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SCRANTON — His arrest saved his life. Now, Lou Elmy is ready do his time so he can get back to repairing it.
The 52-year-old former Luzerne County prison counselor and Wilkes-Barre Area School Board president learned Thursday he will spend six years in federal prison on one count each of extortion and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. A two-year term of supervised release will follow his prison term.
Speaking softly into a courtroom microphone with his family looking on, Elmy apologized to his wife, two children, brothers, sisters, and coworkers who he “shamed and embarrassed” while in the grasp of addiction.
One thing Elmy wasn’t sorry for was getting caught. His arrest last year saved his life, he said, and the treatment he’s gotten since has helped him get straight and prepare for the lengthy prison stay ahead.
“All I want to do is pay my debt, get out and contribute to society again,” he said.
Elmy’s extortion and weapons charges surfaced not long after he waged a failed campaign for Wilkes-Barre City Council amid vows he’d combat the area’s drug epidemic. He was accused of illegally possessing a handgun and obtaining cash, alcohol and crack cocaine from inmates in exchange for special privileges.
Court papers say he created phony court orders that had judges’ signatures physically pasted on them from older orders. He then photocopied the fraudulent orders for files so the paperwork appeared legitimate.
One inmate told investigators he paid Elmy between $50 and $200 and helped him obtain crack cocaine in exchange for unauthorized time outside work release hours and other perks.
The ruse was carried out for nearly three years, from November 2013 until Elmy’s February 2016 arrest on a federal firearms charge, prosecutors say. During that time, Elmy served as president of the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board as he campaigned for a seat on city council.
Among his stated campaign goals was his intent to work with state, local and federal authorities to “combat the out-of-control drug trade” in Wilkes-Barre’s neighborhoods. He lost in a landslide to Republican Tony Brooks.
Prosecutors said at his guilty plea hearing in July that Elmy began buying crack cocaine from a woman in 2013. She was poised to testify against him had the case gone to trial.
When his addiction grew too costly, Elmy turned to selling guns to dealers to obtain the drug, prosecutors say. He traded three weapons in total and, in an effort to make two shotguns more enticing to the buyer, sawed off the barrels himself.
U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion said he was concerned a man who spent nearly 30 years working around criminals would resort to trading guns to drug dealers. The judge was even more disturbed to learn the weapons were still out on the streets.
“Who knows where they are, what they’ve done or what they will do,” Mannion said of the firearms.
Elmy was suspended from the county prison after his charges first surfaced and has since resigned, ending a career at the Water Street facility that spanned nearly three decades. He began his career as a correctional officer before becoming a counselor in the work release program.
Whether he is still entitled to his pension will be determined after county officials review the terms of his sentence.
Elmy was ordered to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons by April 14.
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