News

March 31, 2011

Cordaro, Munchak plead not guilty

By Rich Howells rhowells@golackawanna.com
Reporter/Photographer

SCRANTON – Lackawanna County Commissioner A.J. Munchak and former Commissioner Robert Cordaro plead “not guilty” this morning to a superseding indictment filed against them on Tuesday.

The pair were arraigned before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Thomas Blewitt in the federal courthouse in Scranton at 11 a.m. Cordaro entered a “not guilty” plea, while Munchak declared himself “absolutely not guilty.”

“I wish the trial was tomorrow. I’m innocent, and I’m confident that my name will be cleared,” Munchak said while leaving the courthouse. He declined further comment.

“We’re very comfortable with the truth of this case. We’re very comfortable with the facts of this case. (My attorney) Bill (Costopoulos) said it when we started this process – we are also very comfortable despite the trend around here that we’re going to get a fair jury. If we get a fair jury, we’ll be fine,” Cordaro added.

They face a 41-count indictment charging them with racketeering, money laundering, honest services fraud, bribery, extortion, and other offenses. The latest indictment filed on Tuesday made 15 technical changes to the second indictment, including the addition of two money laundering charges against Cordaro. While they had previously pleaded not guilty, these changes required another arraignment.

Federal prosecutors allege that Cordaro and Munchak used their positions as county commissioners to extort money from companies that did business with the county in what some have called a “pay to play” scheme.

“Bill’s been practicing for a while, and I’ve been a lawyer for a while – I’ve never seen this before. It seems like everything is done for the maximum publicity purposes here when I thought my government should be concerned about the truth. The deals they’ve made with people, the promises they’ve made, the things they’ve told people to get them to make the statements that bring us here today – all those things don’t seem intended to get to the truth,” Cordaro said after today’s arraignment.

“They seem to be intended to convict someone and to prosecute someone, and I don’t think that’s the way the government should be proceeding, but that’s what we have here. Politics is often a dirty business here in Lackawanna County.”

He declined further comment on these alleged “political” motivations.

Cordaro and Munchak were first indicted on March 16, 2010, on multiple counts, including racketeering, honest services fraud, money laundering, extortion, and bribery. A second superseding indictment was filed in October to ensure the charges were in compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared certain sections of the honest services fraud statute to be unconstitutional.

The latest superseding indictment made mostly technical changes to this indictment, primarily grammatical and legal clarifications, although two money laundering charges were also added against Cordaro.

Cordaro said that he has requested further clarification of these changes.

“We’ve asked for (details). We hope we get them. I don’t want to say more than that, but I think we’re entitled to them. We’re entitled to know when these things happen. We’re entitled to know who said what, and that’s how we’re going to defend ourselves in June. The key thing is we don’t want to continue this trial. We want to get it going. We want to do it and get it over with,” he explained.

In a motion filed March 24, Munchak asked that the trial be moved from Wilkes-Barre to Scranton, arguing that it would be more convenient for himself, their lawyers, and potential witnesses who live and work closer to the William J. Nealon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in downtown Scranton. No mention of this motion was made at today’s arraignment.

“It would be helpful. It’s the same jury pool, so it doesn’t really matter in that respect, but it would be helpful because we have offices within range of this courthouse and it would be more convenient, but that’s the judge’s decision, though,” Cordaro said.

The trial is still scheduled to begin June 6 in the Max Rosenn Federal Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.

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