PENNSYLVANIA
Times-Tribune
BY ROBERT L. BAKER (STAFF WRITER) Published: May 25, 2013
The police’s discovery of a local priest and a Tunkhannock woman naked in the back seat of a Jeep at the Wyalusing Borough Park led to criminal charges this week.
More details emerged Friday about the incident on May 17 involving the Rev. Daniel Joseph Doherty, 49, who has been working as an assistant pastor in Tunkhannock and Lake Winola. On Thursday, the Diocese of Scranton announced that the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, bishop of Scranton, removed the Rev. Doherty’s ability to exercise ministry pending the results of the investigation.
The Rev. Doherty and Joanne Mirabelli, 47, both of Tunkhannock, are each facing a misdemeanor count of open lewdness, and summary counts of being under the influence of an intoxicating beverage, participating in an obscene or indecent act and being in the park after it was closed.
Laceyville Patrolmen Matthew Chamberlain and Patrick Butkiewicz said they saw a 2011 Jeep Liberty and a 2011 Subaru parked in the Wyalusing Borough Park about 10 p.m.
They approached the vehicles to perform a welfare check, and as they drove up closer to the Jeep, Officer Chamberlain said he observed an unclothed female’s back with her hair covering her face. Officer Butkiewicz activated the spotlight on the patrol car, and according to the complaint, “a male’s head appeared from below the level of the window.”
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