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First Posted: 11/14/2010
MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG — Drug offenses, gun charges, theft and drunken driving turned up in the backgrounds of some state lawmakers when the entire Pennsylvania General Assembly was checked against public records, news accounts and other sources.
At least five lawmakers were found to have convictions of criminal offenses. Six others had convictions in cases that were later expunged or stricken or had arrests that were resolved without convictions by completing a diversion program. Another five who turned up in The Associated Press investigation with records of arrests or citations either won acquittals or their cases were dropped.
In one case, a lawmaker’s 1996 arrest for disorderly conduct in North Carolina remained, unresolved, on the books until the AP began asking about it. It was dismissed late last month.
The AP’s background inquiry was undertaken as three current lawmakers face felony corruption trials next year related to the Bonusgate investigation into alleged corruption in the state house.
No felonies were uncovered and the misdeeds — many dating back decades — are not likely to result in expulsion under the Pennsylvania Constitution’s language barring anyone from serving in public office who has been convicted of an “infamous crime.”
But the state Supreme Court is poised to interpret that vague phrase in a pending case regarding whether a federal felony conviction should have prevented a man from serving as mayor in Wrightsville, a Susquehanna River town in York County. Previous state court cases have determined that infamous crimes include all felonies, but former Wrightsville Mayor Steve Rambler’s conviction was for a federal charge the state Superior Court said would have been a misdemeanor under state law.
State lawmakers’ criminal histories raise questions about what crimes should be a bar to public office, as well as how accountable political candidates and officeholders should be for offenses committed decades ago. As lawmakers, should they should be held to a higher standard, or can years of public service outweigh past mistakes?
Two lawmakers’ decades-old shoplifting cases, and a third who pleaded guilty in 1987 to possessing a gun with a scratched-off identification mark, show how the constitution’s “infamous crime” prohibition lacks clarity.
That’s because “infamous crime” has been defined by the courts to encompass offenses that affect the administration of justice, or are “crimen falsi,” a Latin legal term for offenses with an element of dishonesty that include bribery, perjury, theft and receiving stolen property.
The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office declined to comment about whether those three lawmakers should be removed, and district attorneys in the lawmakers’ home districts expressed reluctance to seek their ouster, in part because the offenses happened so long ago.
Under state law, the term “infamous crime” does not necessarily mean a violent, or even serious, offense. Pennsylvania courts have ruled, for example, that it did not apply to a borough councilman who pleaded guilty to various offenses after he held his girlfriend at gunpoint in a car for three hours.
Rambler, the former Wrightsville mayor, pleaded guilty in 1996 to a federal felony charge of mailing threatening communications for sending about 30 letters — threatening to make public sexually explicit photos of people he’d contacted through swinger’s magazines — unless they each paid him $50. Superior Court ruled in March that he should not have been removed from office, because the same offense would be a misdemeanor under state law. The York County district attorney is pursuing an appeal.
The high court could rule narrowly on the facts surrounding the case, or provide some broader guidelines to interpret the term “infamous crimes.”
Three awaiting trial
In the Pennsylvania General Assembly, among the 19 members with arrest records are three currently awaiting trial: Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, Rep. John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, and Sen. Jane Orie, R-Allegheny.
All three are charged separately with misusing their offices by diverting staff or equipment for campaign purposes, and all three have vigorously denied the charges. Perzel, a 16-term incumbent, lost re-election on Nov. 2, while DeWeese and Orie were re-elected.
Former Reps. Steve Stetler, D-York, and Brett Feese, R-Lycoming, are also among the defendants awaiting trial in the attorney general’s Bonusgate investigation that has charged state lawmakers and aides with illegally diverting staff and government resources to run campaigns, and for other improper purposes. Orie, facing similar charges, is being prosecuted by the Allegheny County district attorney’s office.
Former Rep. Mike Veon, D-Beaver, and former Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, are both serving prison sentences after being convicted of public-corruption charges in separate cases.
The most extensive arrest record the AP search turned up belonged to Rep. John Myers, D-Philadelphia. His only conviction was a February 1987 guilty plea to having an unlicensed .38-caliber handgun, with an obliterated serial number, concealed in his vehicle, according to court records. He was sentenced to 15 months’ probation.
