Stanley P. Brozana Jr., 72 – Served 37 Years as Orwigsburg Police Chief
A Florida man is wanted by police in Schuylkill County after allegedly breaking into a wastewater treatment facility here.
According to court documents, police were called to the wastewater treatment plant owned by the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority in Tremont Township just before noon on March 16. There, police say they met with two SCMA employees who said they arrived a short time earlier and noticed that the lock and chain used to secure the facility had been cut and removed.
Power to the building, along with clarifiers and aeration fields, had been disabled, police say. Every breaker switch in the power box was turned to the off position. Also, an exterior hose bib had been turned on and water was running from a spigot.
Further investigation revealed that three five-gallon buckets containing polymer were thrown into holding tanks. This polymer is used to prevent wastewater components from solidifying and creating blockages. Tampering with the flow level of the chlorine gas feed applicator was also noted; however, calibration wasn’t completed, so no disruption at the facility occurred, police say.
Still, these activities caused more than $2,000 in damage at the wastewater treatment facility, SCMA employees told police.
Police say SCMA provided them with surveillance video which purportedly shows a Chevrolet Silverado pickup with oversized tires and tinted windows arriving at the facility that same morning at 7:18 a.m. A white man with facial hair wearing blue jeans, light brown-colored work boots, a blue flannel jacket with light-colored patches, and a dark-colored baseball hat gets out of the pickup. He then uses a tool to cut the chain and lock securing the wastewater treatment facility and walks inside. Video reportedly shows the man tampering with equipment at the facility. Minutes before 8 a.m. that morning, the man leaves.
An automatic license plate reader reportedly identified the pickup, with its Florida registration, as belonging to Patrick Monaghan, 32, of Stuart, Florida. Based on the photo on Monaghan’s Florida driver’s license, police say it was he who was seen in the surveillance video from the SCMA treatment facility.
Police later learned that on March 18, two days after the incident in Schuylkill County, Monaghan had been arrested by the Baltimore County Police Dept. on indecent exposure and possession with intent to deliver charges. Police arrested Monaghan after receiving a report of a disturbance along a roadway in Baltimore County. He was arrested, arraigned, and sent to a local jail.
During his arrest in Maryland, police say Monaghan was wearing the same clothes he had on two days earlier in Schuylkill County. State Police from Schuylkill County then conducted a search of Monaghan’s vehicle in Maryland and found items identifying him as the person involved in the incident here.
Police say Monaghan’s criminal history record shows he’s got identifications from South Carolina and Maryland, as well as driver’s licenses from Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina. They also say Monaghan has a history of traveling across the eastern U.S. and a history of property crimes.
Magisterial District Judge David Rossi has signed an arrest warrant for Monaghan. He’s being charged with multiple felonies, including burglary, criminal trespass, and criminal mischief, as well as a misdemeanor offense for institutional vandalism.
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