Four months after filing a federal lawsuit, Lt. Derek Felsman oversees patrol operations across Wayne, Pike, Susquehanna, and Lackawanna counties. He didn’t volunteer for the job.
DUNMORE, LACKAWANNA COUNTY — The Pennsylvania State Police lieutenant who currently oversees patrol operations in Wayne, Pike, Susquehanna, and Lackawanna counties is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the man running the entire agency.
Lt. Derek Felsman, 40, of Jefferson Township, Lackawanna County, was transferred to Troop R headquarters in Dunmore in mid-2025 after he and Capt. Patrick Dougherty, 52, of Shickshinny, Luzerne County, reported what they say was felony-level payroll fraud by three fellow troopers at Troop P. Instead of being thanked, both were stripped of their positions and reassigned to what the lawsuit calls fabricated jobs — punishment posts designed to end their careers.
Felsman’s punishment post is northeastern Pennsylvania. He now commands patrol for the same troop that includes the Honesdale barracks — where, as the Pocono Review has previously reported, a Criminal Investigation Unit supervisor stole heroin from the evidence room just four years ago and got house arrest.
The federal case, filed December 29, 2025, in U.S. District Court in Scranton, has produced no trial date and no public updates beyond a January 7, 2026, PSP statement denying the allegations. Acting Commissioner Lt. Col. George Bivens — a named defendant — still hasn’t been confirmed by the state Senate nearly four months into his tenure.
Nobody in Harrisburg is talking about this case. But the officer at the center of it is policing your county right now.
The Fraud and the Filing
At Troop P — covering Bradford, Sullivan, Wyoming counties and northern Luzerne County — a sergeant and two corporals in the Criminal Investigation Unit were logging noon-to-8 p.m. shifts, which carry a 5% pay differential, while actually working 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. One was so brazen he routinely made the morning coffee despite an official start time of noon.
Dougherty learned about the scheme in early February 2025, brought it to Felsman, and on February 13, 2025, they filed a Blue Team entry — PSP’s internal misconduct reporting system — triggering a formal internal affairs investigation. Their supervisor, Major Norman Cramer, had tried to discourage the filing. When told Dougherty was going ahead, Cramer paused and said: “This could get legs” — which the lawsuit reads as an implicit acknowledgment the practice might be widespread.
Internal affairs investigated. At least one trooper admitted to gaming the schedule. The outcomes: one got a 25-day suspension and transfer, one received an honorable discharge, and the third wasn’t removed from his unit. No criminal charges were filed, despite the theft allegedly reaching felony threshold. The DA was never presented with the case.
What Happened to the Whistleblowers
According to the 27-page federal complaint, the retaliation was swift and escalating.
After the February 13 filing, Cramer “became increasingly hostile” at Troop P’s Wilkes-Barre headquarters in Hanover Township, creating what the suit calls “a hostile environment every time he showed up.” At least seven employees witnessed him shouting at Dougherty and telling him three times: “We’ll see how it all plays out for you.”
On May 19, 2025, Cramer subjected Felsman to a 90-minute tirade as Felsman prepared for a community service award event — berating him about the IA case, questioning his cold case work, telling him “some people want you to fail.” Felsman missed the event. The next day, May 20, Rep. Rob Bresnahan posted photos of Felsman’s National Police Week visit to Washington. Cramer told Dougherty that Felsman “better not be wearing the uniform.”
On May 29, 2025, as Dougherty drove to a fallen trooper’s daughter’s graduation, union president Stephen Polishan called to tell him he was under investigation. At the event, Cramer told him: “When they move you, I wonder where it will be. Probably the casino, because there is no captain there.”
On July 2, 2025, both were moved. Dougherty was reassigned to “assistant director of the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission” in Harrisburg — a position that had never existed. He wasn’t allowed to address his troop. Felsman was stripped of his CIU commander role and given the title “Special Projects Commander,” described in the lawsuit as “a made-up position, never previously designated in the Troop P manpower allocation table.” He was later transferred to Troop R, Dunmore.
Both took pay cuts. Felsman lost all promotion prospects and future retirement benefits, the suit says. The personal toll: his reassignment “was embarrassing and painful, resulting in the loss of sleep and stress, culminating in an emotional breakdown in front of his two youngest children.”
Their attorney, Mark Schwartz of Bryn Mawr, said in December 2025: “They’re just being warehoused and have no real chance of promotion, and these are two longstanding veterans of the state police force.”
The Trump Photo
The lawsuit contends the hostility predates the payroll fraud. In September 2022, Felsman and more than 30 troopers posed with Donald Trump at Mohegan Arena in Wilkes-Barre while Trump campaigned for Doug Mastriano against Josh Shapiro. Trump posted the photo on Truth Social; PSP leadership had expected it to stay private.
