Aug 29, 2016 4 min read

A Washington County judge sentenced former Cecil Township police Chief John Pushak on Monday to 3 to 12 months in county jail on charges stemming from allegations he inappropriately took more than $9,900 from a special investigations fund and used the money to gamble.

Pushak, 67, was free on his own recognizance pending his sentence and appeared in a dark-colored suit and remained stoic when Judge Gary Gilman read the sentence. He declined comment after the more than one-hour hearing concluded.

A jury found Pushak guilty of theft by unlawful taking, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and misapplication of entrusted property in June. During the three-day trial, jurors heard evidence he’d made 28 unauthorized cash withdrawals from the department’s federal property account between January 2010 and January 2013 and diverted $8,740 – including money from third parties that paid for officers to work on security details – into the account instead of putting it in the township general fund where it belonged.

Pushak’s attorneys argued against a jail sentence for their client. One of them, Joe Francis, pointed to the former chief’s otherwise “blemish-free” record.

He also pointed out Pushak already lost his job and identity and would suffer financially because of his actions.

“He’s already paid the ultimate price,” Francis told Gilman. “He’s lost it all.”

Deputy District Attorney Jerry Moschetta asked Gilman to consider giving Pushak prison time. He acknowledged in a memorandum outlining his position that while the ex-chief isn’t a violent criminal but pointed to Pushak’s “lack of contrition for his betrayal of the public’s trust and attempts at trial to downplay and rationalize his criminal behavior.”

The memorandum cited statements Pushak made under cross-examination at his own trial. When Moschetta asked whether Pushak broke the law when “you use the township’s money as if it were your own,” Pushak claimed that his was a “violation of a procedure” but not of the law.

The events that eventually led to Pushak’s conviction in that trial – which Francis said will cost Pushak his pension – began in January 2013.

A citizen unnamed in court documents reported to the Washington County District Attorney’s Office that Pushak had admitted to then-Capt. Shawn Bukovinsky that he’d taken money from the department because of a gambling problem.

Bukovinsky denied any such incident. Even though investigators couldn’t verify the allegation, Pushak met early the following month with Bukovinsky, who later became chief, and township manager Don Gennuso, gave them $5,340 he said needed to go into the township’s general fund.

He later repaid the balance of the $9,927 found to be missing from the fund.

Township officials soon hired an attorney to conduct an investigation and commissioned a review of financial records and placed Pushak on administrative leave that month.

He resigned in April 2013. State police filed charges March 2014.

Among the factors Gilman cited before reading the sentence was the dedication Pushak, who spent 32 years as the township police chief out of 38 years in the department, had shown to his job.

But Gilman alo described Pushak’s actions in handling the fund as a breach of the public trust and cited trial testimony in which Pushak insisted that “mine wasn’t a legitimate theft.”

Pushak must report to the jail by 12 p.m. Sept. 12.

Gilman said Pushak will be eligible for work release and to serve his sentence in Greene County for his safety. Along with the term in jail, Gilman imposed a four-year term of probation and 100 hours of community service.

Pushak must also pay $35,611 to the township to reimburse it for costs related to its investigation and $2,981 to Washington County for expert witness fees incurred during the trial.

As during the trial, Pushak’s defense team argued on Monday his visits to the casino were a way of escaping from his grief following his wife’s 2008 death from cancer.

“I think his judgment was significantly, significantly clouded when he set foot in that casino,” Francis said after the hearing.

Holly Martin, a psychologist and chief operating officer at Greenbriar Treatment Center who’s counseled Pushak for the past several years, said Monday that her patient didn’t intend to harm anyone. She said didn’t realize he hadn’t worked through the grief of losing his wife and associated the casino with good memories.

She also said she would be concerned for Pushak’s safety if he were to go to prison.

Moschetta argued in the memorandum Pushak’s sentence “should affirm that public officials will respect the law and act in the public’s interest, and not their own, as (Pushak) did.”