Click here to subscribe today or Login.
HARRISBURG — With a federal judge rejecting his latest appeal this week, a former Lackawanna County commissioner will remain behind bars.
Robert Cordaro filed an appeal based on a 2016 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, “McDonnell v. United States,” a case against former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell concerning the definition of certain terms in federal bribery statutes.
Cordaro claimed in the appeal that the decision requires his convictions for extortion, bribery and racketeering to be vacated. Cordaro further claimed he is entitled to a new trial.
But U.S. District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo rejected Cordaro’s argument.
“Cordaro fails to demonstrate that it is more likely than not that no reasonable jury would have convicted him if the jury had been instructed in accordance with McDonnell,” Caputo said in a press release.
Cordaro, along with former Lackawanna County Commissioner A.J. Munchak, was convicted in 2011 on federal charges of racketeering and other corruption counts.
Investigators say the commissioners ran a criminal racket, pocketing at least $450,000 in cash and gifts in exchange for awarding county contracts.
In 2012, Cordaro was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and Munchak was sentenced to seven years. Their sentences were affirmed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 2013.
Cordaro has tried repeatedly to get his case overturned. After the conviction was affirmed, he made a motion saying his trial counsel was ineffective. That motion was denied by Caputo in 2015.
Cordaro then appealed Caputo’s ruling, but the Third Circuit Court of Appeals let it stand.