SCRANTON — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.
SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Louis Elmy, age 53, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on March 23, 2017, by United States District Judge Malachy E. Mannion, to 72 months imprisonment on firearms and extortion charges.
According to United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, Elmy pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and extortion in July 2016. Elmy is a former employee of the Luzerne County Correctional Facility, and a former President of the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board.
Between November 2013 and February 2016, Elmy, while acting in his official capacity as the work release counselor at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility, extorted money and other items of value from work release inmates in exchange for affording them special privileges and unauthorized furloughs. In order to have documentation that appeared to be legitimate, Elmy created court orders and then physically cut and pasted a Luzerne County Judge’s signature from an older order onto the fraudulent order, and then photocopied the document in order to have a finished product for the file.
The drug trafficking crime involves the possession of and intent to distribute crack cocaine while in possession of a Hi-Point .380 caliber handgun.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Mannion also ordered that Elmy be supervised by a probation officer for two years following his release from prison.
The case was investigated by the Scranton Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Olshefski prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of the Violent Crime Reduction Partnership (“VCRP”), a district wide initiative to combat the spread of violent crime in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Led by the United States Attorney’s Office, the VCRP consists of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies whose mission is to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who commit violent crimes with firearms.
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