Public Corruption Prosecutions

This web page is a means for the public to be informed of the status of pending and recent cases of great and/or continuing public interest involving or related to public corruption. The web page information will be updated periodically.

For publicly available information on other cases prosecuted as part of the U.S. Attorney's Office's continuing focus on public corruption as a high priority, please check our website or contact our media representative at 717-221-4482.  In coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, the office is continuing to investigate and prosecute alleged federal, state, and local corruption and government program fraud throughout the district.

If you believe that you have information relating to criminal wrongdoing relating to federal, state, and/or local political corruption in the Middle District of Pennsylvania please contact the the U.S. Attorney's Office via email usapam.contact@usdoj.gov or phone at 717-221-4482 or the nearest FBI office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania:

FBI Harrisburg

FBI Scranton

FBI Williamsport

FBI State College

FBI Allentown (Schuylkill County)

RECENT PROSECUTIONS

Kyle Schauer, David Donkochick, Jonathan McHugh

Three former Mt. Carmel Borough police officers were sentenced on October 30, 2025, to conspiracy to deprive rights under the color of law. The former officers were charged for their involvement in a conspiracy to violate the civil rights of those they arrested over a three-year period. It was alleged that in 22 different arrests, they kicked, punched, choked, and used excessive force against those they were arresting and caused bodily injuries to their victims. The former officers took steps to ensure that video of the arrests were not captured by police cameras or if it was, took steps to ensure that footage was not preserved. They falsely reported that arrestees acted in a manner requiring violence and then charged arrestees with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and related offenses to conceal their own use of violence. Schauer was sentenced to four years in prison. Jonathan McHugh was sentenced to six years in prison and David Donkochik was sentenced to seven years in prison. 

Harry Brown and Richard Clink

Two former Minersville Police Officers were indicted for depriving the civil rights of another under the color of law and for making false  reports, on October 8, 2024.  The indictment alleged that on or about February 2, 2022, while acting under the color of law, Brown and Clink, aiding and abetting each other, deprived an arrestee of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer.  This alleged use of unreasonable force led to bodily injury of the arrestee. The indictment further alleged that both Brown and Clink falsified, covered up, and made false entries into police reports documenting the arrest and their use of force during that arrest. Defendants are awaiting trial.

Paul Helring

A 47-year-old former Scranton police officer and former elected police union president was sentenced on June 4, 2024, to six months in prison and ordered to pay $17,831.40 in restitution for theft concerning programs receiving federal funds. Helring, while serving as the coordinator of Scranton Police Department’s extra duty overtime program, knowingly obtained by fraud over $5,000.00 in compensation paid to him for extra duty patrol shifts at several local, lower-income housing complexes that Helring claimed to work but did not in fact work.

Thomas Hartley

A former Special Agent with the Department of Labor was sentenced on August 23, 2023, to 33 months in prison for obtaining a total of $197,366 through multiple fraud schemes. Hartley collected Pennsylvania unemployment compensation benefits by claiming that he was unemployed, when Hartley was employed on full time active duty with the New Jersey National Guard. In applying for unemployment benefits, he failed to disclose that he was on military leave from his full-time federal civilian employment with the U.S. Department of Labor. Hartley utilized the mail to collect approximately $60,284 in unemployment compensation funds to which he was not entitled. Hartley also fraudulently obtained $23,582 in Basic Allowance for Housing funds paid by the Department of the Army, $50,000 in “lost wage” benefits paid by USAA insurance, and $63,500 from his Thrift Savings Plan.