By Peter Cameron
The Times-Tribune
SCRANTON, Pa. — Joseph Black is back in prison, this time on the other side of the bars.
County detectives arrested the former Lackawanna County Prison correctional officer accused of raping five female inmates from 2002 to 2011 on Friday after hearing an accusation that he threatened to take a gun to the jail if things go badly in his ongoing criminal case.
As a security precaution, Lackawanna County Prison locked down for five hours on Friday afternoon while law enforcement officers searched for Mr. Black, Warden Robert McMillan said Wednesday by phone.
In a hearing to revoke bail Wednesday, Mr. Black’s attorney, Joseph D’Andrea, called the new charges “ridiculous” and “trumped up.” Mr. Black’s ex-wife, Joann Black, reported the alleged threat to the district attorney’s office on Thursday after hearing it from her friend, Olyphant Councilman David Krukovitz.
The defense attorney said in court that the pair is biased against his client.
Attempts to reach Mr. Krukovitz and Ms. Black were unsuccessful Wednesday.
Appearing in court in blue prison clothes and shackles, Mr. Black, 50, 102 Robert Drive, Dickson City, is being held in Monroe County Correctional Facility in Stroudsburg because of his former employment at Lackawanna County Prison, the warden said Wednesday by phone.
The district attorney’s office is now trying to permanently eliminate his bail after the filing of the new charges, three counts of making terroristic threats, all felonies.
At the hearing, Lackawanna County Judge Michael Barrasse said he would rule on revoking bail at a later date. The judge also granted a motion for the defense to search the areas of the Lackawanna County Prison where the rapes allegedly occurred, and signed an order denying a motion for the judge’s removal from the case.
Mr. D’Andrea had sought the recusal because the judge had formerly sat on the county’s prison board.
Regarding the new charges, the defense attorney called them and the accompanying police report as bad as “I’ve seen in 30 years” of practicing law.
“There’s no way any jury in God’s creation will find my client guilty,” he said of the terroristic threat charges. “If they do, I will stop practicing law.”
He noted that the reported threat was said to have been made a week before Ms. Black reported it, and that the defendant did not have a gun registered to him.
Lackawanna County detectives arrested Mr. Black at Custom Auto and Cycle, a body shop in Olyphant where he was working. Two detectives, Michelle Mancuso and Chris Kolcharno, testified that Mr. Black tried to sneak out the back when they arrived.
In an aggressive cross-examination, Mr. D’Andrea questioned the detectives’ testimony, noting that Mr. Black was not running from law enforcement. Detective Kolcharno responded that he witnessed the defendant quietly open the back door and peek around before exiting. The detective said Mr. Black told him he went outside to urinate. Detectives checked and found the body shop does have an indoor bathroom.
For the original rape case, Mr. Black is charged with several counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, institutional sexual assault and official oppression. He is awaiting trial.
The prison fired him in January 2014.