A former Bucks County corrections officer was acquitted of workers’ compensation fraud last week.
Carl Wayne Stokes, 52, of the Upper Black Eddy section of Bridgeton Township, was acquitted of workers’ compensation fraud, theft, and unsworn falsification during a bench trial before Bucks County Judge Theodore Fritsch Jr.
Stokes, a decorated military veteran and 24-year corrections officer, was alleged by prosecutors to have operated a paid guided fishing tour service last year while receiving workers’ compensation benefits for an injury sustained while working at the county correctional facility in 2015. Bucks County detectives working undercover paid Stokes for a fishing tour and noted Stokes was able to move about “without impediment.”
Dean Malik, Stokes’ attorney, said his client was previously injured in a military helicopter crash and in an on-duty vehicle crash before the November 2017 inmate assault that put him on workers’ compensation.
Even before the 2017 assault, Stokes had been planning to launch a business where he guided fishing trips on the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, as his full-time corrections officer job began to become a risk to his health. He had invested significantly in equipment and was eying it as a post-corrections officer career, Malik said.
Malik said Stokes was not aware that operating the fishing business, which was not anywhere close to being as physical as his duties at the county correctional facility, was going to cause a problem with his workers’ compensation because he was barely making money on the venture.
“Instead of human resources talking to him and advising him that it might be a problem, they sent two narcotics detectives,” Malik said.
Court papers stated that Stokes told detectives that he made $100 “here or there” and maybe made $1,100 in total, but Malik said the business was being run at a loss.
“Carl is a military veteran and was a volunteer firefighter,” Malik said. “His whole life has been defined by outstanding, exemplary service to his country and community.”
Malik also raised his concern that there was so much media coverage following a press release by the district attorney’s office last fall but very little coverage of the acquittal.
“When he was initially charged, he was vilified immediately and there were jokes at his expense,” the Doylestown-based attorney said. “I wish there was as much attention on this.”
Note: This article originally appeared on LevittownNow.com. It is republished on Saucon Source with permission.
