Outdoors Listings: Dec. 11 to 17, 2015

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One of three men accused in beating over ‘Muslim greeting’ headed to county court

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; It started as a quest for a preliminary injunction before morphing into a hearing to settle the whole case, ultimately boiled down to a single choice for the judge: Did Crestwood School Board wait too long to legally seek more representation in running the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center?Crestwood has been seeking a second seat on the 11-member Joint Operating Committee that runs the CTC, arguing that the articles of agreement signed by five member school districts base representation on district population and that Crestwood&#8217;s population has exceeded Greater Nanticoke Area&#8217;s, so Crestwood should gain a seat and GNA lose one.Crestwood requested a preliminary injunction barring Greater Nanticoke Area from appointing two representatives to the JOC at the GNA reorganization meeting Thursday night. Earlier in the afternoon, Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough held a hearing on the injunction.Both attorneys &#8212; Paul Lalley for Crestwood and Charles Coslett for the CTC &#8212; &#8220;stipulated,&#8221; or agreed to the facts in the case. When they also agreed that the stipulated facts related to the injunction were the same for the entire case, Vough asked a logical question: Did they want him to rule on the whole issue, not just the injunction?Lalley, from the Pittsburgh firm of Campbell Durrant Beatty Palombo &amp; Miller, said yes. Coslett, a Kingston attorney, asked for a moment to talk to his clients, then agreed.Lalley then reiterated Crestwood&#8217;s contentions. School boards from the member districts each elected JOC representatives to three-year terms; case law suggests a member so elected cannot be removed until that term expires; the number of representatives is determined by a district&#8217;s population, to be adjusted after each U.S. Census; Crestwood has one seat and GNA has two, but in the 2010 Census Crestwood surpassed Greater Nanticoke Area, so Crestwood should gain one seat and GNA should lose one.Coslett agreed with all the facts, and at one point told Vough that, if the articles of agreement &#8220;were read in a vacuum, this would be a slam dunk&#8221; for Crestwood.But Coslett argued Crestwood had taken too long to go to court, contending any such claim needed to be done shortly after the 2010 Census data was released in 2011. He noted the 2020 Census is now closer in time than the 2010 Census, and that no one knows what the populations of the districts are.Coslett cited the legal doctrine known as laches, in which court action is delayed so long the defendant is harmed &#8212; a workplace harassment suit years after parities involved have left the employer or witnesses died, for example.Lalley countered that no harm would come to GNA because the district would not be forced to remove a sitting JOC member &#8212; the terms of both JOC representatives expire this month.Vough promised to rule on the case before the JOC holds its annual reorganization meeting, set for Dec. 21. He did not specify, but Lalley said an order issued late last month by Vough barring GNA from appointing a second member to the JOC should still stand until the issue is resolved.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Mark Guydishmguydish@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</shirttailMeta></div>

Judge hears arguments in Crestwood case against Career Center