The suit alleges Felsman was singled out among the 30-plus troopers for criticism from PSP’s “Democratic front office, reflective of Democrat Governor Shapiro’s partisan party leanings.” When then-Governor Wolf was still in office, someone tried to retaliate against Dougherty — who wasn’t even in the photo — but Wolf blocked the move. Felsman’s May 2025 photo with Congressman Bresnahan allegedly intensified things further.
The Defendant Running PSP
On December 17, 2025, Shapiro announced Commissioner Christopher Paris was leaving for the FBI and named Bivens acting commissioner effective December 31. Two days before Bivens took command, Dougherty and Felsman filed suit. The case — assigned to U.S. District Judge Karoline Mehalchick — names Shapiro, Bivens, Cramer, and up to 10 John and Jane Does, alleging violations of the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law, First Amendment retaliation, and due process violations.
PSP’s January 7, 2026, response: “PSP strongly denies the allegations set forth in the lawsuit and will have no further comment on this pending litigation.” The Governor’s office declined to comment.
As of April 19, 2026, Bivens remains acting commissioner. He still requires Senate confirmation. No hearing has been publicly scheduled, and no reporting has surfaced indicating any senator has raised the lawsuit during the confirmation process.
The Honesdale Pattern
Pocono Review readers already know this troop’s history. On November 5, 2021, fellow troopers found Cpl. Brian Rickard at the Honesdale barracks “in a compromised state, unable to function normally.” Rickard, a CIU supervisor making $109,807 a year, had been stealing heroin from the evidence room, using it on the job and at home, and altering computer records to hide the thefts. An envelope that should have held 50 bags of heroin held 20.
He pleaded guilty June 29, 2022, to evidence tampering, forgery, and theft. Monroe County Judge Stephen Higgins sentenced him September 19, 2022, to 6-24 months house arrest and three years probation. He completed house arrest in February 2024, never went to state prison, and remains on probation in Honesdale through 2027. Restitution: $1,025.
Wayne County DA A.G. Howell has never publicly said whether any of Rickard’s 18 years of casework was reviewed or whether defendants he convicted were notified — a potential Brady obligation. When an inmate whose 2016 case originated at PSP Honesdale tried to get Rickard’s records, Howell’s office denied it and told him to try the Attorney General — who at the time was Josh Shapiro.
The Same Math
The details differ — Rickard stole drugs, the Troop P troopers stole pay — but the institutional outcomes mirror each other.
Rickard committed felonies and got house arrest. Defendants potentially convicted on his tainted work were never notified. In the Troop P case, troopers who committed what the lawsuit calls felony-level theft got suspensions or an honorable discharge. The supervisors who reported the fraud were reassigned to invented positions and had their careers gutted. The DA was never given the chance to prosecute.
In both cases, the people who did the right thing ended up worse off than those who didn’t.
Why This Matters Here
Felsman has served PSP since January 2007 — more than 19 years. Nothing in the public record suggests he’s anything but competent and decorated. The question isn’t whether he can run Troop R patrol. It’s what it means that PSP leadership allegedly sent him here as punishment.
More than half of Pennsylvania’s 2,500 municipalities lack a local police department. In Troop R territory — the rural stretches of Wayne County, the lake communities of Pike County, the townships of Susquehanna County — PSP is it. When state police respond to a call in Preston Township or a drug investigation in Blooming Grove, the culture of that agency is what shows up at the door.
The federal lawsuit on Judge Mehalchick’s docket says that culture punishes officers who report wrongdoing and protects those who commit it. PSP says it strongly denies that. The residents of four northeastern Pennsylvania counties deserve to know which is true.
Case: Dougherty et al. v. Shapiro et al. | U.S. District Court, Middle District of PA, Scranton
Filed: December 29, 2025 | Judge: Karoline Mehalchick
Plaintiffs: Capt. Patrick J. Dougherty, 52, Shickshinny, Luzerne County; Lt. Derek D. Felsman, 40, Jefferson Twp., Lackawanna County
Defendants: Gov. Josh Shapiro; Acting Commissioner Lt. Col. George L. Bivens; Maj. Norman Cramer; 10 John/Jane Does
Attorney: Mark D. Schwartz, Bryn Mawr | Claims: PA Whistleblower Law; First Amendment; Fourteenth Amendment due process
PSP (Jan. 7, 2026): “PSP strongly denies the allegations set forth in the lawsuit.”
Status (April 19, 2026): No trial date. Bivens not confirmed by state Senate.
Part 3 of the Pocono Review’s investigation into accountability at PSP Troop R and the Honesdale barracks.
Part 1: Wayne County DA Howell Silent on Cases Handled by PSP Trooper Convicted of Evidence Tampering (Dec. 19, 2025)
Part 2: DA Howell Denied Rickard Records to Inmate He’d Prosecuted (Dec. 20, 2025)
The Pocono Review has requested comment from PSP, the Governor’s office, and plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Schwartz. This article will be updated with any responses received.
Have information about PSP Troop R? Contact tips@poconoreview.com