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BRIEF: Ex-veterans affairs director's lawsuit cost county $500K

The Citizens' Voice - 4/1/2017

April 01--WILKES-BARRE -- Luzerne County spent $523,932 on a lawsuit filed by Richard Wren, the former director of Luzerne County Veterans Affairs.

The total includes the $200,000 settlement Wren won, as well as his costs and attorney's fees, plus another $145,504 the county spent for its own legal counsel.

County commissioners fired Wren in 2009 after he submitted an altered receipt to give a veterans group a $70 reimbursement from county funds. The county provided veterans groups with reimbursement of food purchases for decorating gravestones with flags on Memorial Day.

Wren insisted he had made a mistake by trying to help a vet who lost a restaurant receipt, and claimed in a 2011 lawsuit that the firing was motivated by his support for former county commissioner Greg Skrepenak.

The county previously rejected an initial settlement offer of $185,000 and later in August 2014, an offer of $85,000.

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(c)2017 The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

Visit The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) at citizensvoice.com

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