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Woman accused of ordering hit on stepfather pleads not guilty

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A lawsuit has been formally filed against former city police officer Robert Collins, who prosecutors say abused his power by forcing women to have sex with him on numerous situations.</p><p>Among its accusations, it alleges the city was first made aware of Collins&#8217; conduct as early as 2009.</p><p>The suit was filed Thursday, only a day before Collins&#8217; next court appearance on the criminal charges against him, set for today.</p><p>It was filed on behalf of three anonymous plaintiffs, who filed under the pseudonyms of H. Doe, D. Doe and L. Doe through their attorneys Barry H. Dyller, Shelley L. Centini, Theron J. Solomon and Matthew L. Clemente, all from Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s Dyller Law Firm.</p><p>Collins, 53, was the city&#8217;s community policing officer up until January, in which he was charged with multiple counts of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, witness intimidation, official oppression and other related counts. He&#8217;s pleaded not guilty to the charges that were filed through the Attorney General&#8217;s office that suggest he assaulted at least four separate women while on the job.</p><p>The city of Wilkes-Barre also is named as a defendant in the suit, with attorney Dyller suggesting the city was aware of complaints against Collins years before the charges actually came.</p><p>The suit outlines a series of graphic accounts for each of the three alleged victims the Dyller Law Firm represents. A fourth alleged victim was originally represented by the law firm, but has since obtained counsel from another firm.</p><p><strong>Accusers&#8217; accounts</strong></p><p>In H. Doe&#8217;s account, she was walking near Carey Avenue in Wilkes-Barre sometime in 2016, when she encountered Collins, who had previously pulled her over on May 21, 2016, for driving without a license.</p><p>H. Doe asked Collins not to file charges, and the suit says Collins told her he would not file charges if &#8220;she performed oral sex on Collins.&#8221;</p><p>Collins allegedly drove her to a secluded area and forced himself on her, throwing her to the ground roughly and proceeding to &#8220;orally rape&#8221; her. A short time afterward, he allegedly forced her to expose her breasts to him.</p><p>The charges against H. Doe were ultimately not withdrawn.</p><p>D. Doe&#8217;s account is similar, as she says Collins drove her to a secluded location after he told her she had an active arrest warrant.</p><p>Again, Collins allegedly directed the woman to perform oral sex on him, which the suit says was not consensual, and only happened as a result of oppression and coercion.</p><p>L. Doe says she was caught shoplifting in Rite Aid in Wilkes-Barre in May 2014, and gave officers a fake name as she had an active warrant.</p><p>Collins allegedly vouched for her false name, and she was released from the station. However, Collins allegedly proceeded to follow L. Doe from the station, and picked her up in an unmarked car. Once again, he allegedly took the woman to a secluded location, and then proceeded to reach his hand inside of her shorts and digitally penetrate her.</p><p>The suit says he attempted to force her to perform oral sex on him, but when she refused, he masturbated in front of her, asking if she wanted him to pay her. She refused payment, and he allegedly told her not to tell anyone as he &#8220;knows (her) family.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Suit: City knew of conduct</strong></p><p>What&#8217;s more, the suit suggests the city &#8220;knew of and tolerated Collins&#8217; misconduct.&#8221;</p><p>According to the suit, in June 2011, the chief was warned of &#8220;multiple complaints&#8221; about Collins, but allegedly said extra scrutiny of him was not necessary.</p><p>While he is not named in the suit or as a defendant, Gerald Dessoye was chief at that time.</p><p>The suit also says the city was further made aware of complaints of Collins&#8217; alleged misconduct after an unrelated investigation in August 2014 into bank fraud charges against two police officers caused a &#8220;collateral investigation&#8221; of Collins&#8217; misconduct.</p><p>Once again, though, the suit says nothing was done by the city about Collins, and instead he was promoted to the position of community policing officer in October 2016.</p><p>The suit suggests a confidential informant told the city in 2009 Collins had forced her to touch him. She was apparently told she was not the only one to had made such complaints about him. The suit lists several other women who allegedly made similar complaints about Collins.</p><p>The suit is seeking unspecified damages for the three women, who claim had their Constitutional rights were stripped of them at the hands of Collins and the city which allegedly allowed it to happen.</p><p><strong>&#8216;No one stopped it&#8217;</strong></p><p>Dyller told a Times Leader reporter that the suit is an important one, as it seeks to hold the city accountable.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s some bad people out there, and they do some bad things. And I almost expect that,&#8221; he said &#8220;But what&#8217;s really bad is that no one stopped it.&#8221;</p><p>Attempts to reach the city for comment were unsuccessful Thursday afternoon.</p><p>The suit against Collins follows a pattern set forth by a similar suit at the federal level against former Ashley cop Mark Icker, who&#8217;s facing a slew of similar charges that he sexually assaulted women on the job both here in Luzerne County and while on the job as an officer in Lackawanna County.</p><p>The Dyller Law Firm is also representing the alleged victims in that suit, although it&#8217;s currently been ordered by a federal judge to not proceed any further until the completion of the criminal case against Icker.</p><p>Collins is currently set to appear in Luzerne County Court this morning for the criminal charges against him.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre Officer Robert Collins is seen at an active shooter seminar in the city last year. A lawsuit has been formally filed against the former city officer, who prosecutors say abused his power by forcing women to have sex with him. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL040418CrimeWatch2.cmyk_-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre Officer Robert Collins is seen at an active shooter seminar in the city last year. A lawsuit has been formally filed against the former city officer, who prosecutors say abused his power by forcing women to have sex with him. </caption0><photoCredit0>Times Leader file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Ex-cop Collins, city named as defendants</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Patrick Kernan</p><p>pkernan@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Suit against Collins, WB says city knew of abuse allegations