When authorities showed up to interview Richard Pieri, a Pennsylvania nurse, they asked him if he knew why they were there. 
 
 “I guess it has something to do with me being drunk on call,” he responded, according to a probable-cause affidavit. 
 
 But Pieri was not only intoxicated while on call, authorities allege. They think he also was under the influence of alcohol when he participated in an emergency appendectomy at the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center. 
 
 He now faces charges of recklessly endangering another person, driving under the influence and public drunkenness, according to court documents. 
 
 Security footage shows Pieri stumbling through the hospital parking lot late Feb. 4, on his way into surgery, according to the court documents. He walked with an “unsteady” gait and almost fell, the probable-cause affidavit states. 
 
 His behavior, a Department of Veterans Affairs police detective wrote, was “consistent with someone who is under the influence of a controlled substance or alcoholic beverages.” 
 
 Another nurse working that night told an investigator that Pieri was “definitely not himself,” according to the affidavit. He had trouble logging on to his computer, she said, and grew upset. 
 
 “Rick, are you drunk or something?” the woman said she asked Pieri. 
 
 A message left for Pieri was not returned. 
 
 [Anesthesiologist trashes sedated patient — and it ends up costing her] 
 
 A physician assistant also told an investigator that he smelled an alcohol in the operating room. He “concluded that the odor was likely emitted from one of the employees inside the room,” the documents state. 
 
 Pieri told investigators that he visited Mohegan Sun casino at Pocono Downs on Feb. 4 and drank four or five beers while playing slots. He said he went home but was paged about the emergency surgery about 11:30 that night. 
 
 “Pieri admitted that he knew he was not supposed to be a part of a surgery while he was intoxicated,” the affidavit says. But, the document states, he “claimed he had forgotten he was on call and did not want to have someone else come in.” 
 
 According to the affidavit, Pieri “was responsible for preparing the patient, retrieving the patient, preparing the materials inside the room, documenting the surgery, and monitoring the vitals of the patient throughout recovery.” 
 
 The operating room, the document notes, “is filled with complicated equipment that Pieri needs to operate and has several loose wires and cords that can be tripped on or disconnected by somebody with an inability to properly ambulate themselves.” 
 
 [Cancer patients died waiting for care at troubled veterans’ hospital, probe finds] 
 
 Medical staff at the hospital told investigators from the Department of Veterans Affairs Police Service that “taking part in a surgery with impaired cognitive ability can create a substantial risk to the safety of the patient.” 
 
 The affidavit does not name the patient, but it notes that this person was later readmitted to the hospital with stomach pains. 
 
 “To the best of my knowledge there’s been no harm as a result of the incident,” William Klaips, executive assistant to the VA Medical Center’s director, told The Washington Post. 
 
 The affidavit, however, notes that “Pieri’s actions were knowingly reckless and could have caused serious injury or death to the patient.” 
 
 On Thursday, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, sent letters to VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald and the medical center in Wilkes-Barre, requesting information on the incident. 
 
 In a statement sent to The Post on Friday morning, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it “takes seriously any accusations that an employee’s actions might have placed a Veteran at risk.” 
 
 Pieri, the VA statement said, “has been removed from patient care responsibilities at the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center where this alleged incident took place. If necessary, additional actions will be proposed as the investigation is completed.” 
 
 “Patient safety is paramount to all of us at VA and upon learning of the incident, we immediately confirmed patient care was not jeopardized,” the statement added. “We are currently reinforcing training to ensure all employees are empowered to raise operational concerns and to prevent a future incident from occurring.” 
 
 This story, originally published on Feb. 25, has been updated. 
 
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 WILKES-BARRE — Federal prosecutors on Friday filed criminal charges against a former Department of Veterans Affairs nurse accused of assisting a surgery while drunk. 
 
 Richard Pieri, 59, of Drums, is facing a charge of reckless endangerment under the Federal Assimilated Crimes Act, which allows state crimes to be charged in federal court if the crime occurs in federal jurisdiction, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 
 
 The hospital is a federal facility. 
 
 Prosecutors say the offense, which placed the patient “in danger of death or serious bodily injury,” carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine. 
 
 Pieri’s attorney, Shelley Centini, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. 
 
 Last month, the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office dropped state charges of reckless endangerment, public drunkenness and driving under the influence, saying the U.S. Attorney’s Office intended to take over the prosecution. 
 
 Prosecutors allege Pieri had been at Mohegan Sun Pocono the night of Feb. 4, when he was called back to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Plains Township to assist an emergency surgery. 
 
 Pieri, who claimed he forgot he was on call that night, admitted to drinking about four or five beers at the casino. Surveillance footage showed him stumbling out of his pickup and nearly falling into a concrete barrier on his way into the hospital for the surgery, police said. 
 
