Olszewski’s goose cooked by photo, analyst contends

WILKES-BARRE – Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski’s bid for retention was essentially doomed the day a photo of him posing with a convicted drug dealer and disgraced former colleague was made public, a local political analyst said.

Tom Baldino, a political science professor at Wilkes University, said the photo, coupled with the hostile political environment created by the ongoing corruption scandal, created a virtually insurmountable obstacle for Olszewski.

The photo, sent anonymously to media outlets in September, was taken in June 2005 when Olszewski was vacationing at a Florida condominium owned by former judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, who are facing corruption charges. It showed him standing with Conahan and Ronald Belletiere, who was convicted of running the Empire Drug ring in Hazleton in the mid 1980’s.

The implication, whether true or not, was that Olszewski was involved with persons accused and/or convicted of wrongdoing, Baldino said.

“The outcome is the will of the public. It may not be just because Olszewski may, indeed, be innocent of any wrongdoing, but it is the system we have,” Baldino said.

Baldino and other political analysts had believed Judge Thomas Burke might also suffer from the backlash of voter outrage, but vote totals show Burke relatively unscathed.

According to unofficial results, Burke received 35,580 “yes” votes to 22,471 “no votes,” which translates to 61.3 percent “yes” and 38.7 percent “no.”

That’s not far from the results in the retention elections for Judge Joseph Augello in 2001 and former judge Michael Conahan in 2003. Augello garnered 72 percent “yes” votes while Conahan received 73 percent “yes” votes.

Burke’s totals were better than those for former Judge Ann Lokuta, who received 57 percent “yes” votes in her 2001 retention bid, and former Judge Mark Ciavarella, who got 59 percent “yes” in 2005.

“It’s pretty clear Olszewski was singled out because Burke was retained. If both were voted out you could say both were victims of the ‘throw the rascals out’ (mentality), but that wasn’t the case,” Baldino said.

It’s rare for a sitting court of commons pleas judge not to win retention. Since 1992, only eight judges out of thousands who serve have not been retained, according to data collected by Lynn Marks of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

Locally, the last judge to lose retention was Frank Eagen in Lackawanna County. Eagen lost his seat in 1997 after an investigation into his handling of estate matters became public.

David Sosar, a political science professor at King’s College, said Olszewski also was hurt because arrests related to the corruption probe continued throughout the year.

It was initially believed the arrests of Conahan and Ciavarella, which occurred in January, might not impact the retention election because it was 11 months away. No one knew then that 17 more people, including school and municipal officials, would also be charged.

The latest arrest of Anthony Spinozza, a Hanover Area School director accused of accepting a bribe, occurred on Oct. 21, just two weeks before the election.

“Had all this stuff taken place back in May or June, there may have been enough time for this to have toned down and Judge Olszewski would not have had as much to overcome,” Sosar said. “Every day we’re hearing of more people caught in this web . . . The more that stays as an open sore, that leads people to think about it and worry about it. That transferred itself (Tuesday) night.”

“He was a hardworking judge. I really thought his record would overcome the bad publicity, but because of the judicial scandal, I was dead wrong,” said attorney Mike Butera of Pittston.

Butera said the result was particularly shocking because Olszewski, a former district attorney, had won prior elections, first to the district attorney office and then the judgeship, by wide margins.

Butera and attorneys Barry Dyller of Wilkes-Barre and Robert Gillespie of Hazleton described Olszewski as hard worker who demanded the best from himself as well as those who appeared before him.

“He was one of the hardest workers I ever met when he was DA and when he was a judge,” Dyller said. “He did not tolerate fools who did not come prepared. He expected quality and let people know when he thought he wasn’t getting it.”