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WILKES-BARRE — The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office says a former Coughlin teacher should not be allowed to file a late appeal.

Prosecutors argue in a petition filed Monday that Stephen Stahl failed to show sufficient cause for a judge to grant the special permission.

Stahl’s petition filed earlier this month “vaguely alleges” he made attempts to contact the county Office of the Public Defender, the prosecutors’ petition says, falling far short of the “extraordinary circumstance” necessary to grant a late appeal.

“As a general rule, an extraordinary circumstance is fraud or a breakdown in the court’s operation,” the petition says.

In seeking permission to file a late appeal, Stahl said he attempted to contact the public defender’s office to no avail, and said his application to the office was not received and approved until June 23 when the period for appeal had already elapsed.

Stahl, 48, of Hunlock Creek, is serving a six to 23 month sentence in Luzerne County Correctional Facility.

A jury in January convicted Stahl, siding with a now 27-year-old woman who alleged she and the former Coughlin High School teacher and wrestling coach engaged in an 18-month sexual relationship beginning when she was a 16-year-old student.

Stahl’s attorney Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. withdrew from the case March 23, the same day Stahl was sentenced before Judge Michael T. Vough.

Stahl
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By James O’Malley

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