Pennsylvania: Crime, Corruption and Indictments

A special place in history is deserved for Pennsylvania's participation in the creation of our Republic, yet lawmakers desecrated that reputation when they passed casino legislation at midnight on the Fourth of July. Included in that legislation was a removal of local control. [Casino-Free Philadelphia has successfully protested that travesty.]

In what seems like a free-for-all of criminal acts, a 2010 recap is below:


Top stories of 2010

Voters choose home rule as antidote to corruption

First corruption, then change.

Luzerne County voters in November adopted a home-rule charter that ditches the county’s current government structure, blamed in part for rampant corruption and cronyism, and replaces it with a radically different council-manager form of government.

The charter, which takes full effect on Jan. 2, 2012, replaces the three commissioners who have long served as chief decision-makers for the county with an 11-member legislature and an appointed full-time manager who will run an executive branch of county government.

Supporters of the home-rule movement blamed the current form of government, set under state law, for multiple shortcomings, including corruption, cronyism, patronage hiring, wasteful spending, higher property taxes and out-of-control debt.

Home-rule critics compared the new legislative council to a public school system’s board of education and the manager post to an all-powerful school superintendent.
Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, whose position is being eliminated under the charter, complained the appointed manager would be “a monarch” and the council “a rubber stamp.”

Another critic, Prothonotary Carolee Medico Olenginski, sued the county in December and the commission that crafted the home-rule charter, claiming the new form of government unconstitutionally forces her office into the expanded executive branch.
Luzerne County is the seventh county in the state to adopt a home-rule charter.

Voters rejected home-rule proposals in 1974 and again in 2003. But this year’s vote came in the aftermath of a massive corruption investigation that since January 2009 has led to criminal charges against a slew of county officials — including three judges, a county commissioner, a clerk of courts, a deputy chief clerk and a director of human resources.

Corruption probe puts Musto’s legacy on line

The November indictment of retiring longtime state Sen. Raphael J. Musto signaled a new direction for a federal corruption probe that had tallied scores of arrests in county and local government, including judges, commissioners, school board members and contractors.

The indictment, charging the 81-year-old legislator with taking more than $35,000 in cash and gifts from a real estate developer who received millions of dollars in government funding, marked the expansion of the probe into state government and cast a pall on Musto’s retirement.

Musto, facing up to 10 years in prison with a conviction, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment earlier this month and said he looks forward to a trial and his “day in court.” Musto has maintained the same posture since federal agents raided his Pittston Township home in April.

“I stepped on a lot of big toes over the years,” he said after the raid.

Musto’s day in court could come in February, around the time another corruption figure, former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., faces trial on a 39-count racketeering indictment stemming from a $2.8 million dollar kids-for-cash kickback scheme.

Ciavarella’s co-defendant, ex-Judge Michael T. Conahan, pleaded guilty to racketeering in July and has said he would be willing to testify against Ciavarella.

Another former judge, Michael T. Toole, pleaded guilty in November to charges he accepted an illegal gratuity by using an attorney’s beach house free of charge, and failed to pay taxes on a $30,000 “finder’s fee.” He is scheduled for sentencing in February.

More than a dozen other corruption figures also passed through the court system in 2010.

Former Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak started a two-year prison sentence in September for kickbacks.

The county’s former human resources director, Doug Richards, is scheduled to start a 15-month sentence in February for taking bribes to secure a no-bid county contract for a mysterious consulting firm.

Ex-Pittston Area School Board member Joseph J. Oliveri and contractor Richard Emanski, are nearing their end of their terms.

William G. Brace, who accepted a custom-tailored $1,500 suit from a contractor while the county’s deputy clerk, completed a three-month prison stay in August.

Jeffrey J. Piazza, the former Wilkes-Barre Career and Technical Center administrator, completed a six-month prison sentence in October for pocketing “hidden kickbacks” from a contractor.

Others avoided jail.

Former Wilkes-Barre Area School Board President Frank Pizzella Jr. turned cooperation into probation for directing a $5,000 payment to a board member who helped his nephew secure a teaching job.

