Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne Borough police arrested Luzerne County’s former director of the Bureau of Elections after he allegedly made threats to state Rep. Aaron Kaufer’s office that he was going “to start going crazy.”

Kaufer’s office alerted police that Leonard Piazza III allegedly called their office around noon Friday and said “someone is going to pay” for his denial of Social Security benefits.

Piazza told the office that he had made a complaint to the office of U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, and wanted to file a case with Kaufer, according to police. Police were told that Piazza was agitated from the start of the phone call, using statements such as “someone is going to die” and “is this one of those things where someone has to die before something gets done?”

Kaufer spoke with Piazza on the phone and allegedly was threatened. When police contacted Piazza on the phone, they say that he advised them he was agitated and the U.S. government was going to pay.

Piazza was charged with making terroristic threats and harassment. He was arraigned before District Judge Thomas Malloy and remanded to Luzerne County Correctional Facility with revoked bail.

According to court documents, bail was revoked because Piazza not only posed a potential threat to himself but to the public at large.

Luzerne Police Chief Michael J. Kotwasinski confirmed that the man arrested was indeed the former county election director and that Piazza, who had moved to Georgia, where he worked in Decatur County’s elections office after being fired from Luzerne County in April 2012, has apparently been staying at a relative’s home .

Kotwasinski said Piazza’s preliminary hearing will be 9 a.m. Dec. 29 before District Justice David Barilla.

Kaufer did not respond Friday to requests for comment.

Piazza had filed a federal lawsuit seeking reinstatement to his directorship in Luzerne County.

The county maintained that Piazza was fired for exceeding the scope of his authority by conducting a “clearly retaliatory” review of former county Controller Walter Griffith’s campaign finance reports in response to Griffith’s plans to audit the election office.

Piazza’s action opened up the county to a potential claim from Griffith alleging Piazza’s targeting violated his civil rights, they said.

Piazza, who initiated the suit in June 2013, has argued that his termination was political, saying that former county Manager Robert Lawton was politically affiliated with Griffith. Piazza also has said he found various problems with Griffith’s campaign finance reports.

Piazza
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_LeonardPiazza.jpg.optimal.jpgPiazza

By Melanie Mizenko

[email protected]

Reach Melanie Mizenko at 570-991-6116 or on Twitter @TL_MMizenko.