100 WVIA Way
Pittston, PA 18640

Phone: 570-826-6144
Fax: 570-655-1180

Copyright © 2025 WVIA, all rights reserved. WVIA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Trooper testifies key federal witness in theft ring trial was untrustworthy

William J. Nealon Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Scranton.
Aimee Dilger
/
WVIA News
William J. Nealon Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Scranton.

Law enforcement authorities stopped using a key witness in a federal art and memorabilia theft ring trial as a confidential informant because he kept committing burglaries, testimony showed this week.

In response to a federal prosecutor’s question in the trial of four ring suspects in Scranton, state Trooper Kyle Hnat testified Friday he distrusted Thomas Trotta even while Trotta worked as an informant. He took steps to corroborate Trotta’s claims, he said.

“I don’t trust Tommy Trotta at all,” Hnat said during cross-examination by defense attorney Jason Mattioli.

Mattioli represents accused ring member Alfred Atsus, 48, of Covington Twp. Atsus, his brother Joseph Atsus, 50, of Roaring Brook Twp., Nicholas Dombek, 54, of Thornhurst Twp., and Damien Boland, 48, of Moscow, are on trial.

They are charged with either theft of major artwork, conspiracy to commit theft of major artwork, concealment or disposal of major artwork or interstate transportation of stolen property.

They stand accused of various roles in a ring that prosecutors allege targeted 19 museums and businesses in six states and Washington, D.C., over two decades ending in 2019.

The targets and goods stolen include the Everhart Museum in Scranton, which lost paintings by Andy Warhol and purportedly Jackson Pollock; Keystone College in LaPlume Twp., which was ripped off of a jersey and two player contracts that belonged to Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Christy Mathewson; the Country Club of Scranton, which no longer has trophies awarded to Honesdale professional golfer Art Wall Jr.; and the Lackawanna Historical Society, where a thief stole a rare Tiffany lamp.

 “Le Grande Passion” by Andy Warhol, top; and “Springs Winter” by Jackson Pollock, were stolen from the Everhart Museum in Scranton in 2005.
United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
“Le Grande Passion” by Andy Warhol, top; and “Springs Winter” by Jackson Pollock, were stolen from the Everhart Museum in 2005.

In each case, prosecutors say, Trotta was the thief. He has already served time in prison on state charges and has agreed to testify against the others in hopes of a lesser federal sentence.

Defense lawyers consider Trotta the prosecution’s most crucial witness because he directly ties their clients to thefts. Much of the evidence and testimony presented so far does not directly implicate their clients and only explains the thefts and Trotta’s involvement.

Four other ring members, including Trotta’s sister, Dawn Trotta, have already pleaded guilty and are also expected to testify. One accused member, Daryl Rinker, died last April.

Defense lawyers seek to portray Trotta as a liar, but his arrest for drunken driving on March 4, 2019, broke the case wide open.

The trooper who arrested him found Trotta driving a 2009 Pontiac G6. About a week before his arrest, police investigating a theft involving a ring member who pleaded guilty, Frank Tassiello, learned his girlfriend had, months earlier, loaned her car to Trotta, who refused to return it.

Trotta was driving that car when arrested.

Knowing Hnat was investigating burglaries, the arresting trooper called him to tell him he had found Trotta and the car, Hnat said.

Hnat, knowing police had found blood at some of the burglarized museums, testified he had the drunken driving investigator offer Trotta a bottle of water.

That left Trotta’s DNA on the bottle. Lab tests matched the DNA to the blood, Hnat said.

Four days after Trotta’s DUI arrest, Hnat interviewed him for the first time and confronted him with evidence.

As 99% of suspects do initially, Trotta lied about involvement in any burglaries, Hnat said.

For example, he denied he was the man in a security camera photo taken at one museum, even though he wore the same cap during the interview that he wore in the museum photo, Hnat said.

He became more forthcoming after the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s office reached four proffer agreements with Trotta and his lawyer, attorney Joseph D’Andrea.

In a proffer agreement, commonly referred to as a "Queen for a Day" letter, a defendant is allowed to provide information about a crime, but a prosecutor is limited in using the information against the defendant. Sometimes, a defendant can secure a lesser sentence this way.

Even after Trotta began telling what happened, investigators didn’t simply believe him, the trooper testified.

“It’s on us to try to corroborate information and try to build enough probable cause to arrest somebody,” Hnat said.

Later, investigators, seeking to corroborate Trotta’s claims, convinced him to act as a confidential informant. Hnat testified Trotta agreed to wear a device to record conversations with ring members while they discussed past crimes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Camoni introduced May and June 2019 recordings as evidence, but did not play them, except for two, played long enough so jurors could hear troopers confirming they arranged recordings. Hnat testified investigators received court permission to have Trotta record conversations with Dombek, Boland and Rinker.

“He was looking to make a deal,” Hnat said of Trotta.

Presumably, jurors will hear the recordings when Trotta testifies.

One purpose of the proffers was to recover stolen goods.

On May 9, 2019, Trotta informed Hnat he rented a “box truck” to drive to a location to recover the goods stolen from Keystone and the Everhart, the trooper testified.

Trotta declined to say where, which Hnat said made him suspect Trotta was “protecting someone.”

Not trusting his informant, Hnat said, he and other troopers followed the truck to a Union, New Jersey, home the Atsus brothers owned.

Trotta called Hnat from the road. The trooper told Trotta he was in court, he testified.

No testimony explained why Trotta needed a truck to transport two paintings, a jersey and player contracts.

Instead of recovering the goods, Trotta burglarized the home and tried to steal a safe inside, a defense lawyer said in his opening statement last week.

That did not come up during Hnat’s testimony. The paintings and Mathewson memorabilia remain missing.

On cross-examination, Hnat acknowledged trying to scare Trotta into telling the truth early on and acting cordial with him other times. Both are interviewing techniques meant to gain information, he said.

“He’s got a little bit of charisma, does he not?” asked attorney Gino Bartolai, Dombek’s lawyer.

“Yes, I would agree,” Hnat responded.

The trooper also acknowledged police have never searched the homes of Trotta; his sister, Dawn Trotta; their parents, where Thomas Trotta occasionally stayed; or their grandmother or a Trotta storage unit.

Hnat was not asked to explain why no searches took place, and said he was unaware of a Trotta storage unit.

Friday marked the trial’s eighth day. The trial is scheduled to resume Monday at 9:30 a.m.

During jury selection, U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion said the trial could last up to six weeks, but he told jurors it moved along faster than expected.

The trial could wrap up at the end of next week or early the following week, Mannion said.

Borys joins WVIA News from The Scranton Times-Tribune, where he served as an investigative reporter and covered a wide range of political stories. His work has been recognized with numerous national and state journalism awards from the Inland Press Association, Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors, Society of Professional Journalists and Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association.

You can email Borys at boryskrawczeniuk@wvia.org
Related Stories