Hearing set for 2 officials in lawsuit

June 30--A court hearing is tentatively scheduled for September on appeals filed by a Monroe County assistant district attorney and detective, both being sued in federal court by five Tobyhanna men cleared of raping two girls.

The portion of the lawsuit against four Pocono Mountain Regional Police detectives was settled last year when the detectives tendered $1 million of their insurance policy to the five men, said the plaintiffs' attorney, Frank Tunis Jr. of Scranton.

William Spiess, Jose Lacen, Jaleel Holden and brothers Kasheen and Gene Thomas II were charged in the 2008 rape of two teenage girls in Coolbaugh Township.

The case was dismissed in 2009, prior to trial, after the girls admitted to falsely testifying under oath at a preliminary hearing.

Spiess, Lacen, Holden and the Thomas brothers in February 2010 sued PMRP detectives Chris Wagner, John Bohrman, Lucas Bray and Richard Luthcke, along with Assistant District Attorney Michael Rakaczewski and District Attorney's Detective Wendy Bentzoni.

The plaintiffs said their rights had been violated and that authorities lacked probable cause to charge them.

U.S. District Judge James Munley issued a March 2013 ruling, finding detectives had not utilized basic police training in their investigation.

Munley found the detectives, prior to filing charges, were aware of inconsistencies in the girls' statements and had time to reconcile those inconsistencies, but did not do so.

Munley also found detectives did not document, as part of their investigation, one girl's prior recent history of reporting unfounded rape allegations.

This indicates Rakaczewski, who as assistant district attorney has final say on whether charges should be filed against defendants, decided in this case to pursue charges that were based on a less-than-thorough investigation, Munley said.

Rakaczewski and Bentzoni appealed Munley's ruling in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. A September argument on their appeals is tentatively scheduled, Tunis said.

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