Girardville PD officer-in-charge in Columbia prison on felony theft charges
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL FILE - Girardville Police Lt. Jeremy Talanca at a borough council meeting in January 2023.
GIRARDVILLE – Girardville is without a top cop, again. The latest officer-in-charge is in Columbia County Prison, accused of defrauding dozens while running a used car dealership.
Jeremy Talanca, 47, of Berwick, was arraigned Tuesday on 53 felony charges — 133 charges in total — in connection with his Keystone Auto Exchange dealership in Berwick.
Talanca is a police lieutenant in Girardville and was appointed officer-in charge in January of 2023.
He was the fourth person to lead the small police force since 2020. Two other officers serve the borough on a part-time basis.
According to a report in the Bloomsburg Press-Enterprise, the charges stem from “auto sales gone wrong.”
In charges filed by the State Police at Hazleton, Talanca is accused of selling vehicles to 27 people without having the title and without registering the vehicles in the customer’s name.
He allegedly also sold vehicles with warranties, but never did paperwork for those warranties and ignored calls from customers on the subject.
Talanca is facing several dozen counts each of felony theft by deception, felony tampering with public records, engaging in unprofessional conduct, misdemeanor false application for title, and making false promises of character.
He was committed to Columbia County Prison, unable to post $50,000 cash bail.
He is off-schedule at Girardville.
In January of last year, he was named officer-in-charge after Fabrizio Bivona’s firing.
Prior to Bivona, Fred Lahovski served as chief, who succeeded Jody Long as chief. Long, when appointed in 2020, was the first official chief of the department since Melville Tomeo in 2016.
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