 Pieri resigned from his position at the hospital on March 2, just two days after medical center officials initiated disciplinary action against him. The state Board of Nursing suspended Pieri’s license that same week. 
 
 570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin 

 In October 1985, Richard J. Pieri was charged in the hit-and-run death of a veteran near the Wilkes-Barre VA Hospital. 
 
 Now, 30 years later, he’s facing reckless endangerment charges after allegedly staggering into that same hospital and aiding in emergency surgery as an operating room nurse after drinking four or five beers at Mohegan Sun Pocono casino. The 59-year-old Drums resident faces DUI and public drunkenness charges as well. 
 
 And while there was no mention of suspected alcohol use by Pieri in archived Times Leader stories about the hit-and-run death, Pieri’s estranged wife has pointed to his alleged alcohol use in a Protection From Abuse application she filed last year, claiming that he had been abusive to her after he had been drinking. 
 
 To top it off, although police say Pieri admitted to being drunk while on call, it will take the VA Medical Center up to nine months to dole out disciplinary action such as termination from his job, the Times Leader learned Tuesday. 
 
 It took police just nine days to investigate and charge Pieri in the death of 65-year-old George Knorr in 1985. 
 
 The hit-and-run 
 
 According to Times Leader archives, Knorr, of Scranton, died after he was struck by a vehicle the night of Sept. 25. The Luzerne County coroner determined the cause of death to be a broken neck, and the manner of death a homicide. 
 
 A day after the accident, police seized a red pickup at the Wilkeswood Apartments in Wilkes-Barre Township and said they had a suspect in Knorr’s death. They said the suspect did not turn himself in, but was cooperating. Police were awaiting test results to see if there was a match between the paint on the pickup and paint found on Knorr’s body. 
 
 Pieri was arrested on Oct. 3, 1985, and charged with an accident involving death or personal injury — a misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of a $2,500 fine and/or a year in jail. 
 
 Township police considered lodging a charge of vehicular homicide or manslaughter, but they determined the death was not the result of gross negligence, an officer had told the Times Leader. 
 
 The officer said Knorr, 65, of Scranton, was wearing dark clothing and was walking close to the roadway at about 10:50 p.m. in a dimly lit area when he was struck. The officer also said Pieri had not been driving recklessly. 
 
 Pieri posted $5,000 bail and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. The charges were forwarded to Luzerne County Court, but the outcome of the case could not be determined Tuesday. A search for court records proved fruitless. 
 
 The protection order 
 
 The only court records that could readily be found for Pieri — other than a 2014 speeding ticket to which he pleaded guilty — was a Protection From Abuse order dated Oct. 26, 2015. 
 
 Pieri’s wife, Judy, petitioned the court for the order, claiming that Pieri “apparently had been drinking” on the evening of Oct. 23 and, when she arrived home from a dinner with relatives, thought he was sleeping. 
 
 Judy Pieri wrote in the application that she checked her husband’s cellphone and wallet “to try to check what he had been up to” because “he tells me nothing and I find myself snooping just to get information.” But, apparently, Pieri was awake and angry that she disturbed his wallet and cellphone, she wrote. 
 
 Judy Pieri alleged that her husband pushed and shoved her down a hallway, that the two of them struggled and that her husband twice told her he would kill her. She wrote that Richard pushed her into a chair and that she kicked him away using both legs, causing him to drop to the ground and fracture one of his wrists. 
 
 A judge ordered Pieri to turn over firearms that his wife had said were stored in a bedroom closet, but they were returned to him after a subsequent hearing he requested on the matter. 
 
 Pieri’s wife hung up on a reporter when he called her and identified himself as a journalist. 
 
 Pieri did not personally return a message seeking comment on Tuesday, but his attorney, Kim Borland, returned the call and left a message for the reporter. There was no answer at the office number Borland left and he did not return a subsequent message left on his cellphone voice mail. 
 
 The discipline process 
 
 As to what’s next for Pieri, a summons was issued for him to appear before District Judge Joseph D. Spagnuolo Jr. on March 29 for a preliminary hearing on the reckless endangerment, DUI and public drunkenness charges. 
 
 In the meantime, Pieri, who has been licensed as a registered nurse since March 1979, remains employed by the VA Medical Center pending administrative action, although not in a patient care position. 
 
 The Times Leader on Tuesday acquired an email from the Department of Veterans Affairs outlining the process. 
 
 According to the email, the VA can take “a major adverse action that is appealable to a Disciplinary Appeals Board” related to alleged employee misconduct. A major adverse action includes a suspension, transfer, reduction in grade, reduction in basic pay, and discharge. 
 
