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First Posted: 1/17/2014 WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A motion filed in Luzerne County Court seeking payment to a private detective doing work for double-homicide suspect Hugo Selenski&#8217;s defense was supposed to be sealed.
It wasn&#8217;t.
But Friday&#8217;s hearing before Judge Fred Pierantoni III on the motion to pay James Sulima, a former Pittston police officer, $10,466, was closed from the public.
When a reporter for The Times Leader inquired why the hearing was closed, Senior Law Clerk Daniel Pillets explained the hearing was an &#8220;ex-parte hearing&#8221; and an &#8220;in-camera&#8221; review on defense strategy and funding.
Ex-parte is term meaning privileged communications between an attorney and the court when opposing counsel is not present.
Normally, the hearing would be closed to the public and prosecutors whenever defense lawyers seek funding and discussing strategy.
However, Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis and Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino were permitted to stay in the closed hearing.
Pillets said prosecutors are allowed to stay in the closed hearing until instructed by the judge to leave.
Pierantoni briefly opened the hearing allowing reporters from The Times Leader and Citizens&#8217; Voice into the courtroom. The judge had Selenski&#8217;s attorneys, Shelley Centini and Walter Rymsza, explain the motion to pay Sulima was filed &#8220;ex-parte&#8221; and intended the hearing be closed. Centini said she filed the motion on Jan. 2 and told a clerk in the Clerk of Courts office that the motion was to be sealed.
Sulima was represented by attorney Bill Ruzzo.
Pierantoni then closed the courtroom to the public.
Salavantis and Ferentino also left the courtroom apparently when defense strategy and funding was discussed.
It remained unknown if Pierantoni approved Sulima&#8217;s payment.
Sulima in a Dec. 4 letter to Rymsza claimed he is owed $10,466 for investigative tasks and has not been paid. Pierantoni allowed $20,000 for investigation purposes.
Sulima stated he wanted to continue working on the Selenski case but would stop unless Pierantoni signed an order to pay him.
After Centini and Rymsza finished discussing strategy and funding, Pierantoni reopened the courtroom to Salavantis, Ferentino and the two reporters without addressing if he approved payment to Sulima.
Pierantoni scheduled a pre-trial hearing on Feb. 13, with the long-awaited and often delayed trial set to begin with jury selection on March 3.
Selenski, 40, is charged in the strangulation killings of Tammy Fassett and Michael Kerkowski on May 3, 2002. Their bodies were unearthed from a shallow grave outside then Selenski&#8217;s home on Mount Olivet Road in Kingston Township on June 5, 2003.

Hearing held on Selenski’s defense spending