W-b Man Pleads Guilty To Assaulting Women

2 Suspected Of Robbery, Assault Face Trial

By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER; Times Leader Staff Writer
 Friday, February 20, 1998 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1A 





WILKES-BARRE- A Freeland man accused of cornering Register of Wills Dottie
Stankovic in her courthouse office and forcibly kissing and embracing her has
been cited with harassment. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Joseph J. Smith, 66, of Centre Street, was charged with accosting Stankovic
on Feb. 11 and repeatedly kissing and hugging her, according to a citation
filed with District Justice Martin Kane in Wilkes-Barre. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mary Hunter, an employee in the Luzerne County Registers of Wills office,
said Thursday that Smith entered the office and made vulgar comments about
Hunter just prior to confronting Stankovic. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Before he went to Dottie's office, he was standing in the front and made
very, very dirty comments to me about my body," Hunter said. "He kept
insisting on picking me up at my house and taking me out." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hunter said Smith was standing on the other side of the front counter. She
said she attempted to leave the second-floor office, and Smith approached her
and brushed his face up against hers. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "He put his face against mine and said `give me a kiss.' Then he turned and
said `how about the other side?' " Hunter said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hunter said she was unsettled by the incident, but did not report it to
security. She said Smith left the office, then returned about 15 minutes later
and entered Stankovic's office, which is located in a hallway off the front
office. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hunter said she did not see the alleged incident with Stankovic. She said
another employee came out into the front office and said Smith had Stankovic
"cornered" and that she had called security. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Stankovic said Thursday she was not injured, but declined to discuss the
incident further. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "The proper authorities were notified and it was all taken care of,"
Stankovic said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 County Detective Stanley Jezewski investigated the incident and filed a
summary harassment citation. Smith has not entered a plea to the citation,
according to a clerk in Kane's office. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The incident comes three months after the U.S. marshall's office sent a
security expert to the courthouse to examine measures to increase safety. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 U.S. Marshall Walter Sokolowski of the Scranton district office said he did
not know if the expert, Norman Hilton of the marshals office in Georgia, had
completed his report. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Smith is being held in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility on an
outstanding warrant issued Feb. 3 after he failed to appear for a court
arraignment on unrelated theft charges, according to the prison's records
department. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In that case, Smith is awaiting trial on charges he stole a bundle of
newspapers from outside a Hazleton drug store. He is also awaiting trial on
charges he stole tomatoes and flowers from his neighbor's yard, according to
court records. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hunter said Smith is known to frequent several offices at

W-b Man Given Citation In Harassment Of Stankovic Joseph J. Smith, 66, Of Freeland Faces Trial On Unrelated Theft Charges