 After all evidence is obtained and an investigation is complete, a proposal notice must be drafted by Human Resources, and is typically reviewed by District Counsel before it’s issued to the employee. The employee has seven to 30 days to respond in writing, and the VA must issue a written decision within 21 days of the employee’s response. The employee has 30 days to appeal the decision. If that happens, a Disciplinary Appeals Board is appointed and has 120 days to conduct a hearing and issue a report. The Under Secretary for Health or Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health has 90 days to review the report and issue a decision to the appellant, the email states. 
 
 The entire appeals process can take up to 270 days. 
 
 That doesn’t sit well with U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. 
 
 “Almost every day we are reminded that the federal civil service system is designed to coddle and protect corrupt and incompetent employees and that the Obama administration’s refusal to address this dysfunctional status quo is doing real harm to veterans and taxpayers,” Miller said in a prepared statement. 
 
 “The latest installment in this depressing saga is VA’s confirmation that it will take nearly a year at a minimum to discipline Pieri for something he’s already admitted to. Enough is enough,” Miller said. 
 
 Miller said it’s time for VA to “get behind commonsense congressional proposals like the House-passed VA Accountability Act, which would enable VA to quickly purge corrupt and incompetent employees from the payroll and prevent convicted felons from sneaking out the back door with full taxpayer-funded pensions.” 
 
 “Until then, situations like this, in which taxpayers are forced to subsidize bad behavior, will only continue,” Miller said. 
 
 The VA Accountability Act would give the VA secretary the authority to swiftly fire or demote any employee for poor performance or misconduct while protecting whistleblowers and limiting the agency’s ability to place misbehaving employees on paid leave. It would also give VA the ability to recover annuities on pensions of VA employees convicted of felonies committed on the job. It passed the House in July 2015 and is pending in the Senate. 
 
 http://timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_VA_logo.jpg 
 
 Drums resident accused of assisting in surgery while drunk 
 
 By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com 

 Travis Kellar | Times Leader Pieri - 
 
 SCRANTON — The U.S. Attorney’s Office has assumed the case against a former nurse accused of participating in an emergency surgical procedure while drunk. 
 
 Federal prosecutors on Friday charged Richard Pieri with reckless endangerment under the Federal Assimilated Crimes Act, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. Pieri, prosecutors say, “did recklessly endanger another person by placing that person in danger of death or serious bodily injury by participating in a surgical procedure while under the influence of alcohol.” 
 
 Pieri’s attorney, Shelley L. Centini, was not immediately available for comment Friday. 
 
 Prosecutors say Pieri, 59, of Drums, staggered into the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center and aided in an emergency surgical procedure after drinking four or five beers at Mohegan Sun Pocono casino. He allegedly told police he forgot he was on call. 
 
 Video surveillance obtained by police allegedly shows Pieri emerge from his Honda Ridgeline truck and collide with a concrete barrier while walking into the medical center just before midnight Feb. 4, nearly falling over several times. 
 
 Pieri had been charged with misdemeanor counts of of reckless endangerment, DUI and public drunkenness, all of which were withdrawn by the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office during a preliminary hearing last month before District Judge Joseph Spagnuolo. 
 
 State officials suspended Pieri’s nursing license a day after he resigned from the hospital. 
 
 The former nurse has a troubled past that included being charged in the 1985 hit-and-run death of 65-year-old veteran George Knorr near the hospital, which was adjacent to Pieri’s residence at the time. 
 
 Pieri https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_IMG_2047-2.jpg Pieri Travis Kellar | Times Leader 
 
 By Joe Dolinsky [email protected] 
 
 Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL 
 
 Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL
– Prosecutors in Luzerne County, Pa., dropped a slew of charges against Richard Pieri, including DUI and reckless endangerment, in March. But that's not good news for the former VA Medical Center nurse accused of downing four or five beers at a local casino and then assisting in an emergency appendectomy. On Friday, federal prosecutors took up the case and charged Pieri, 59, with reckless endangerment, as the alleged incident took place in a federal facility, the Times Leader reports. Pieri claims he forgot he was on call Feb. 4 as he swilled beer and played slots, the Washington Post reports. An affidavit has him admitting that he knew he shouldn't have been involved with the surgery, but didn't want someone else to get called in to cover for him. So he allegedly drove drunk to the hospital and staggered inside. "Rick, are you drunk or something?" a co-worker asked as Pieri grew frustrated while trying to use the computer. A physician's assistant says he smelled alcohol on someone in the operating room. Now Pieri faces up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine for putting a patient "in danger of death or serious bodily harm," the Times-Tribune reports. Pieri's estranged wife alleged in a restraining-order application last year that he abuses alcohol and that he has been abusive while drinking. In 1985, according to the Times Leader, Pieri was charged with killing a man in a hit-and-run accident. More on the alleged incident here.