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After a Tragedy, Pa. Gaming Board Rethinks Hiring Policy

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 03:03 CST

By Jeff Shields, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Mar. 1--HARRISBURG -- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will reevaluate its drug-testing policy in light of the arrest of an employee charged with dropping his girlfriend 23 stories to her death from his apartment.

Board Chairman Thomas "Tad" Decker said Saturday's arrest of communications aide Kevin P. Eckenrode made him rethink the board's decision not to require pre-employment drug testing in addition to the extensive background checks potential employees must undergo.

The death of Rachel M. Kozlusky, 23, on Saturday has "thrown us into a bit of tizzy," Decker said.

Eckenrode, 25, told police that Kozlusky had asked him to hold her out his Harrisburg apartment window so she could touch her feet on the window below, according to an affidavit. He said he was holding her under her armpits when he lost his grip and she plunged to her death.

He said the two, both from the Scranton area, had been drinking heavily. Detectives said they found two empty wine bottles and "numerous" beer cans around the apartment.

Eckenrode has been charged with criminal homicide and was in custody without bail yesterday. He was suspended without pay from the gaming board, where he was a $33,000-a-year press aide. He is a cousin of board member William P. Conaboy's wife, and Conaboy recommended him for the job, Decker said.

Conaboy declined to speak with reporters yesterday, instead issuing a statement: "This has been a terrible tragedy for both families. No one could have ever imagined that something like this would have happened."

Decker said that Eckenrode was well qualified for the position and that the board turned up nothing in a criminal background check. A more extensive "non-criminal" background check had not been completed on Eckenrode, who was hired Dec. 1.

It was the third, and by far the most serious, case involving Gaming Control Board employees, alcohol, and the police since September -- a string of apparently unconnected events that yesterday overshadowed one of the board's most important actions since it was established in 2004.

At a meeting yesterday, the board's chief enforcement attorney, Michael Schwoyer, recommended licensing six slot machine companies to sell the equipment in Pennsylvania. The board -- which is also scheduled to award 14 slot-machine licenses to casinos and racetracks later this year -- approved all six licenses, the first of any kind it has granted.

But after the meeting, Decker was forced to confront questions not just about Eckenrode, but about other incidents involving board employees in Harrisburg.

In November Schwoyer was fined $500 after pleading no contest to charges of disorderly conduct and public drunkenness in connection with a scuffle with Harrisburg police.

That same month, the board's deputy counsel for administration, LaMonte Williams, was cited for simple assault and public intoxication after a bar fight. His attorney did not return two calls for comment. The case is pending.

Decker said he didn't see any "trend," in the events, though he conceded he had spoken to his staff about alcohol abuse after the Schwoyer and Williams incidents.

"We've placed people on notice that that type of behavior is not going to cut the mustard," Decker said. The board has 158 employees. Though it is not clear that drug testing would have affected Eckenrode's hiring, Decker said the tragedy had prompted him to consider such a policy.

Board spokesman Nick Hays said any disciplinary action taken against Schwoyer or Williams would be an internal personnel matter and not public information.

Contact staff writer Jeff Shields at 610-313-8173 or jshields@phillynews.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

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