A former Scranton police detective accused of claiming pay for patrolling city housing complexes when he didn’t will face further action in Lackawanna County Court.
David J. Mitchell, 47, of Scranton, waived a preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday on a theft by deception charge.
Mitchell, who joined the force in 1999 and was promoted to detective sergeant in May 2019, is one of three city police officers accused of submitting paperwork to falsely claim pay for patrolling Scranton Housing Authority complexes.
Between January and May 2022, Mitchell asserted he worked seven overtime shifts patrolling either Valley View Terrace or Hilltop Manor but never actually left home, according to an arrest affidavit.
“Mitchell submitted false patrol logs for six of these shifts indicating he was physically patrolling the area when he was not,” state special agent Kevin M. Schofield wrote in the affidavit.
Six of the shifts were from midnight to 4 a.m. On another 13 shifts, he patrolled only part of the time. These shifts were all either midnight to 4 a.m. or in the evening after 6.
Mitchell talks to FBI
In a May 2022 interview with the FBI, Mitchell admitted he didn’t always actively patrol the complexes, according to the affidavit.
“Instead, Mitchell told investigators that he stayed home and waited for a call to come over the radio at which point he claims he would respond to the incident,” Schofield wrote. “Mitchell claimed that he was never told he had to report to the housing complexes in person and actively patrol, notwithstanding this was the intent of the grant paid duty.”
Past police chiefs and police shift supervisors told Schofield all extra-duty assignments such as patrolling complexes “require the officer to be present in uniform and not merely available by phone or radio.”
Another, unnamed officer referred to as Detective 1 told Schofield, “It was obvious and known to the officers ... they had to be present” on patrol.
“Detective 1 stated that he has known Mitchell for essentially his entire career at SPD (Scranton Police Department) and believes Mitchell absolutely knew he had to be present and patrolling the complexes,” Schofield wrote.
Mitchell acknowledged patrolling with Detective 1, a sign he knew physical patrolling was required, Schofield wrote. On logs for the days he didn’t patrol, Mitchell wrote that he “patrolled complex” and “maintained traffic,” another sign he knew he had to patrol in person.
No longer a city cop
In a November email, city spokesman Christopher Hughes said Mitchell no longer works for the city.
“David Mitchell applied for, and was granted, a length of service pension, which is deferred until such time as he reaches the required age ... 55 years old,” he said. “To that end, he is no longer an active employee of the city.”
The other two officers charged were former police Sgt. Jeffrey Vaughn, who supervised the city’s street crimes unit, and former patrolman and police union president Paul Helring, who oversaw the extra-duty housing complex shift scheduled from about 2017 to April 2022. Both were charged in federal court.
Efforts to determine why they were charged in federal court and Mitchell was charged in state court were unsuccessful.
What Vaughn did
Vaughn, an officer since about 2000, was charged in August 2022 with theft from a federally funded program through a criminal information. He pleaded guilty in January 2023. On May 9, 2023, Senior U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani sentenced Vaughn to serve six months in prison and two years of supervised release and pay a $2,000 fine, a $100 assessment and $11,243 in restitution.
The information accused Vaughn of claiming more than $5,000 in pay for shifts when he didn’t patrol between July 31, 2021, and April 22, 2022. The complexes he didn’t patrol were Village Park, Midtown Apartments, Hilltop Manor and Valley View Terrace, according to the information.
What Helring did
Helring, who started as a city officer on March 23, 1999, was charged in November 2023 with theft from a federally funded program through a criminal information. He pleaded guilty in January 2024. On June 4, 2024, Mariani sentenced him to serve six months in prison and two years of supervised release and pay a $5,000 fine, a $100 assessment and $17,831 in restitution.
The information accused Helring of claiming more than $5,000 in pay for shifts he didn’t patrol between July 25, 2021, until about Jan. 14, 2022. Helring stayed home during the shifts or was out of town entirely when he claimed he had patrolled, according to the information. He submitted logs saying he “patrolled complex” and “monitored traffic” when he didn’t.
The complexes he didn’t patrol were Skytop Apartments, Village Park, Midtown Apartments, Hilltop Manor and Valley View Terrace.
Helring also omitted his fake shifts from the police department’s online scheduling and timekeeping system, but provided the city’s pay clerk with his inflated number of hours, according to the information. Sometimes, he signed up for and later claimed he worked shifts on days that had already passed or “slotted himself in for conflicting shifts at up to three different housing units that he could not possibly have simultaneously worked,” according to the information.
A city pension board approved a disability pension for Helring in August 2022, a few months after the thefts were discovered.
After he was sentenced, the pension board revoked his pension in October 2024. Helring appealed to the county court of common pleas.
In October, Judge Terrence R. Nealon sided with the board and upheld the revocation.
