against Turkos, according to the lawsuit.
Saranchuk had come under fire by the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office for his handling of the borough police force.
In a letter dated Oct. 31 to Dupont officials, District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said her office would not accept any criminal complaints from Saranchuk nor would her office recognize Saranchuk as a police officer.