Fired City Police officer files federal lawsuit against county officials.....

**shefearsnothing** · December 3rd, 2008, 12:13 PM

http://www.ldnews.com/ci_11127304

As if Lebanon didn't have enough to deal with already.

(no I don't think the corruption is funny. I am glad they're getting called on their crap though!)

Fired city police officer sues: Documents ID mystery man in Reber murder probe
By JOHN LATIMER
Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News

In filing a federal civil lawsuit that accuses city and county officials of conspiring to get him fired, a former Lebanon police officer has dropped a bombshell — his suit identifies a possible suspect in the unsolved Peggy Reber murder case.
In the suit, Kevin Snavely is claiming that his First Amendment rights were violated and that he was fired unfairly by his superiors who defamed him in retaliation for actions related to his investigation of the notorious, 40-year-old murder. Snavely is requesting a jury trial and is seeking $40,000 in salary and benefits, attorney fees and an unspecified amount of compensation for “pain and suffering, humiliation and embarrassment.”

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. Middle District Court on Monday, one day before Snavely’s hearing before city representatives and an arbitrator who will rule on whether he will get his job back.

Named as defendants are Lebanon County District Attorney David Arnold, former Lebanon Mayor Robert Anspach, city police Chief William Harvey, police Capt. Daniel Wright, city human-resources officer Robert McAllister and county Commissioner William Carpenter.

The 15-page complaint was filed by Harrisburg attorney Don Bailey and explains the circumstances surrounding Snavely’s dismissal on March 24 (although the date is erroneously listed in the complaint as May 24).

The lawsuit also implicates the man Snavely developed as a suspect in the Reber case by naming the man’s son, Richard Boyer Jr. of 34 Band St., West Cornwall Township.
When reached by phone yesterday, Boyer said his father, Richard R. Boyer Sr. of 102 Hill St., Lebanon, is innocent.

“No. I know he didn’t do it,” Boyer Jr. said without elaborating.

Boyer Jr. told the Harrisburg Patriot-News that his father had received a subpoena to appear before a grand jury investigating the Reber case.

Attempts to reach Richard Boyer Sr. were unsuccessful.

A call to Bailey was not returned, and Snavely said he has been advised not to comment on the case.

The lawsuit reveals publicly for the first time that Snavely was fired for taking home a DVD player that had been evidence in an unrelated case but was no longer needed and was supposed to be tossed in the trash. The incident took place in early 2005 and was made known to Snavely’s superiors by his former fiancée several weeks before his firing.

In the complaint, Snavely claims that taking home expired evidence was “a longstanding practice” among many other Lebanon police officers who did it with their superiors’ knowledge but without consequence.

The complaint argues that Snavely’s taking of the DVD player was the excuse needed to fire him after top city and county officials became angry about actions he took associated with the Reber case. It also accuses Carpenter of defaming Snavely by telling two county residents with no involvement in the case that he was fired for stealing.

Reber was 14 years old in 1968 when she was brutally murdered. A suspect was tried but acquitted.

While a member of the city’s detective bureau in 2006, Snavely began his own investigation — with approval from his superiors, but on his own time and at his own expense — and eventually developed Boyer Sr. as a suspect.

Boyer Sr. was also the suspect developed by amateur detective and former Lebanon resident Michelle Gooden, who shared information with Snavely, according to the complaint. Gooden, who is writing a book on the case, also helped lead a public crusade this year to put pressure on Arnold to convene a grand jury — something that was done last month, according to sources involved in the case.

Snavely’s lawsuit claims that his superiors accused him of sharing his investigative reports with Gooden, but he denies it.

The complaint also states that city police officials accused Snavely of supplying Gooden with police and medical reports of an altercation involving Arnold and his then-wife, Lorraine Arndt. An investigation resulted in harassment charges against Arnold by North Lebanon Township police in 1999, a fact that was made public when Arnold ran for district attorney in 2006.

Snavely denies in the complaint that he gave any privileged information to Gooden. However, the complaint states that Gooden used the North Lebanon police report to support her belief that the couple’s fight was over Arndt’s former boyfriend, Boyer Jr.

Snavely’s lawsuit goes on to claim that Gooden used information linking Arnold’s ex-wife with Boyer Jr. as grounds for a complaint she filed in February with the attorney general charging that Arnold has a conflict of interest in the case.

Boyer Jr. acknowledged he had a relationship with Arndt but said it was “years ago.”

Arndt has also acknowledged the relationship with Boyer Jr., but said the dispute with Arnold had nothing to do with that.

The lawsuit argues that Gooden’s action angered Arnold and prompted him to conspire with city officials, who were already upset with Snavely, to fire him.

“These defendants then came together and used their official power and positions to conjure up false charges against the plaintiff (Snavely), which were not based upon fact at all but were used as a pretext by these defendants to deter the plaintiff from the exercise of his First Amendment rights,” the complaint states.

Arnold said there is no truth to the claims made in the lawsuit.

“I won’t comment on any allegations specifically, other than to say that every single one, as it applies to me, is 100 percent false,” he said. “These are just ridiculous statements. I have zero impact, or influence, or anything to do with the city’s employment issues. For Kevin to suggest otherwise is absurd. It seems to me he is blaming everyone else but himself.”

Arnold said the investigation into Reber’s murder is ongoing, and he did not believe the lawsuit would compromise it.

JohnLatimer@LDNews.com