Former county redevelopment authority director Allen Bellas, former Jenkins Township Supervisor Russell E. Arnone and former Butler Township resident Craig Stirling, a former technology director, were also sentenced to probation for their involvement in bribery and kickback schemes.

Wilkes-Barre nightclub owner/restaurateur Thom Greco was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to serve community service for failing to tell federal agents Skrepenak shook him down for more than $10,000 worth of televisions.

Former County Clerk of Courts Robert F. Reilly received a similar sentence for lying to federal agents about payments he received from a contractor. The contractor, Barton Weidlich, is awaiting sentencing on a charge he threatened a government witness.

William Maguire, the retired Wilkes-Barre police detective who pleaded guilty to accepting a $1,400 bribe while a member of the county housing authority board, and Patrick Patte Jr., the prominent bar owner accused in an illegal betting ring, are both scheduled to learn their sentences in 2011.

Christopher Marion, of Archbald, and Mark Fino, a bar employee, pleaded guilty in to charges stemming from their involvement in the gambling ring, and were each sentenced to two years probation.

Political upheaval

In this year of political upheaval and change, a slate of longtime legislators with decades of service in Washington or Harrisburg were ushered out of office, defeated in re-election bids or retired amid controversy.

Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, a member of Congress for 26 years, lost in November to three-time foe Lou Barletta, the Republican mayor of Hazleton. Barletta’s victory and former U.S. Rep. Tom Marino’s win over two-term Democrat Chris Carney in the 10th District solidified the region for Republicans.

Raphael J. Musto, who served 28 years in the state senate, entered retirement days after a federal grand jury indicted him for taking $35,000 in kickbacks from a local developer. State Rep. John Yudichak won an open election to fill the seat and will be sworn in on Tuesday.

Robert J. Mellow, D-Archbald, announced his retirement after 40 years in the state Senate, months before federal agents raided his home and office. John Blake, a former top official with the state Department of Community and Economic Development, won an election to replace Mellow.

At courthouse, times are changing

The stains of corruptions left from the arrests of three Luzerne County judges in 2009 were slowly removed this year with the installation of two newly elected judges, three interim replacements, the reversal of tainted decisions and the implementation of judicial reforms.

Judges Tina Polachek Gartley and William H. Amsbury, elected in November 2009, joined the bench in January.

Later in the month, attorney Joseph M. Cosgrove, an advocate for indigent defendants and death-row inmates, was sworn in to fill the seat vacated by Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. in the wake of a corruption scandal.

Two other interim appointees, long-time attorneys Joseph J. Van Jura and Lewis W. Wetzel, joined the bench in March, filling seats previously held by Michael T. Toole, who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges, and Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., who lost a retention election.

In May, a state panel investigating a kids-for-cash kickback scheme in the county’s juvenile court issued a scathing report pinning blame on criminal judges, passive prosecutors, inattentive public defenders and the county’s long history of “conflict and corruption.”

The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice issued more than 40 recommendations for statewide reforms, including an overhaul of the state Judicial Conduct Board, which failed to investigate allegations that a judge involved in the scandal associated with a mob figure.

Commission Chairman John M. Cleland, a judge on the state Superior Court, said the scandal resulted from a “total collapse” of every “check and balance” in the county court.

State legislators have pledged to implement the commission’s reforms, including attorney representation for each juvenile defendant, a state fund to compensate victims of juvenile crimes and grants to agencies that provide victim services.

In addition to the fixes juvenile in the juvenile system, appellate courts reversed decisions in at least four civil cases tainted by corruption.

The state Superior Court in November overturned a $3.4 million legal malpractice verdict returned in Ciavarella’s court, saying his ties to a plaintiff’s attorney clouded the case with “judicial impropriety.”

The state Supreme Court in June vacated a ruling in a land dispute issued by Ciavarella in favor of First National Community Bank because of ties between the Dunmore-based bank and Ciavarella and his co-defendant in a corruption case, Michael T. Conahan.

The rulings followed a state Supreme Court decision last year overturning a $3.5 million verdict against The Citizens’ Voice after evidence surfaced that Conahan colluded with reputed mob boss William “Big Billy” D’Elia to steer the case to Ciavarella — assuring a favorable verdict for plaintiff Thomas Joseph, a D’Elia associate.