Posted on 01/29/2009 7:11:22 AM PST by Born Conservative
The superintendent of transportation for Lackawanna County was charged Wednesday with pressuring fellow employees into giving him prescription painkillers for more than a year.
Anthony T. Koloras harassed, insulted and publicly ridiculed a County of Lackawanna Transit System bus driver and a female employee until they relented, according to court documents. He called the woman “fat” and made fun of her clothing when she refused to comply.
“You don’t really need all of it,” Mr. Koloras, told the woman he repeatedly harassed for Vicodin pills, according to the documents.
In an interview with county detectives, Mr. Koloras admitted asking people he supervised for pills, according to the documents.
Efforts to reach Mr. Koloras were unsuccessful Wednesday.
County detectives charged Mr. Koloras, 58, of 512 Third Ave., with illegal possession of Vicodin, criminal solicitation to possess it and using a cell phone illegally to obtain it.
He was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge James Gibbons, who released him on his own recognizance.
COLTS executive director Bob Fiume said Mr. Koloras is suspended without pay pending further action by the board.
Mr. Koloras, who came up as a dispatcher for COLTS, was hired in December 1976, according to the agency. He was promoted to superintendent of transportation in January 2005. His salary is $48,668 a year.
As superintendent, Mr. Koloras’ job was to oversee the agency’s bus drivers and dispatchers, Mr. Fiume said.
The woman, who is not named in the arrest papers, had been prescribed Vicodin due to an unspecified medical condition. She gave him pills at least 20 times at COLTS’ office on North-South Road, she told authorities.
His pressure produced stress that forced her out of work for five months, she told county detectives.
When she wouldn’t give him pills, Mr. Koloras would call her names or “harass her by insulting what she was wearing or saying she looked fat,” chief county Det. Joseph Jordan and county Det. Thomas Davis wrote in an arrest affidavit.
With another employee, Mr. Koloras traded preferential treatment for pills, according to the affidavit.
The case broke when a COLTS employee visited the district attorney’s office Jan. 6 with a tip. The employee, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the woman’s story.
She said Mr. Koloras knew she was prescribed Vicodin and harassed her so often “it would get to a point where she would just give him some pills,” according to the arrest papers.
Twice, she reported the harassment to managers.
She told former COLTS general manager Paul Talerico a year ago, but nothing seemed to change. About two months ago, she reported the harassment to Mr. Fiume, then met with him and two lawyers. The harassment ceased after that meeting, according to the documents.
She named several other employees who were giving Mr. Koloras pills, she told the detectives.
A second unnamed employee, a male bus driver, told detectives he sustained a serious injury about 2� years ago, became addicted to prescribed painkillers and went through drug rehabilitation.
Mr. Koloras relentlessly pressured him for Vicodin, and eventually he began to comply.
When he gave Mr. Koloras pills, he would get preferential treatment, including “unquestioned time off,” the detectives wrote.
If the driver refused, Mr. Koloras “would ridicule him in front of other employees,” according to the arrest papers.
The driver said he gave Mr. Koloras full bottles of Vicodin at least 20 times, sometimes while he was on duty driving a bus.
A union representative told the driver he couldn’t do anything about it, “so let it alone,” according to the arrest papers.
When the detectives interviewed him, Mr. Koloras told them he was in a bad motorcycle accident and is prescribed pain medication.
According to Times-Tribune archives, Mr. Koloras was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident on June 30, 2007, near the Keyser Avenue exit of the McDade Expressway. He was driving south, drove onto the right berm and lost control of the motorcycle.
A union representative told the driver he couldn’t do anything about it, “so let it alone,” according to the arrest papers.
Good ROI on those union dues eh?
LOL!
The blind faith of union members is astounding...
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