ESU Cop Charged, the Sherman's Next Act, AWSOM News

ESU POLICE OFFICER CHARGED WITH CHILD SEX CRIMES

An East Stroudsburg University police officer is being held without bail on child sex charges.

Joseph P. Gallagher Jr., 40, of East Stroudsburg, was charged Monday by Stroud Area Regional Police with 22 counts, according to court records. The most serious, all first-degree felonies, are rape of a child, two counts of aggravated indecent assault of a child, and four counts of unlawful contact with a minor. The remaining counts include corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children, and indecent assault. According to the criminal affidavit, as reported by 28/22 News, the charges involve two children who were 10 and 4 years old at the time, with alleged assaults in 2021 and again this year.

Magisterial District Judge Donald A. Johnson denied bail Monday night, finding that no conditions of bail could assure community safety. Gallagher is being held at the Monroe County Correctional Facility. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 1.

Gallagher is listed as an officer in ESU's University Police staff directory. In a statement to 28/22 News, a university spokesperson said the allegations are unrelated to his employment with the university and that he was placed on leave once ESU learned of the investigation.

Gallagher is presumed innocent until proven guilty. We will follow the case through the preliminary hearing.

📜 HISTORY WITH A TWIST: THE SHERMAN'S NEXT ACT

On Jan. 7, 1929, the Sherman Theater opened at 524 Main Street in Stroudsburg as a vaudeville house, and according to the theater's own history, the headliners on opening night were Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Nearly a century later, the building is getting a $200,000 tune-up, and if the plans work out, it could one day double as an emergency shelter.

The Sherman spent most of the 20th century as a vaudeville stage turned movie house. A fire in the 1940s destroyed the roof, but the brick walls held and the theater was rebuilt. In the 1970s it was split into two screens, and by the mid-1980s its movie days were over. After changing hands several times, it limped through the 1990s with a mix of movies, concerts, and even church services.

Richard and Catharine Berkowitz led a restoration in the mid-2000s that brought live music back to the stage. The theater became a nonprofit in 2008, the nonprofit took full ownership in 2012, and today it hosts more than 240 events a year. In October 2025, the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau took over management of the theater, which remains its own nonprofit. When we talked with Chris Barrett, president and CEO of the Visitors Bureau and the Sherman's general manager, soon after the handoff, he told us he sees the Sherman playing a much bigger role, booking a broader range of acts and becoming a driver of growth for downtown Stroudsburg.

Longtime readers may remember our June 10 History with a Twist on the brick arches Mr. Wintermute built under 522 Main after the flood of 1869, in the building that is now the Sherman Showcase next door. When we asked Barrett back in June whether those tunnels are still down there, his answer was: "Definitely tunnels under the Sherman... we aren't sure why they are there." We happen to know: Mr. Wintermute put them there.

Which brings us to this week's news. The Sherman received $200,000 from the state's Local Share Account program, which is funded by casino gaming revenue, part of nearly $1 million for eight projects announced by state Rep. Tarah Probst. According to the Pocono Record, the money will go toward structural repairs, heating and cooling, utilities, abating asbestos and mold in sealed-off areas, rehabilitating the stage, and a natural gas generator.

That generator brings another twist. Barrett told the Pocono Record he has talked with the county about using the building as a shelter in an emergency once the generator is installed. A 1929 vaudeville house as a storm shelter. Laurel and Hardy would have appreciated the gag.

The next act takes the stage tomorrow night: Mariachi El Bronx, with doors at 7 p.m.

More from History with a Twist

🐾 MONROE MARKET MOVERS: ROOM TO GROW AT AWSOM

The Animal Welfare Society of Monroe got the green light to grow. On Sept. 16, according to the Pocono Record, Stroud Township's Zoning Hearing Board unanimously approved a variance and a special exception for an expansion of the shelter at 3129 Godfrey Ridge Drive.

The plans add about 1,800 square feet on the first floor, including a new dog kennel room, a cat room, separate cat and dog quarantine rooms, a feline HIV room, and more office and records space, with a possible second floor for meetings and storage. AWSOM President Rich Homar told the board the shelter has taken in roughly 20,000 animals over the past 16 years, and said the facility was built when the county's population was far smaller and has not grown to match the need.

Not everyone was sold. One neighbor objected to trading her wooded view for a two-story building, while Rep. Tarah Probst spoke in favor, arguing the expansion and a bigger parking lot would ease crowding along Godfrey Ridge. AWSOM also received $50,000 from the same Local Share Account program that funded the Sherman, and hopes to finish the project by the end of 2027.

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🌟 SILVER LININGS

60,000 Meals in Three Hours. Last Thursday, more than 350 volunteers from the Pocono hospitality industry packed 60,000 meals in three hours in Tobyhanna Township for Pocono Mountains United Way's biggest Day of Caring event of the year, with Kalahari Resorts as a partner. The meals are headed to local food pantries, shelters, and schools. In a region where tourism supports nearly a third of local jobs, the people who spend all summer taking care of visitors spent a day taking care of their neighbors.

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