{"id":275550,"date":"2026-08-31T03:40:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T03:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/275550\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T03:40:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T03:40:34","slug":"former-ritz-theater-ceo-takes-ard-in-theft-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/275550\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ritz Theater CEO takes ARD in theft case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>SCRANTON \u2014 James Olecki, the former CEO of the Ritz Theater who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.2822news.com\/crime-court\/manager-allegedly-steals-over-74k-from-ritz-theatre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">accused of stealing<\/a> thousands of dollars from the business, has accepted an Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) instead of going to trial, according to the Times Leader\u2019s newsgathering partners at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.2822news.com\/news\/former-ritz-theater-ceo-takes-ard-in-theft-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">28\/22 News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFinally, after 20 months, I feel vindicated by the outcome in this case,\u201d Olecki said in a release provided to 28\/22 News. \u201cFrom day one, I have maintained that I did not steal from The Ritz Theater and my decision to accept ARD does not change that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ritz Theater owner and Olecki\u2019s former business partner Josh Balz, in a statement to the Times Leader, also said his team considers the outcome a \u201cvictory\u201d and is \u201cextremely happy to finally put this chapter behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe stood our ground from day one, trusted the process, and are incredibly appreciative of the Lackawanna County District Attorney\u2019s Office and court system for seeing this matter through.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegardless of how the resolution may be characterized publicly, statements made after the fact do not rewrite the circumstances that brought this matter before the criminal justice system in the first place. Choosing a path that avoids taking the case to trial does not change that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the Lackawanna County Clerk of Courts, Olecki submitted no plea, and took ARD, which allows the incident to be removed from his record and he makes no repayments.<\/p>\n<p>Balz, however, said in his statement he intends to \u201ccontinue pursuing the civil case to seek appropriate recovery for the financial damages suffered\u201d and \u201cadditional damages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Olecki, on the other hand, said in his release he would be filing complaints against Balz and Linell Homentosky, after he said he received \u201cmisguided reputational abuse\u201d since he was charged.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"max-width: 300px; margin: 5px auto -5px; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788147634_128_slj-article-box-img-1.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 9px 3px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4;\">Local journalism matters, and your support makes it possible. You can help sustain this work by making a donation or choosing one of our subscription options. Subscribers enjoy valuable benefits, including full access to our e-edition, a reduced ad experience on timesleader.com, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Your support helps ensure independent, high-quality local news remains available today and for future generations. Thank you for standing with local journalism.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"slj-article-box-btn\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-size: 16px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timesleader.com\/subscribe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click for subscription offers.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Adrian Suppes, WBRE\/WYOU, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; SCRANTON \u2014 James Olecki, the former CEO of the Ritz Theater who was accused of stealing thousands&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-275550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}