Ex-police officer in Westfall wins 3-year legal fight

WESTFALL. Pa. — A former Westfall police officer with a blemished work history will receive several hundred thousand dollars in a settlement of a three-year court fight, according to public records.

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By Beth Brelje

recordonline.com

By Beth Brelje

Posted Dec. 4, 2012 at 2:00 AM

By Beth Brelje
Posted Dec. 4, 2012 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

WESTFALL. Pa. — A former Westfall police officer with a blemished work history will receive several hundred thousand dollars in a settlement of a three-year court fight, according to public records.

Ex-officer Robert Dombrosky and his lawyer, Cletus Lyman, will split $703,000 after Westfall supervisors settled a lawsuit.

The payout, including interest, will come in annual installments lasting until 2022, according to the settlement payment schedule.

Next year, Westfall Township will give Dombrosky and Lyman each a payment of $87,500.

Dombrosky was suspended from the Westfall Police Department in July 2007 after a bar fight at the Erie Restaurant in Port Jervis, according to court documents. Dombrosky was charged with attempted assault in that case.

At the time of his suspension, Dombrosky, who earned $755 a week, was promised his job back with Westfall police and back pay if he was acquitted.

That promise came during an executive session with Dombrosky, former Westfall police Chief Mark Moglia and Westfall supervisors, according to court testimony.

While he was suspended, the Westfall and Matamoras police departments were dissolved and a new joint force, the Eastern Pike Regional Police, was formed.

Officers from Westfall and Matamoras were hired, but the new department said it had no room for another employee.

The police commission overseeing the joint force, which did not exist when Dombrosky was suspended, made no promise to rehire him, court papers say.

Early in 2008, Dombrosky was acquitted of the charges in the Erie Restaurant fight. In May 2008, Dombrosky's attorney sent a letter demanding back pay from the time of the suspension and a job with Eastern Pike Regional Police.

On July 19, 2008, Dombrosky was involved in a single-car crash on Heaters Hill Road in Westfall Township, according to an Eastern Pike Regional Police report.

His car went off the road, hit a tree and he left the scene of the crash, the report said.

He later was found guilty of giving false reports to law enforcement agencies, an accident involving a damaged or unattended vehicle, and failure of duty to give information and render aid.

In December 2009, Dombrosky filed a complaint in federal court demanding a job with the Eastern Pike Regional Police and back pay from the time he believed he should have been reinstated.

He eventually was given back pay of about $16,000 for the time he was suspended.

In July 2007, while investigating the Erie Restaurant fight, Moglia learned of another bar fight involving Dombrosky around the same time. This one was at the Blue Ribbon Bar in Branchville, N.J.

New Jersey State Police were dispatched, but made no arrests.

Moglia wrote about the fight in a July 24 letter that suspended Dombrosky for 30 days without pay and recommended Westfall supervisors demote Dombrosky from sergeant to corporal.

"As part of your suspension, you are required to attend programs to help you with your alcohol intake problems," Moglia wrote. "If you do not enroll in a program, then you will not be allowed back to work."

Dombrosky did not enroll in an alcohol program, according to Lyman. "Dombrosky denies being addicted to alcohol," Lyman said in an e-mail to the Pocono Record.

Dombrosky, now 38, still lives in Westfall with his wife and son, Lyman said. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.