Published: November 07, 2008 10:27 pm      

Ebensburg trooper sues superiors

Back-and-forth squabbles inside the state police barracks in Ebensburg have boiled over to U.S. District Court in Johnstown, The Tribune-Democrat has learned.

Trooper Thomas Lane contends in a civil lawsuit that he was retaliated against for providing truthful testimony in an internal affairs investigation and for filing a complaint against Cpl. Frank Mehalko.

Lane claims he was told by coworkers that he would be “in a noose” and that he “would pay.”

The trooper is suing Mehalko; Martin Henry of Harrisburg, head of the equal employment opportunity office for the state police; Sgt. William Bonin, head of the Ebensburg barracks; and Bonin’s boss, Capt. Harvey Cole of Greensburg.

Lane said he was punished by his superiors with undesirable work before being transferred in the spring from Ebensburg to Indiana.

A spokeswoman said Friday that the state police had not seen the suit and policy was not to comment in any case.

Cole said, “There was an internal investigation involving those members. That’s all I can say at this time.”

Bonin and Mehalko were not at the barracks Friday afternoon and could not immediately be reached.

The lawsuit said the troubles began around May 2006. At that time, Lane claims, he was interviewed as a witness “for one of several unsuccessful internal affairs complaints that defendant Bonin had filed against another member of the Pennsylvania State Police.”

The lawsuit doesn’t detail what that probe was about.

And Lane, reached at the Indiana barracks Friday, had no further comment.

On July 21, 2006, Lane filed a complaint against Mehalko regarding alleged offensive comments and actions. An inquiry found that Lane was the subject of sexual harassment and Mehalko was transferred to Indiana.

By August, the suit said, Mehalko was saying that Lane and his buddies “would pay.”

Yet, that November, Henry “questioned the sincerity” of Lane’s complaint and the next month Mehalko was moved back to Ebensburg.

The suit claims Mehalko was determined to get even, and concocted a sexual harassment complaint against Lane.

By August 2007, Bonin was scheduling rivals Mehalko and Lane to ride shifts together.

The lawsuit said Lane complained, so Bonin told him he was “not cutting the mustard.”

Bonin told Lane he “had not been initiating enough incidents and referred to the plaintiff’s statistics.” He was put in a program for “low performers.”

Lane claimed that, when he would call in sick, the barracks would call to bother him or his wife about it. He said he was subjected to false and frivolous complaints.

Lane said the barracks even investigated a bogus trespassing claim against him.

The whole matter came to a head when Bonin ordered Lane to open his locker on April 24. The sergeant removed a traffic citation written by another trooper, Frank Malek, that Lane “had taped inside his locker for personal reasons.”

According to the suit, Malek had told Lane that he knew a lot and “if he wanted to, he would talk.’’

Lane is suing for punitive damages. He also is seeking cash for “extreme embarrassment, stress, worry and loss of sleep.”

Lane – an Ebensburg resident – is being represented by attorney Don Bailey of Harrisburg.