Bentleyville police chief, ex-treasurer launch civil suit against borough, six officials
Bentleyville Police Chief Richard Young and former Treasurer/Secretary Tammy Stamm have launched a civil suit against the municipality and six borough officials, claiming the borough published false and defamatory statements against the two saying they had misused public funds.
Young and Stamm filed a praecipe for writ of summons to initiate the lawsuit Aug. 10 in Washington County Court of Common Pleas.
Their attorney, William Labovitz, said filing a writ stops the clock on the statute of limitations. As of now, he is still discussing with his clients whether they will proceed with a formal complaint laying out their claims.
“We have not committed to doing it,” he said Friday. “We have not committed to a time frame for doing it. We simply initially felt it prudent to file a writ as a way to commence litigation, just to show the defendants how problematic we find their behavior, their conduct is.”
Bentleyville Solicitor Dennis Makel said Friday he was unable to comment on pending litigation.
The writ lists the borough of Bentleyville as a defendant along with council members Joseph Pigeon III, Kimberly Sacco, John Hackinson Jr., Kathryn Rakosky and Timothy Miller, as well as Secretary/Treasurer Danielle Ott.
The suit comes after a finance committee report containing unredacted personal identifying information and employee benefit enrollment information for Young, Stamm and other former council members was distributed to the public at a council meeting in April. Borough officials said the material had been disclosed inadvertently; they subsequently tried to retrieve the packets from attendees.
Labovitz said in a statement that the report, which listed Stamm and Young by name, had discussed transactions totaling between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars omitted from lists presented to council for approval; a “very high percentage” came from the police department.
Additionally, Labovitz said, the committee report stated the belief that Stamm had stopped following borough reporting procedures in 2023 in order to make the financial reports harder to understand. It also said Young and Stamm “were getting paid overtime for not working at all.”
Young and Stamm both contend the expenditures listed in the report were routine police department expenses that had been authorized by council, Labovitz said.
Labovitz’s statement also alleges members of the borough council’s police committee had communicated via text alleging criminal conduct on the part of Young and Stamm, who were said to have “made a past practice out of theft of services.” In the text discussions, Labovitz said, they also discussed removing the chief from his position, or if that was unsuccessful, disbanding the borough police department.
“When you are the police chief, particularly in a smaller community, you obviously are very concerned about your reputation,” Labovitz said Friday. “And when folks in the community are hearing, and when a report is being circulated that my clients are misusing funds or stealing, or did not follow the proper procedures with respect to finances, that is very concerning, especially where they deny that that ever happened.”
Labovitz said the lawsuit may claim defamation, false light invasion of privacy, violations of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act through the text and claims addressing unpaid compensation and reimbursement.
In a release, Young said he had filed the suit reluctantly with a “heavy heart” after what he said had been twisting of financial information to defame and harass them for the past few months.
“The attacks by members of Council and the current borough secretary have culminated to the point where it has affected both my personal and professional life, making it more difficult for me to provide for the safety and security that borough residents so truly deserve,” he said.
Labovitz said they would likely seek remedy in the form of monetary damages for reputational and other harms said to result from defendants’ conduct, statutory remedy for the alleged Sunshine Act violation, and unpaid costs and reimbursements Young and Stamm say they are owed.