TL District Attorney

By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Sheena Delazio on Facebook   |   @TLSheenaDelazio on Twitter

About the only thing Luzerne County District Attorney candidates Stefanie Salavantis and incumbent Jackie Musto Carroll have in common is passion to be the county’s top prosecutor.

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Musto Carroll

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Salavantis

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Money Spent

For both the primary and general elections, Musto Carroll spent a total of $70,310, and has an unpaid debt of $25,000, which is a loan she received from her parents.

For the general election, Salavantis spent a total of $184,249, and has an unpaid debt of $165,000 in loans she received from her parents.

Jackie Musto Carroll

Age: 50

Education: Attended Penn State University; bachelor of science in business administration in 1982 from The University of Scranton; juris doctor in 1985 from the Temple University School of Law

Community affiliations: Kiwanis Club of Pittston; former board member of the Catholic Youth Center, Wilkes-Barre; the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association and the National District Attorney’s Association

Family: Husband, Timothy Carroll; three sons; daughter of Gerard and Domenica Musto

Stefanie Salavantis

Age: 29

Education: Temple University, bachelor’s degree in business management; Thomas Cooley Law School, juris doctor

Community affiliations: Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce; Luzerne County Young Republicans; Young Lawyers Division of the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association

Family: single; parents, Harry and Cletta Salavantis; four siblings

They are more than 20 years apart in age; Musto Carroll has been a prosecutor for more than 20 years; Salavantis has been an attorney for two years and has never prosecuted a criminal case.

Salavantis, 29, of Kingston Township, garnered enough write-in votes in May to obtain a ballot position against Musto Carroll on Nov. 8. No other Republicans sought the nomination.

Since then, Salavantis has waged a media offensive against Musto Carroll, using television and radio advertisements.

Musto Carroll, 50, of Pittston Township, has served as district attorney for the last four years after winning a primary battle with current county solicitor Vito DeLuca in 2007.

Media salvos

Salavantis’ campaign has included a commercial and radio advertisements alleging Musto Carroll did nothing to protect juveniles from the “kids for cash” scandal and that the district attorney defended the decisions of former Judge Mark Ciavarella.

Salavantis cites a brief written by Musto Carroll and Assistant District Attorney Frank Barletta in May 2008, in which the prosecutors ask the state Supreme Court to deny the request of three specific juveniles for a hearing after they alleged their rights were violated by Ciavarella.

“Elections are about accountability, and (Musto Carroll) needs to explain to the people of Luzerne County why she specifically argued that the Supreme Court should uphold the convictions of three juveniles despite the fact that they had no legal representation,” Salavantis said in a recent press release.

Salavantis said in an interview that Musto Carroll should have been in the courtrooms where juveniles were and protected their rights. Salavantis even alleges in a TV ad that Musto Carroll didn’t bother to take a “three-minute ride” from the main courthouse to another county building to check on juvenile proceedings.

“It’s been one thing after another,” Salavantis charged.

Salavantis has also questioned Musto Carroll’s “know-nothing” approach to what went on in Ciavarella’s courtrooms and said what the district attorney has done in response to the scandal – including assigning specific attorneys to juvenile court and several programs – is “too little, too late.”

Musto Carroll told The Times Leader endorsement board there is a “lack of understanding as to what occurred to say that people in the system should have known something.”

Musto Carroll said inside the courtroom, what Ciavarella did was fail to put the juveniles right to waive their counsel on the record.

Musto Carroll said assistant district attorneys and public defenders did not see red flags or any change in the courtroom.

But outside the courtroom, she said, is where Ciavarella’s crimes occurred, citing the payments he took for placing juveniles in a local detention center.

Musto Carroll also responded to her May 2008 filing, stating the juveniles did not follow proper procedure when asking the Supreme Court to hear their case.

Musto Carroll said a lower court should have heard the juveniles’ complaints first, and then a higher court, and that proper procedure wasn’t followed.

Ultimately, “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed with us,” Musto Carroll said. “I have to enforce the rules and the law. Under the law, (the original request by the juveniles) was not the right avenue to take.”

Musto Carroll said she brought the handful of juveniles who made the request for hearings back before a county judge and that some still did not want an attorney to represent them.

“I agreed to vacate all of those convictions because I believed it was the right thing to do,” Musto Carroll said.

The incumbent said Salavantis’ accusations are baseless and are a lack of understanding.

“I think the most important question is what qualifies anyone to sit as a district attorney and do this job,” Musto Carroll said. “Not just her hurling mud and having a negative campaign.”

Experience cited

For the past 26 years, Musto Carroll has worked as a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office, and said she has served in every capacity an attorney can there.

The mother of three said what qualifies her to continue in the position is that she has been doing the job for the last four years.

“There’s a choice to make,” Musto Carroll said. “Do you want someone who has been an attorney for 26 years, who has lived in this community their entire life, who has raised a family, who has seen these issues, who has tried cases? Or someone who has made negative accusations. I think voters have more sense.”

A 2009 law school graduate, Salavantis works for an insurance defense firm and in her own practice. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in business management.

Salavantis said she became interested in law because she was intrigued by the “vast ways and abilities of attorneys to solve problems.”

She said she observed her father’s attorney, Jerome Cohen, a former district attorney, and admired his work.

She handles a variety of cases, including family, real estate and some criminal work, and said she is in and out of the courtroom on a daily basis, filing court papers and conducting depositions.

Salavantis completed her law school externship with Cohen and worked for him after she was admitted to the bar in 2009. She has also been an associate of attorney Robert Panowicz and his firm for about a year.

Panowicz’s daughter, Megan, is involved in a criminal case in Luzerne County Court, and Salavantis said she returned money Robert Panowicz donated to her campaign to avoid any perception of impropriety if she were elected. She also said she would forward the case to the state Attorney General’s Office to further ensure fairness.

Salavantis admitted in a recent interview that she has not tried a criminal case and does not have much experience in criminal law, but that she can still run the office efficiently.

Factoring into her decision to run was the fact that no one – including experienced prosecutors who work for Musto Carroll – was entering the race.

Salavantis said she did not think it was right that an incumbent go unopposed in both the primary and general elections.