TimesLeader.com

Conahan, Scalleats tied for decades

Ex-judge was involved in numerous business dealings with area family that has been linked to the mob.

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer

As varied as the property deals were that Michael T. Conahan handled as an attorney, a familiar name often appeared with his on the paperwork.

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Conahan represented members of the Scalleat family in their sale and purchase of real estate and mortgaging of the properties over the past 26 years.

With his wife, Barbara and sister, Elizabeth, Conahan purchased the Fort Lauderdale condominium from Albert and Rose Scalleat for $10 in 1989, according to Broward County property records. The Conahans would later obtain a $100,000 mortgage for the property in the Sea Ranch Club condominium and satisfy the loan as paid in full in 1997.

At the time of the purchase Conahan was a district justice in Hazleton and Albert Scalleat had been linked to organized crime by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission.

The 1980 and 1990 reports said Albert and his brother Joseph Scalleat Sr. of Hazleton were members of the crime family run by Russell Bufalino of Kingston. “Both Joseph and Albert Scalleat have been involved with crime figures for decades,” the report said.

The reports further detailed the brothers’ business dealings in paper products, garment manufacturing and beer and beverage distribution. It also highlighted Joseph Scalleat’s 1951 appearance in Washington, D.C., before the U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce.

“I decline to answer that question,” he said repeatedly during his sworn testimony.

Joseph Scalleat Sr. and Bufalino have since died.

Albert Scalleat could not be reached for comment Monday.

It would not be the first time Conahan’s name would come up for being associated with organized crime figures. Testimony at a recent appeal of a defamation case in Luzerne County court put Conahan and reputed mob boss and Bufalino associate William D’Elia together.

Robert Kulick testified he and D’Elia met regularly with Conahan for breakfast and discussed cases pending in the court. A county security guard said she delivered envelopes to Conahan from D’Elia, who parked in the rear of the courthouse.

Conahan and Mark A.Ciavarella, the former judge who ruled against The Citizens’ Voice newspaper in the defamation case, face unrelated criminal charges.

A federal grand jury indicted the two men last month on racketeering charges for their alleged participation in a $2.6 million kickback scheme related to the construction of two juvenile detention centers and the placement of youths in the facilities in Pittston Township and Butler County.

Conahan could not be reached through his attorney Philip Gelso.

Conahan represented a member of the Scalleat family in a 1983 property purchase in Bucks County. Rose Scalleat bought a property in Fairless Hills for $1 from Realty Research and Development Corp. and later obtained a mortgage from the company for $138,250, according to the Bucks County Recorder of Deeds.

Realty Research and Development was based in Minersville, Schuylkill County and headed by Maurice S. Hepps who also was the principal stockholder in General Programming Inc., a beer distributor franchising company.

The crime commission reports linked Joseph Scalleat Sr. to William Paulosky, the president of General Programming.

Joseph Scalleat was listed as an employee of Beer Sales Consultants Inc., an affiliated company of General Programming, according to the reports. He also figured prominently in a federal grand jury investigation in 1975 for allegedly threatening to blow the porches off the houses of Pennsylvania senators who were behind the effort to have one of their own, Frank Mazzei, expelled from the Senate.

Mazzei was accused of arranging for the dismissal of the chief counsel of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board who pursued a case against General Programming for operating as a chain of distributors in violation of the liquor control code. The distributors were ordered to stop doing business as a group. General Programming took the case to court and lost. It was appealed to the state Supreme Court. In the meantime a friend of Mazzei’s was appointed to PLCB post and allowed the distributors to stay in business while the case was on appeal. The state Supreme Court upheld the lower court decision against General Programming.

No charges were filed against Joseph Scalleat Sr. as a result of the grand jury investigation.

Conahan also represented Albert and Rose Scalleat’s son Albert R. Scalleat in his business dealings in Bucks County and also was an officer in one of the younger Scalleat’s companies, Byrnco Inc. The company created in 1985, according to state records, listed Conahan as treasurer. Conahan did not list Byrnco among his business interests on the financial statements judicial officers are required to file with the state.

Nor did Conahan list the $300,000 mortgage he held in The Golden Slipper Lounge, a gentlemen’s club in Bristol Township. He represented Albert R. Scalleat’s company 3025 J.F.S. Ltd in the sale of the property in 1990 to 3025 M&M Inc. Four years later he filed a mortgage foreclosure and a $350,987 award was entered against the lounge owner. The property was sold twice after that and operates as Club Risque.

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader staff writer, can be contacted at 570 829-7237.