The Solicitor for the Schuylkill County Register of Wills Office says his client – the elected official Theresa Gaffney – has been subjected to “psychological terror” inflicted by one person in particular.
On Wednesday, Joe Nahas, who serves as the lawyer for the Register of Wills Office at Schuylkill County Courthouse, singled out former Commissioners candidate Jeffrey Dunkel for his alleged continual “lambasting, degrading, harassing, haranguing” of Gaffney and other public officials.
He asked Commissioners to “protect” Gaffney from Dunkel’s persistent attacks, saying he is “stalking” her.
In comments to The Canary, Dunkel refuted those claims.
Dunkel’s Criticisms Critiqued; Nahas Asks Commissioners for Protection
Nahas used the Public Comment portion of Wednesday’s Schuylkill County Commissioners board meeting to make his accusations.
“What I’m seeing here out of Mr. Dunkel on a weekly, monthly, daily basis is a systematic approach of attack that’s completely baseless,” Nahas said. “I’m asking you to protect an elected official. I’m asking you to look at whether or not the conduct that one individual has continuously conducted himself in has breached the line between concerned public person who’s looking out for the best interest of unity or now it’s something more, whether now it has become an obsession.”
At nearly every Schuylkill County Commissioners meeting, Dunkel starts every one of his Public Comment monologues with questions regarding any updates on Gaffney, and her previous public response to her supposed lack of time at work as being “FMLA”, and Lisa Stevens, the previously embattled director of Schuylkill County Children & Youth Services, who was suspended from her job for allegedly working overtime but having employees submit her hours as theirs and having them pay her in cash.
Nahas admitted that public officials are subject to public scrutiny but said Dunkel’s approach is “beyond the pale.”
“You can not be subject to continuous amounts of haranguing, harassment, to the point of psychological terror,” Nahas added. “Ms. Gaffney would have liked to come up and spoke [sic] to you herself but she is too upset to do so. She is literally physically spent from Mr. Dunkel.”
Nahas further accused Dunkel of “stalking” Gaffney. He said Dunkel is “actually looking to see where vehicles are, is trying to gain security access to when she comes in the Courthouse, and has on a monthly, weekly, daily basis, and with no evidence to back any of his bald accusations, harangued her to the point where she’s become physically ill, terrified of this individual.”
“There’s a fine line between criticism and harassment. There’s a fine line between criticism and stalking,” Nahas said.
In the last few months during his comments, Dunkel has noted how many vehicles of row officers are parked in their reserved spots on the days of Commissioners meetings and he routinely claims that Gaffney is never at the Courthouse for work.
In comments shared with The Canary, Dunkel said, “I would request to know a rough estimate of how many hours she has been in the building from January 2024 until the time she claimed to be terrified.”
Dunkel also refuted Nahas’ claim that Gaffney is “terrified” of him. In doing so, he recounted a run-in he allegedly had with the Register of Wills at the Courthouse recently.
He said, “Ms. Gaffney claims she is terrified of me but several weeks ago, when she was at the Courthouse to facilitate a tour during the Commissioners meeting, she asked me to speak with her in the hallway leading to the Commissioners meeting room to have a conversation with just the two of us.
“I accepted and she asked me to meet with her that week to discuss my concerns,” Dunkel added. “With not knowing her availability or time that she is actually in the Courthouse I respectfully declined.
“At that time in the middle of that interaction, another row officer and a County Solicitor passed through the conversation and nothing was said to either about her being in fear or terrified,” he said. “When I refused to meet with her or discuss it, she stormed away and requested the assistance of Sheriff (Joe) Groody, who came to the meeting room, had a very brief discussion with me and retreated from the meeting room. If there was a threat or someone was terrified I am fairly certain Theresa would not have returned nor would Sheriff Groody leave the meeting room.”
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