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Alleged raid alert brings suspension: Liquor control enforcement officer charged by state police with allegedly notifying bar of an upcoming search.
Oct 31, 2009 (The Times Leader - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
WILKES-BARRE TWP. -- A liquor control enforcement officer was suspended without pay on Friday when he was accused of giving a Plymouth Township tavern information about an impending raid.
Michael J. Buckley, 44, of East Grand Street, Nanticoke, was charged by the state police Northeast Organized Crime Task Force with hindering apprehension or prosecution and obstructing administration of justice.
Buckley has served as a liquor enforcement officer since 1991, and has been assigned to the Wilkes-Barre District Enforcement Office since January 2001.
Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Buckley at around noon on Friday. He was arraigned three hours later by District Judge Michael Dotzel in Wilkes-Barre Township and released without bail.
According to the criminal complaint:
Buckley overheard plans on Sept. 29 about other LCE officers going to Leo's Roadhouse in Plymouth Township and removing illegal gambling devices.
Investigators set up surveillance of Buckley and recorded phone calls he allegedly made from Sept. 29 to Oct. 22 to Leo's Roadhouse.
During a phone call, the criminal complaint says, Buckley told a Leo's Roadhouse employee that "he overheard a conversation in the office that (LCE) were coming to get the machines," and advised the owners to "get the machines out of there."
In another phone call, Buckley asked if the owners "got the machines out yet?" and he had checked LCE files indicating that the investigation had not begun, the criminal complaint says.
Buckley talked to an employee at Leo's Roadhouse on the telephone between Oct. 17 and Oct. 22, telling the employee he did not trust the LCE officer assigned to Leo's Roadhouse to inquire about the raid.
Investigators said a memo indicating an open investigation for gambling devices at Leo's Roadhouse was placed in a file inside LCE offices on Oct. 21.
After the memo was placed, Buckley allegedly left a voice mail for an employee at Leo's Roadhouse saying, "I just wanted to tell ya, that ahh, yes, he is checking the place, the bar for gambling devices, ahh, there's an open investigation, so, just wanted to give ya a heads up on that, ya know. Ahh, no report on it yet, so, he didn't put a report yet," the criminal complaint says.
Buckley could not be reached for comment Friday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled on Tuesday before District Judge Joseph Halesey, Hanover Township.
Edward Lewis, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7196.
To see more of The Times Leader, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.timesleader.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre,
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