Myers also was charged in Philadelphia with assault with intent to kill in 1972, and marijuana possession in 1980, but both cases were dismissed. He was accused of shooting at someone in Philadelphia in 1981, but was acquitted.
Myers did not return several messages seeking comment, but a House Democratic caucus spokesman said Myers’ gun conviction was not grounds for his removal from office. House Democratic spokesman Brett Marcy said caucus attorneys who reviewed the case, after the AP questioned it, concluded it does not prove Myers’ dishonesty. Marcy noted the offense occurred more than two decades ago.
“It would be highly unlikely that a court would determine that a … guilty plea resulting from the removal of a manufacturer’s mark from a firearm renders Rep. Myers ineligible to seek or hold public office, especially considering the underlying facts and circumstances of the crime,” Marcy said.
Records for a 1988 drug case involving Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, D-Delaware, failed to turn up in a courthouse search. The state police background check said the case resulted in a no-contest plea by Kirkland, who was 33 years old at the time.
Kirkland told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1992, during his first campaign for state House, that he had been addicted to cocaine and received treatment.
“That’s my past and I refuse to talk about it. That’s been taken care of,” he told The AP in July, then hung up.
The Inquirer said Kirkland’s record was expunged after he paid restitution for the cost of the undercover drug purchases.
Some shoplifting convictions
Two lawmakers have shoplifting convictions, according to state police: Sen. Leanna Washington, D-Philadelphia, in the suburb of Lower Merion Township, in 1977; and Rep. Gary Day, R-Lehigh, in State College, in 1988.
They are unquestionably minor offenses, but theft is a category of crimen falsi, and state appellate decisions have said crimen falsi violations amount to infamous crimes. Whether they are sufficient to warrant removal from office may one day be an issue for the courts to decide.
Day said he pleaded guilty to a summary citation for taking a box of film from a drug store as a 21-year-old student.
“This is not an infamous crime or anything that would disqualify me,” Day said.
Washington said she does not remember being arrested, adding that she has changed as a person since that period and that an old shoplifting offense should not keep someone from office.
Michael Engle, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said it was unlikely somebody with a summary retail theft conviction would be barred from holding office.
Faced felony charges
Rep. Scott Perry, R-York, faced felony charges in 2002 of conspiring to falsify state-mandated sewage records related to a business he co-owns, Hydrotech Mechanical Services Inc. He avoided a conviction and completed the state’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program that is designed for first-time, nonviolent defendants.
Perry, who maintains his innocence, called it a “last-minute, at-the-courtroom deal that was never supposed to happen, but it did.”
At least four current state lawmakers have been arrested for drunken driving — Rep. Dave Levdansky, D-Allegheny, Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria and Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh. Levdansky, Boscola and Wozniak were all accepted into ARD. Levdansky may have lost re-election Nov. 2; his race had not been finally resolved as of late Friday.
Criminal scandals occur
Criminal scandals have arisen in the General Assembly periodically in recent decades. Just this spring and summer, federal investigators executed search warrants at the homes or offices of Sen. Bob Mellow, D-Peckville, Sen. Ray Musto, D-Pittston Twp., and Rep. Bill Keller, D-Philadelphia. None has been charged with a crime.
Former members of the General Assembly who have been convicted of criminal charges in recent years include former Reps. Jeff Habay, R-Allegheny, Linda Bebko-Jones, D-Erie, and Frank LaGrotta, D-Beaver. Habay did jail time, and LaGrotta is currently defending himself against prescription drug charges.
Going back a decade or so, Pennsylvania legislators have pleaded guilty to or were found guilty of perjury, extortion, environmental crimes, tax-related offenses and violating federal surplus property laws.
Neither the House nor the Senate systematically checks the backgrounds of members to verify they are fit to serve, but an arrest record can be a problem for candidates on the campaign trail. Legal experts say if a candidate’s criminal history includes an “infamous crime,” they could get thrown off the ballot if someone files a court challenge to their nominating papers.
In recent history, lawmakers have generally resigned rather than go through an expulsion hearing after being convicted.