Stolen jewelry, a buried safe: Federal court trial is replay of bitter divorce 15 years ago - PennLive.com
Stolen jewelry, a buried safe: Federal court trial is replay of bitter divorce 15 years ago - PennLive.com
WILLIAMSPORT — A couple’s bitter divorce 15 years ago is being replayed in federal court this week in federal court as a trial began in a 2006 lawsuit in which the wife accuses her ex-husband of stealing $4 million in cash and jewelry.
Robert Yoncuski contends that he only took what was his. He said the jewelry has been returned to his ex-wife, Donna Deitrick, and he contends that she greatly inflated its value.
The case has taken many twists and turns since it was filed 13 years ago, with parts of it litgated in six different federal and state courts
What is expected to be a two-week jury trial that began Monday before Magistrate Judge William I. Arbuckle III is focusing on events that occurred the weekend of Aug. 13-16, 2004.
At the time, Deitrick had a protection from abuse order against her then-estranged husband that gave her exclusive occupancy of their home outside Shamokin.
Her attorney, Timothy Bowers, told jurors he’ll show that Yoncuski formulated a plan, as their 30-year marriage deteriorated, to have Deitrick get the jewelry from her mother and bring it into their home. The jewelry had been purchased by Deitrick’s mother and father using profits from his business to create an inheritance for their daughter.
Deitrick says the safe containing the valuables was stolen from the house during a two-hour period when she was prevented from driving home by two Shamokin police officers because, she said, Yoncoski had removed her from the insurance coverage.
Jeffrey Adams testified Yoncuski, his brother-in-law, broke into the house the night of Aug. 13, 2004, and the two of them removed the five-foot tall safe. They buried it on his farm in the Dornsife area the next day, he said.
Adams said he didn’t know what was in the safe and didn’t know Yoncuski was banned from the house.
Yoncuski spent six months in the Northumberland County Prison for contempt of court until he revealed the safe’s location.
According to court documents, Deitrick got back 2,000 to 3,000 pieces of jewelry in February 2005 but she said much of it was damaged. Bowers said expensive pieces still are missing.
Deitrick also says that none of the $537,000 in cash and $34,000 in rare coins that were in the safe was returned.
Yoncuski’s lawyer, Joseph F. Orso III, admitted his client took the safe, but said he took only the $50,000 that was his and put the jewelry in bags.
He accused Deitrick of inflating the value of the jewelry, saying the defense has evidence she sold a diamond ring for $300 at a flea market that she claimed was worth $1.9 million.
Yoncuski was charged criminally, pleaded no contest to a criminal trespass charge and in 2010 he was placed on seven years’ probation and ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution.
The civil case also involves an allegation Yoncuski and Vanessa Long, now his wife, assaulted Deitrick Aug. 16, 2004, in the lobby of the Shamokin police station.
She claims she required physical therapy and rotator cuff repair as a result.
The two women were charged with disorderly conduct and police said they had to forcibly take Deitrick to an interview room.
Other defendants are Adams’ wife Marianne, Yoncuski’s brother Thomas and Linda Long who are accused of being involved in the safe incident.
The Shamokin police department and four of its officers were among the original 16 defendants.
Only two officers, both of whom have retired, remain as defendants and claims against them will be subject to another proceeding.
