The former chief executive officer of MaineToday Media faces more legal challenges.
A civil action filed Thursday in federal court in Pennsylvania claims that Richard L. Connor owes Wilkes-Barre Publishing LLC a quarter of a million dollars.
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Connor resigned in December as CEO of MaineToday Media, which publishes the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, the Morning Sentinel in Waterville and the Coastal Journal in Bath.
He resigned as a CEO and editor and publisher of the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre in October, according to an article in Thursday’s Times Leader.
The Times Leader was purchased in March by Versa Capital Management LLC, which acquired all of the newspaper’s assets from Wilkes-Barre Publishing, including the debt owed to the company by Connor, the article said.
The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that Connor has failed to repay $250,123 in credit card charges and advances that Wilkes-Barre Publishing made to him over several years.
Court documents say Connor “engaged in a pattern of causing the Times Leader to transfer cash to him for personal use and causing the Times Leader to satisfy personal credit card charges.”
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Mark Bradshaw on behalf of the newspaper, also alleges that Connor “reached an understanding that these personal expenses were in the nature of loans that would need to be repaid at some point.”
Bradshaw, whose law practice is based in Harrisburg, could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
In the lawsuit, Bradshaw claims that the Times Leader established a ledger account on which Connor’s expenses were recorded, and that Connor, periodically, acknowledged those expenses in writing.
According to court records, Connor “has challenged the validity” of those expense documents.
Connor is also involved in two separate court actions pending in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, N.Y., and in Penobscot County Superior Court in Maine.
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