Forbidden tryst begets probation

The Lebanon Daily News

November 18, 2009

By Les Stewart

Staff Writer

A former Lebanon County probation officer who fell in love with one of her clients and later married him was sentenced Wednesday for falsifying his records so they could spend a forbidden weekend together in Atlantic City.

Judge Bradford H. Charles sentenced 28-year-old Erin M. Lewis of Palmyra to six months probation and ordered her to pay a $100 fine for tampering with public records. She was found guilty of the charge at a Sept. 17 trial. The jury found her not guilty of one count of obstructing justice.

Lewis was convicted of changing case-management records to show Jeffrey M. Gardner’s electronic monitoring ended 11 days early so they could go to Atlantic City together on the weekend of Feb. 16, 2008.

They were married June 17 last year, according to court records.

Gardner was on house arrest and electronic monitoring for six months beginning Aug. 23, 2007, as part of a Renaissance Crossroads sentence for burglary and conspiracy charges.

Lewis entered information on Gardner’s case records indicating that the monitoring was removed so he could go to Atlantic City with his family, police said at the time of her arrest.

Gardner told investigators that they were involved in a romantic relationship that began in December 2007 while she was his probation officer. During that time, Gardner told detectives, he spent several nights at Lewis’ home when she lived in Hershey. Lewis worked for the county for three years.

*Before Lewis was sentenced on Wednesday, defense attorney Justin McShane asked Charles to consider her years of service in the county’s probation and parole department.*

*McShane also said a person should not be measured by one bad act, but rather by what that person has accomplished over a lifetime.*

But District Attorney David Arnold said the case is not that simple.

Lewis never admitted what she did was wrong, he said.

“From day one, she has blamed every one else – except herself – for the charges being filed,” Arnold said after Lewis was sentenced.

Even after she was found guilty, she failed to acknowledge that what she did was wrong, the district attorney said.

Lewis’ coworkers at the probation and parole department were not aware that she was having a relationship with one of her clients, Arnold added.

“I’m well aware of your background,” Charles said to Lewis before sentencing her. “You were the All American girl.”

He called her “a great probation officer” when she worked for the county.

The judge also said he did not fault her for falling in love.

“I can understand that,” Charles said, “but you made the wrong choice.”

Where she went wrong, the judge said, was deciding not to tell her supervisors about her feelings for Gardner.

The judge said there was no reason to sentence her to prison. The real punishment will be “a huge blemish” on her record that will make it difficult for her to get a good job, he said.

Lewis ended her employment with the county Feb. 15, 2008, to begin a job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, chief county Detective John Leahy said at the time of Lewis’ arrest.

On Wednesday, Charles ordered that Lewis’ supervision be transferred to Dauphin County. He said Dauphin County President Judge Richard Lewis has already approved that arrangement.

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