The Democratic nominee for state attorney general said Monday that an independent prosecutor should be appointed to take over the investigation of alleged corruption in the Legislature from Republican incumbent Tom Corbett.

John Morganelli, the Northampton County district attorney, said Corbett has a conflict of interest because of contributions he received for his 2004 campaign from Republican legislative leaders who were in power during the period that is being investigated.

Morganelli also questioned whether Corbett’s office adequately protected evidence in Republican hands while pursuing the first round of charges against House Democrats.  read more »

A second computer technician charged with carrying out an electronic cover-up in the federal corruption case against State Sen. Vince Fumo has agreed to plead guilty.

Mark C. Eister, 38, of Camp Hill, who worked in Fumo’s Harrisburg office, will plead guilty on Tuesday before a federal judge, according to a document filed yesterday in federal district court.

Leonard P. Luchko, a computer aide who worked in Fumo’s district office on Tasker Street in South Philadelphia, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of conspiracy and 28 counts of obstruction of justice.  read more »

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Fumo Aide Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case

A former state lawmaker and an aide avoided jail time by pleading guilty Tuesday to forging signatures, including a dead person’s, on nominating petitions for the 2006 primary.

Linda Bebko-Jones, 62, and her former chief of staff, Mary B. Fiolek, 60, were both sentenced in Dauphin County to 12 months’ probation and fined $1,500.

They each pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges — forging and submitting false signatures and criminal conspiracy. All other charges were dismissed.

On Wednesday the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a Commonwealth Court decision striking down the amendments to the state’s hate crimes law that added sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, gender, and mental and physical disability in 2002. The law was overturned based on the procedural way the legislation was passed by the legislature, not the content of the law.

The law, known as the Ethnic Intimidation and Institutional Vandalism Act, was amended to include protections for these groups of people by a two-thirds majority of the state House of Representatives and Senate. The legislation was signed into law by Republican Governor Mark Schweiker.  read more »

U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan this morning told his staff that he intends to step down as the top federal prosecutor for the eastern part of Pennsylvania and practice law.

Meehan, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) and former Delaware County District Attorney, will hold a news conference this afternoon to formally announce his plans.

While I am glad to see that it looks like the current slate of nominees are well on their way to confirmation, I’m still peeved that the whole process took so long. At this point, some these judges are going to be on the bench for as little as six months. Some will need a few months to get up to speed.

This is what Chief Justice Castille had to say about his fellow Republican Johnny Butler:

“Johnny Butler will have the hardest time trying to become an appellate judge.

At least on the Commonwealth Court they handle a lot of labor-related cases, workers’ comp and things like that. So he’ll have a grounding in that area of the law,” Castille said.  read more »

A Philadelphia ordinance banning the sale of cigars and single cigarettes used by illegal drug-takers was partly thrown out and partly upheld yesterday by a divided appeals court.

The Commonwealth Court majority invalidated a January 2007 ban on flavored tobacco products and on cigarettes sold individually or in pairs, making them likely to be used for drugs.  read more »

So much for the Republican’s claim that they rejected Rendell’s first set of nominees because they were not diverse.

Gov. Edward G. Rendell’s short list of candidates to serve interim terms on the state appellate courts has evolved from one focused on geographic, racial and gender diversity to one that would include a pair of nominees picked by Senate Republican leaders.

Sources close to and involved in the vetting process said Rendell initially had planned to nominate a female common pleas judge from Philadelphia, a veteran judge from the Lehigh Valley, an African-American judge or lawyer from Allegheny County and a Republican lawyer from Chester County.  read more »