The I-Team at WBRE28 is reporting that target letters were sent to several law firms in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties in the ongoing corruption probe of the Luzerne County Courts. The I-Team has also reported that at least one district justice from Luzerne County has been questioned by federal agents.
In an unrelated matter the Times Leader reported that Robert Powell was once accused by another attorney where the allegation states Powell asked "a witness to falsely state he had cancelled an interview that was scheduled with the defense."
The allegations are contained in a transcript of a hearing held on Dec. 12, 2005, before Olszewski at which Carey questioned whether Powell had attempted to thwart his attempts to conduct a pre-trial interview – known as a deposition – of Dr. Clark Gerhart
According to the transcript, Carey was scheduled to interview Gerhart on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005, but Powell advised him the day before that Gerhart had cancelled the deposition because he was in Germany and could not attend.
Carey subsequently learned that Gerhart was, in fact, in Wilkes-Barre and had cleared his schedule so that he could be interviewed, according to the transcript. He also learned that a paralegal from Powell’s office had called Gerhart’s office and asked the staff to write a letter stating it was Gerhart who cancelled the deposition, according to the transcript. The staff refused, however, because they felt they were being asked to do something that was “fraudulent,” according to the transcript.
Sources confirmed that the Disciplinary Board of the state Supreme Court investigated the case and dismissed the complaint.
The State Supreme Court track record from a PR perspective is not looking too good these days.
Look at Paul Carpenter's column in the Sunday Morning Call. He was discussing the leaks in the Louis DeNaples case.
The Supremes prevented Dauphin County prosecutors from moving ahead with DeNaples' criminal case by saying the Supreme Court had exclusive ''jurisdiction'' over all matters involving DeNaples.
The part of Tuesday's ruling that addresses grand jury leaks tells the Dauphin County Court to ''appoint a special prosecutor to conduct further inquiry into the allegations of the secrecy provisions of the investigating Grand Jury Act.''
Then comes the good part: ''This court [the Supremes] will continue to retain jurisdiction for the sole purpose of completing the inquiry into the question of the alleged violations of grand jury secrecy. The retention of jurisdiction for this limited purpose shall not be construed as a stay by this court of any criminal prosecution.''
The prosecution ''stay'' lasted, I suspect, for as long as the Supremes thought they could get away with protecting DeNaples from accountability. As reporter Matt Assad revealed Feb. 1, ''DeNaples has had no preliminary hearing'' since he was charged with perjury in January of last year. Shortly after that, Assad's story noted, the Supreme Court invoked ''extraordinary jurisdiction'' at the request of DeNaples' lawyers.
The power structure of state government, including the Supreme Court, has fallen all over itself to accommodate DeNaples and other gambling industry interests.
In the case of DeNaples....the process was so obviously rotten that not even the Supremes could keep a lid on it forever.
This group of judges is the same Supreme Court that turned down the petition of the Juvenile Law Center to review the childrens' complaints of massive rights violations in Luzerne County on January 8, 2009 only to have it fly back at them with the indictment of former Judges Ciavarella and Conahan on January 26, 2009.
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