Pennsylvania’s next attorney general will have a full slate of matters to investigate. Some of these issues have languished for years in the Republican-controlled attorney general’s office. In no particular order, some of these issues include:
The Sandusky / Penn State/ Corbett scandal
Complaints against Jerry Sandusky first were made in the 1990s. Why did Pennsylvania’s former attorney general, Tom Corbett, for years fail to file charges against Sandusky?
At the same time AG Corbett failed to prosecute Sandusky, Corbett accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions from board members Sandusky’s Second Mile charity. As governor, Corbett approved a multi-million dollar state grant to Second Mile.
Instead of prosecuting Sandusky, Corbett allocated great resources to the political prosecution known as “Bonusgate.” What was going on here, and were any laws or ethical restrictions broken?
The Second Mile and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare
In 1998 Centre County Children and Youth, supervised by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Office of Children, Youth and Families, heard complaints that Jerry Sandusky was showering with a boy at Penn State. At the time, both the state and the county departments charged with protecting children for some reason dropped the ball. For years afterward, the state Department of Public Welfare continued to refer disadvantaged youth to the Second Mile Charity. As well, the state agency signed off on adoptions of young boys to Sandusky. What went wrong with the state and county child protection agencies, and were laws broken
The disappearance of Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar
When Centre County DA Ray Gricar vanished from the face of the earth in April 2005, newly elected AG Tom Corbett refused to investigate. Instead, Corbett’s office suggested that DA Gricar had “wandered off.” As we now know, Gricar was a central figure in the botched investigation of Jerry Sandusky. What really happened to DA Gricar, and what does the AG’s office staff know of the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and lack of serious investigation?
PA Senate Republican involvement in political activities and the cases of the Orie sisters and the State Supreme Court
While he was running for governor, Republican AG Tom Corbett based his campaign on the highly political “Bonusgate” prosecutions, mostly involving prominent state Democrats. But Corbett did not investigate or charge anyone in the Pennsylvania state senate. Nonetheless, the Allegheny County district attorney brought similar corruption charges against Republican state senator Jane Orie, and her sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
A staff member of Senator Orie says she first contacted Corbett’s AG office with corruption allegations, but was turned away. Why did Corbett protect the Republican-controlled state senate, and what other illegal activities may have happened there and in the state Supreme Court?
The Hershey Trust
In September 2011, the Chronicle of Philanthropy wrote, “For two decades neither the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office nor the Internal Revenue Service has been willing to take serious action to remedy the abuses that have plagued one of the wealthiest nonprofits in America, the Milton Hershey School for poor children.
“It is one of the longest lingering scandals in the modern nonprofit world and one of the most glaring examples of the abuses of the public trust that can happen when regulators fail to keep a close eye on a charity’s governance.”
The Chronicle noted at the time that former Republican AG LeRoy Zimmerman, a close ally of former AG Corbett, and father-in-law to GOP AG hopeful David Freed, oversaw the trust.
In recent years, the Trust has been hit with a variety of unexploded allegations, including a lawsuit filed by former Trust board member Bob Reese charging the charity with a slew of financial improprieties, as well as other allegations of sexual abuse at the Hershey School.
Conflicts of interest and malfeasance in Pennsylvania courts, and failure of the court’s disciplinary boards to investigate lawyers and judges
In a blatant conflict of interest, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille recently refused to recuse himself from the death penalty case of Terrance Williams, though Castille had been the district attorney.
It took The New York Times to editorialize the obvious: “Chief Justice Ronald Castille has a classic and flagrant conflict of interest: he is passing judgment on a prosecution that he approved and oversaw, and on a trial judge’s ruling that strongly censured that prosecution. He was the Philadelphia district attorney in 1986 and accountable for the serious misconduct that led to Mr. Williams’ death sentence.”
What other misconduct do the state courts conceal?
York Pennsylvania courthouse corruption
Where to begin in York, Pennsylvania? Two former public officials, including the police commissioner, have long sought a criminal investigation of a prostitution ring centered around the county courthouse. As well, York County Judge Tom Kelley’s former girlfriend alleges that Judge Kelley broke her arm in a domestic dispute. The county DA referred the case to the AG’s office, which has refused to take action against Kelley.
York County insiders complain the state AG’s office has long protected the courthouse corruption, and state courts.
