Toole knew political powers

WILKES-BARRE – Michael Toole’s downfall has been rumored for months, largely because of people he associated with.

The most notable incidents were the revelation that he had visited the Florida condo of former judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, and questions raised about dealings with attorney Robert Powell, also charged with corruption.

The federal paperwork outlined more questionable relationships, with accusations that he enjoyed free vacations on the Jersey shore in exchange for helping an attorney fix an arbitration hearing.

Toole is the son of former Luzerne County President Judge Patrick J. Toole, who served 26 years as a county judge, including a stint as president judge, before retiring in 2003. He still serves as a senior judge.

Patrick Toole did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday afternoon. A secretary in his county office said he was “unavailable” but would not confirm if he was in the office. His docket was full Wednesday morning. The elder Toole has garnered wide respect in the local legal community.

Michael Toole was part of a family of high achievers, according to Times Leader archives, with two brothers and a sister: Dr. Joseph Toole, Dr. Lisa DeMichele and Patrick Toole III. The family belonged to St. Therese Church in Wilkes-Barre.

The younger Judge Toole graduated from the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law, class of 1985, according to a 2004 article in the school’s alumni newsletter. Toole was honored in May of that year by the Northeast Pennsylvania chapter of the school’s alumni association for his success in landing the county post.

His local legal career included work as a clerk with his father, something he touted in his run for county judge in 2003. He also served as assistant solicitor for Wilkes-Barre Area School District, and solicitor for the Wilkes-Barre Area Vocational Technical School, now called a Career and Technology Center.

Those two posts alone would have put him in touch with many of the area’s political movers, with nine members on the school board that runs the second largest district in Luzerne County, and representatives from four other districts on the vo-tech’s Joint Operating Committee.

As a lawyer, Michael Toole had worked in Ciavarella’s law firm and had picked up some other fairly prominent government assignments. In 1993, Wilkes-Barre city hired him to handle a property dispute with prominent local businessman Seymour Holtzman, owner of Jewelcor.

The Luzerne Intermediate Unit, an education agency run by representatives from 12 area school boards, hired him to handle a lengthy case involving teacher Leonard Jerrytone. And he was the attorney and spokesman for then-Wilkes-Barre City Councilman Tom Leighton, now mayor.

Newly elected county Judge Bill Amesbury counted Michael Toole among his friends during an interview in October. Amesbury, a magisterial district judge, was running for the county post at the time, and noted that he and Toole live in the same neighborhood. Amesbury was sworn in as magisterial judge by Toole in January 2008, while three other judges were sworn in by Ciavarella at the same ceremony.

When Toole ran for the post as county judge he proved to be a formidable fundraiser, garnering $280,000 for his campaign, including $116,266 from lawyers. He handily won the Democratic and Republican nominations in the primaries, and went on to win in November.

Attempts to reach Toole on Wednesday failed. The number for his River Street home was disconnected, and no one answered the door at the residence. His attorney, Frank Nocito, said he had no comment.