A version of this conversation aired during Morning Edition on WVIA Radio.
The trial of four Lackawanna County men involved with a decades-old art and memorabilia theft ring ended in a split verdict last week.
Nicholas Dombek of Thornhurst Twp., Damien Boland of Moscow and Joseph Atsus of Roaring Brook Twp. were all found guilty on their charges while Joseph's brother Alfred Atsus was found not guilty.
Prosecutors alleged the four had roles in thefts or attempted thefts at 20 museums across two decades in six states and Washington, D.C.
The Northeast Pennsylvania targets included the Everhart Museum and Lackawanna Historical Society in Scranton; the Country Club of Scranton in South Abington; Hawley Antique Exchange in Hawley; and Cade’s Coins in Exeter.
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SARAH: WVIA’s Borys Krawczeniuk has been covering the trial and is here to talk now that he’s finally released from the courthouse. Borys, good morning.
BORYS: The first two weeks were great when they were testifying. Then the last three days were just all waiting around for a jury verdict. But I'm back, and I survived.
SARAH: We're glad that you did survive. So, let's talk about this theft ring. How did we even get to the point of being able to have this trial?
BORYS: They finally caught up to one of the to the chief prosecution witnesses in March of 2019 — Tom Trotta, who was the key prosecution witness. He got pulled over for drunken driving, and they managed to give him a cup of water. And from the cup of water they got his DNA. He had bled, gotten cut at a couple of the crime scenes, and so they matched his DNA to the crime scenes in a national database. That's how things got started. That's when he realized and it was over, and he started testifying about all the jobs that they did. And there were a lot more than just the 20. These were just the ones that ... met the federal law. There were ... a lot more smaller burglaries that did not involve what they call objects of cultural heritage. That's kind of what this trial was about.
SARAH: So this ringleader, Thomas Trotta, gives up these names of these four men from Lackawanna County, and they were the ones that were on trial the past couple of weeks. So were there any surprises in the courtroom for you?
BORYS: Well, one was that they were all childhood friends. They'd been friends since Trotta moved to the North Pocono region of Lackawanna County, which is kind of the southern end of Lackawanna County. They had kind of become, to coin a phrase, thick as thieves over the years, and ... he basically said he was a thief all his life. The case came down to how much the jury believed him. And so the prosecution did its best to bring in evidence, other evidence that would kind of prove what Trotta was saying. And they ended up convicting Nicholas Dombek on ... all but three of the charges. I think all 11 against Damien Boland stuck, four of the six against Joseph Atstus and none of the five against Alfred Atstus, who, truth be told, wasn't mentioned much during the trial. Trotta tried to pin it on Alfred Atstus, but he was more or less kind of support.
SARAH: Now, in what ways were — some of the men whose charges did stick — in what ways were they involved in this ring?
BORYS: So Nick Dombek, in many cases, when they stole trophies and things ... like Yogi Berra's World Series rings, Nick Dombek would melt ... pull the gemstones from them and then melt them down into discs or blocks of gold or silver. Then the Trotta, Dombek and/or Boland would drive to New York City and sell the stuff. None of those guys testified during the trial. Neither the other suspects, nor the guys that bought the goods. Trotta did almost all of the thefts by himself. I think Boland helped out once or twice, and Trotta confessed all this on the stand. Then it was a matter of how much they could pin the rest on the other four, and they did. They got three of the four, not the other guy.
SARAH: So other than the other guy, as you say, are there any other loose ends in this case, either related to the people involved or the artworks involved?
BORYS: They still haven't been sentenced, and we'll find out about that. The paintings have not been recovered ... the two paintings stolen from the Everhart Museum in Scranton, "La Grande Passion" (Andy Warhol) and the purported Jackson Pollock, whose authenticity is in question. It's called "Springs Winter" or "Winter in Springs." The name's been disputed anyway. They have not been found. Two paintings stolen from a New Jersey Museum — one was destroyed entirely, a Jasper Cropsey, and then one of his other paintings was partially destroyed, and they were able to reconstruct that. That was kind of a surprise. I didn't know about that particular painting. And then there's the stolen Christy Mathewson jersey. Christy Mathewson was a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher for the New York Giants at the beginning of the 20th century, and they were on display at Keystone College. They were stolen along with two of his player contracts, and nobody knows where they are yet either. There was an interesting tease at the end ... after the verdicts were read, where the prosecution revealed that they had received another video from Dawn Trotta, Tom Trotta's sister, that had a lot more detail about the Pollock painting. And they're hoping to authenticate the Pollock painting right now for sentencing purposes. If they can prove that the value of the Pollock painting was much higher... if they proved that it was real, the value of the painting becomes much higher, because it'll become a very rare Pollock painting. Then they'll be able to up the sentences ... when the judge sentences them.
SARAH: The trial may be over, but this story certainly isn't. Borys, thank you very much.
BORYS: Thank you.
Join Borys and members of the WVIA News Team at the Everhart Museum in Scranton for the WVIA News Listening Tour on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m.
