Pasonick enters guilty plea

WILKES-BARRE – Prominent Wilkes-Barre engineer Michael J. Pasonick Jr. told a federal magistrate Tuesday that he bribed a school board member in 2007 to secure work for his firm and avoid layoffs.

“I wanted to keep my employees working,” Pasonick said before pleading guilty to paying the school board member between $1,000 and $5,000.

Pasonick, 69, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but is more likely to receive 18 to 24 months under federal sentencing guidelines.

Federal prosecutors have said the school board involved is in Luzerne County, but have not further identified the board or the board member.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Houser declined comment after the plea hearing before U.S. Magistrate Malachy Mannion.

Mannion took the plea on behalf of U.S. District Judge Richard P. Conaboy, who will sentence Pasonick sometime after July 18, when a pre-sentence report prepared by federal probation officials is expected to be complete.

Mannion allowed Pasonick to remain free on his own recognizance.

Pasonick and his attorney, Joseph Sklarosky Sr., declined comment after the hearing.

Pasonick is one of more than 30 government officials and contractors charged in an ongoing federal corruption probe in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties since January 2009.

His name has surfaced in three other corruption cases, but he has not been charged in those cases.

Pasonick’s firm is one of eight companies implicated in the pay-to-play prosecution of former Lackawanna County Commissioner Robert Cordaro and current Commissioner A.J. Munchak, sources have told Times-Shamrock Newspapers, the parent company of The Citizens’ Voice. Cordaro and Munchak, accused of accepting at least $475,000 in kickbacks and bribes, are to stand trial next month.

In October 2009, an attorney for a former board member at the Luzerne County Housing Authority identified Pasonick as the source of a $1,400 payoff his client passed on to another board member. Pasonick had contracts with the authority.

Last June, former Jenkins Township Supervisor Russel E. Arnone pleaded guilty to accepting $5,000 from a developer for interceding with Pasonick’s firm, which served as the township’s building inspector, in an effort to reduce inspection fees for a commercial development.

The firm Pasonick formed in 1976, Michael J. Pasonick Jr. Inc., has had numerous contracts with local school districts and government entities over the years.

Pasonick is no longer a principal with the firm, although several members of the Pasonick family are principals, according to the company’s website.

djanoski@citizensvoice.com, 570-301-2178