Like any lawyer would, Joe Pilchesky got paid for the legal work he did on behalf of his clients, according to court documents.
Trouble is, Mr. Pilchesky isn't a lawyer.
Mr. Pilchesky, 63, of 819 Sunset St., the city resident known for a controversial website centered on local politics, was charged Friday by the state attorney general's office with four counts of practicing law without a license in a case
started by his estranged and jailed wife, Joanne.
Joanne Ricci Pilchesky wrote a letter in April to Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola accusing her husband of practicing law and being paid for it.
She specifically outlined four cases:
n A Pentecostal Church appeal of an unfavorable Scranton Board of Zoning Appeals ruling.
n A custody battle over a boy between his mother, Dana Lewis, and her former in-laws.
n A lawsuit on behalf of Sheila Hartman of Luzerne County, claiming United Credit Bureau, her former employer, owed her severance pay.
n A lawsuit against the Green Ridge Assisted Living Facility claiming the theft of Social Security checks from a former resident, Edward Blasko.
An investigator found Mr. Pilchesky prepared court papers on behalf of his clients, according to an arrest affidavit, which does not say he actually represented them to a court.
In the church case, officials elected Mr. Pilchesky to the church's board of directors so he could help prepare its appeal of a zoning board ruling that prevented the church from opening in
South Scranton in 2010, according to the arrest affidavit. Mr. Pilchesky signed some of those documents, which listed him as a board member.
Perfectly legal. I'm a named Plaintiff, for God's sake. No offense, God.
There is no indication Mr. Pilchesky charged the church a fee, but the affidavit said he made money on the other cases.
He asked Ms. Lewis for $3,000 upfront, she told police, and received an amount unspecified in the affidavit.
There are women who, if they had it, would pay $300,000.00 or more, to get their kid back like Dana Lewis did. With a little....ahem....help, she ultimately beat a system corrupt to the core going up against her son's grandfather,
Tom Lewis, the tipstaff of a powerful county judge, Carmen Minora. Lewis' previous lawyer was Atty. Art Silverblatt of Wilkes Barre, who was into Dana for $12,000 and did nothing for her. There was another woman lawyer
before that who also served her poorly. Silverblatt worked for the "other" side, fully cooperated with Tom Lewis' lawyer, Linda Barresse, which is how Dana lost so much custody time and privileges to the grandfather.
Tom Lewis sued her for full physical custody ten days after his son, the child's father, died. Who, in their right mind, would do that? But, he did it. He was awarded unbelieveable custody time and privileges as a grandfather.
Dana Lewis came to me. I didn't contact her. She was practically unconsoleable when explaining what had happened to her. Not only was she the victim of the system, dirty lawyers, a dirty judge and Danielle Ross, her five year-old son was a victim, too.
The boy was spending as much time with Tom as he was with his own mother and Tom had an opened-ended stipulation that he could take the boy anytime he wanted to, and take him where he wanted to take him for as long
as he wanted to take him there. All that has changed. Tom Lewis now gets what custody time a grandfather should get under the circumstances. I can name more than 100 women who are in the same position as Lewis and
they're all ready to hang themselves over getting screwed over by Family Court judges and guardians. Dana Lewis got justice. That's what she paid me for. It had nothing to do with filing any paperwork.
She was a brave woman for taking the route she took (exposing what happened to her here) and deserved to have her son back to raise him without the interference of that scumbag Tommy Lewis.
He asked $2,800 of Ms. Hartman, who told an investigator Mr. Pilchesky is not a lawyer but "knows the law." She paid him $1,000 and he filed paperwork, but the suit "never progressed," according to the affidavit.
Because she wouldn't progress it. Another desperate lady who contacts me because she's been screwed over by her lawyer and couldn't get her documents back from him so she could move on with her case.
He wouldn't even respond to her phone calls or letters over a period a year until he was served with a petition to have him thrown off the case and ordered to fess up the files, which he was. You're welcome.
As for Mr. Blasko, his caregiver told an investigator Mr. Pilchesky was asked to sue the Green Ridge Assisted Living Facility so Mr. Blasko could get his Social Security money back. An owner of the facility was charged with the theft in 2009.
Mr. Blasko paid $500 to Mr. Pilchesky, who prepared and filed a lawsuit on his behalf.
And, as the story goes, Mr. Blasko had already been to the DA, who refused to prosecute Pat Zangardi for stealing and cashing his six SS checks. Jarbola passed it off to the AG's Office, who also refused to prosecute Pat Zangardi,
having the entire file in hand, including all of the cashed SS checks. Mr. Blasko rightly wanted Patricia Zangardi, the owner of the GR Assisted Living Facility, arrested, and he wanted his money back. He was brought to me by Pine Brook's champion,
Mary Chilipko, who explained that Eddie Blasko was very elderly, very out of it and very screwed. He had been shut down at every turn. Every state agency thumbed their nose at him. No one would help him. So, sucked in by Mary's story
and looking at a frail and helpless old man, I slipped behind the steering wheel and took control. The result: Eddie got his money back and Patricia Zangardi was arrested. The $500 included all filing fees, Sheriff's service fees,
two trips to Harrisburg to the AG's Office, endless communications required to knock down brick walls the authorities had in place, having pizza with Eddie a few times to assure him he'd eventually and somehow get his justice,
publicly trashing the GR Assisted Living Facility. publicly embarrassing Andy Jarbola (again), publicly embarrassing the AG's Office, and worst of all, having to put up with Mary Chilipko's mouth for a year. God love that woman.
Her heart is in the right place, but that mouth should have come with a shut off switch. So, Eddie got his justice after the DA/AG's Office told him to take a long walk off a short pier and I got arrested for doing what the DA/AG was
supposed to do, so the old man would have justice before being found dead in bed.
In each case, Mr. Pilchesky acted without a law license in violation of state law, Senior Special Agent Joseph A. Farkus charges in the affidavit.
So, why wasn't I arrested for saving the public park in Carbondale last year? How about the 22 homeowners I personally escorted into Motion Court to stop the illegal sale of their property by the Tax Claim Bureau? They don't court?
How about the kid who was denied medical benefits to pay for a wheelchair? Wasn't that illegal to help him, Mr Farkus? Wasn't it also illegal to stop the sale of baseball fields all over the city? What about the 86 year-old woman in Pittston
who had an illegal judgment put against her and they were in the process of selling her assets at a Sheriff's Sale when I walked in the door with an injuction and put that s*** to an end? Wasn't that illegal, too. If helping 145 people
from being wrongfully thrown out of their church is illegal, it had to be illegal to stop a Covington Township supervisor from stealing everything that wasn't nailed down. The list goes on. I guess the moral of the story is just walk r
ight by people in paralyzing crisis getting the screwing of their lives by the courts and government agencies and mind your own business. Sorry, can't do that. Never did and I'm not going to start now.
Mr. Pilchesky's wife is serving time in a state prison in Erie County for stealing money from her father's estate.
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@ timesshamrock.com
