Pleasant Valley administrator has preliminary arraignment on perjury charges

Joshua Ryan Krebs appeared before Magisterial District Justice Kristina Anzini on Monday to face charges of perjury and false swearing in an official proceeding. The charges were held over for trial.

Krebs is the Director of Support Services for the Pleasant Valley School District and is also charged with eight felony counts related to violations of Pennsylvania’s wiretap laws.

Krebs will be formally arraigned on the perjury and false swearing charges on Sept. 19. Formal arraignment has already been held on the earlier charges. No trial date has been set.

The most recent charges stem from two separate incidents for which Krebs was requested to testify before a grand jury empaneled by Monroe County. Krebs is charged with making false statements while under oath during his testimony.

The earlier charges against Krebs, and one of the incidents Krebs is alleged to have lied about, are related to a wiretapping incident at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in 2016. Krebs is charged with placing a video/audio recording device in a teachers’ break room.

Krebs has acknowledged placing the recorder in the room in an effort to catch an employee who was believed to be taking long breaks during working hours.

The criminal complaint against Krebs alleges that Krebs’ use of the recording device, and the use of the information obtained through the recording, was illegal and in violation of the wiretap laws.

The second criminal complaint, which was filed on June 20, alleges that Krebs lied before the grand jury while testifying to both the wiretap incident and a second incident that the grand jury was investigating.

The second incident involved Krebs and another school district employee. A district teacher and her date reported that they observed the two groping a visibly intoxicated young woman inside the Wild Creek Saloon in Towamensing Township in 2009.

According to the criminal complaint, the teacher and her date confronted the men and assisted the woman. The teacher reported the incident to the school and requested and was granted a transfer from Pleasant Valley Elementary because Krebs was the school’s assistant principal at the time.

The complaint states that when questioned under oath about the incident, Krebs admitted to being present at the bar, but denied seeing the other man act inappropriately or being confronted by the teacher.

Krebs is currently out on $50,000 bail and is on administrative leave from the district.

The president of the Pleasant Valley School Board recently responded to the newest set of charges leveled against Krebs.

“Like many of you, the board has read in the newspaper events surrounding the recent developments in the Joshua Krebs matters,” Len Peeters said. “As president of the board, it goes without saying that these ongoing events and most recent developments are quite serious and very disappointing. As a district we continue to cooperate with the District Attorney’s Office as part of their ongoing investigation. Mr. Krebs, who has retained his own private counsel to address these criminal matters, remains on administrative leave with the district.”