Luzerne County Councilwoman Kathy Dobash said she’s pushing for an investigation of a county assistant district attorney’s recent alleged reaction over a vehicle parked in front of his residence.
Dobash said she learned about the matter from a citizen and reached out to the Carbon County District Attorney’s Office because the assistant district attorney, Justin Richards, resides in that county in Banks Township.
The Carbon County District Attorney’s Office, which did not provide a comment, informed Dobash it would review the matter if it is requested to do so by state police, Dobash said. The vehicle owner, Banks Township resident Joelle Sando, said Wednesday she is in the process of filing a complaint with state police.
Sando, a psychotherapist, also publicly disclosed the matter through an online Facebook post, but she said the social media site later removed the posting.
According to Sando:
She was in Atlantic City when her 68-year-old mother was returning Sando’s 2012 Mercedes around 8:30 p.m. Feb. 24. When the vehicle started making a thumping sound and the check engine indicator lit up, her mother parked the vehicle along a public road a few blocks from Sando’s residence, not blocking any driveways or handicap spots.
Sando said her mother couldn’t get anyone to immediately look at the vehicle and didn’t inform her of the problem because she didn’t want to ruin her trip.
Shortly before 3 a.m. on Feb. 26, Sando said she received a private message through Facebook from a stranger identified on the social media site as Richards, a county assistant district attorney.
The message questioned why her car was parked front of his house while she was “away eating seafood.”
“I happen to be quite upset that your car is parked in front of my (expletive) house in BOTH of the parking spots in front of my house while you’re on some fun (expletive) vacation to AC,” it said.
The message asked her to let him know why he should not have the car towed and/or impounded while it was occupying both spots in front of his house “that we typically use every (expletive) day.”
After contacting her mother to find out what happened with the car, Sando said she immediately packed up and left Atlantic City at 4:30 a.m. so she could “quietly” move her vehicle early in the morning, hoping to avoid an encounter with Richards.
However, she said she was “mortified” she had to contact state police because her vehicle was sandwiched in by two vehicles parked close in the front and back. The responding state police trooper asked Richards to move one of these vehicles so she could get out, she said.
“There was no way I could get out without hitting a car,” she said, noting she also has photographs documenting the position of the vehicles.
Sando said she had planned to drop the matter until she saw her vehicle blocked in and said she was publicly speaking out to discourage “bullying.” Her posting questioned how he “can somehow impound and tow cars that are legally parked on a public street.”
“I don’t feel comfortable with this. The tone was not appropriate. Instead of being threatening, he should have checked to see if I was OK,” Sando said.
Richards, who was hired as assistant district attorney in 2014, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said she can’t discuss the matter, citing personnel confidentiality. She stressed no government resources were used to track down any vehicle owner.
Dobash’s letter to the Carbon County office said she was “compelled to address this inappropriate action” of an assistant district attorney and asserted “many individuals” viewed the message.
“The communication is vulgar and aggressive. This is not the demeanor needed in the role of assistant district attorney,” she wrote.
