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Courtesy of our pals at the Post-Gazette, we learn that an activist is calling on Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin to step down as a result of the charges filed against her sisters.
Gene Stilp, a Harrisburg citizen activist and a Democrat running for the state House this year, filed a complaint today against Justice Melvin with the state Judicial Conduct Board, which oversees the conduct of judges.
This would, of course, be the same Judicial Conduct Board that Orie Melvin took the piss out of just a couple months ago, in one of her first acts on the Supreme Court bench.
That ruling concerned an effort to compel the board, which investigates claims of judicial misconduct, to turn over records pertaining to the Luzerne County “kids for cash” scandal. In that scandal, you may recall, the operator of a juvenile-detention facility was accused of paying off judges to sentence kids harshly, thereby furnishing a steady stream of profit-generating detainees.
In a tartly-worded opinion, Orie Melvin agreed that ordinarily, the judicial board should work confidentially (which it does in order to protect the reputation of judges under investigation). This time, however, she wanted the board’s records to be turned over — not just to the state agency seeking them, but to members of general public.
Melvin argued that by not doing more to prevent abuses in Luzerne County, the board’s “procedures have been called into question by the ‘kids-for-cash’ scandal.” And that meant the public had a right to know about how those procedures worked, or didn’t.
“[T]he question becomes just who or what are we protecting by maintaining confidentiality in this matter,” she added. If the agency didn’t open up its records, it “risks the appearance of an attempt to shield members of the judiciary, and those charged with judicial oversight, from public scrutiny.”
Orie Melvin had campaigned for office by decrying alleged corruption — with the Luzerne County case as Exhibit A. And it’s worth remembering that Luzerne case touched on a certain Greg Zappala, who was the business partner of the juvenile-detention facility operator accused of making kickbacks.
Greg Zappala was never charged in the case, let alone found guilty of any wrongdoing. But he is, of course, the brother of District Attorney Stephen Zappala … whose investigation of the Orie family is what prompted the complaint filed aginst Orie Melvin. Things seem to be coming full circle.
What could happen next?
At this point, anything seems possible. Maybe Orie Melvin will even start playing this old school, a la Rolf Larsen, and make all kinds of eyebrow-raising allegations against the first Zappala that comes to hand. (Her sisters have already got that ball rolling, it seems.)
Some old heads out there may recall how Larsen reacted when HE was acccused of ethical improprieties while on the Supreme Court bench a decade or two back. Then-Supreme Court justice Stephen A. Zappala — father of the current DA — reprimanded Larsen for talking with another judge about a case. And as the state House described in its articles of impeachment, Larsen’s response was to accuse Zappala of “receiv[ing] kickbacks for directing bond work to his brother’s underwriting firm,” among other things. Oh, and also of “commandeering a vehicle and attempt[ing] to run Justice Larsen down.”
Those allegations proved empty, and Larsen was later impeached — after being convicted of illegally obtaining prescription drugs. But for awhile there, he was the ringmaster of a judicial circus, a lurid spectacle Harrisburg could never hope to repeat.
Or could it? Stay tuned.
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2010.
Should not “Greg Zappala was never charged in the case” have been “Greg Zappala has not been charged in the case?”
Should not “Greg Zappala was never charged in the case” have been “Greg Zappala has not been charged in the case?”
You write:
“Those allegations proved empty, and Larsen was later impeached — after being convicted of illegally obtaining prescription drugs.”
A) When you say “proved empty”, you mean they were unsubstantiated, or proven wrong? If it’s the former the use of the word “prove” is a little unfortunate.
B) So that’s how this Larsen got taken out? Illegally obtaining prescription drugs, the horror? Or was there some other reason for his impeachment?
@ Bram — Larsen’s allegations spurred a lengthy grand jury investigation. No charges against Zappala (or Ralph Cappy, who Larsen also went after) were ever filed. “Proved empty” seemed like a good descriptor for a situation in which allegations are investigated but never become the basis of a charge. It’s hard to “prove” a negative in any event — though my recollection is that some of Larsen’s allegations were more thoroughly repudiated than others. (I recall the Zappala-tried-to-run-me-down allegation being especially weak.) In any case, the grand jury investigation ended up finding fault with Larsen instead.
The fact that Larsen had made these accusations became one of the reasons the state House unanimously voted to impeach him — the articles of impeachment accused him of making the allegations in bad faith. But the Senate rejected that article. Senators apparently didn’t think the accusations were made with a reckless disregard for the truth, though they never resulted in an actual charge, let alone a conviction. At the time, some Senators said the circumstances surrounding some of Zappala’s actions remained murky.
As for the drugs, Larsen’s impeachment process was taking place at roughly the same time he was facing criminal charges on the prescription drug issue. The House included that charge in seven articles of impeachment against Larsen, and he was convicted in a separate criminal case of illegally obtaining them. But the Senate rejected the prescription drug charge too, even though Larsen had been sentenced for it a few months before. It upheld only one of the seven articles of impeachment: the allegation that he’d decided which cases to hear based on guidance from a lawyer who was a political supporter.
Hope that clears things up; this was a complicated issue with multiple tracks, and the history is easily tangled. Hell, I may be muddled about it still, though I’ve tried to refresh my memory with some old books and such lying around.
@ Infinonymous — I won’t quibble over wording, though one would think that if charges were ever going to be filed, it would have happened by now.
The next batch of Luzerne County corruption charges is expected to be revealed within a week or two, and another round is extremely likely to occur after investigators identify the the number and quality of rats in this month’s catch. This does not mean any particular person will be charged (or not) — although some names are leaking — but it suggests that the investigation and arrests will continue for some time. Apparently, there was plenty of corruption to go around. Plus, there’s the whole “jailing innocent children for millions in profit” angle, which apparently bothers some people.
“It upheld only one of the seven articles of impeachment: the allegation that he’d decided which cases to hear based on guidance from a lawyer who was a political supporter.”
Thanks for all that info. I must say it looks as of now like there’s a strong and perhaps simple case against Orie. But I still can’t get over the question: how is this happening more or less right after Orie went on a streak criticizing the Zappalas publicly, pyrotechnically? I know the investigation has roots in a former intern and besides has gone back years, but I don’t believe in coincidences. Maybe Orie learned something was likely to come, and started her anti-Zappala campaign based in part on planting a “politics!” defense? Or perhaps the DA has investigations and established dirt on tons of legislators, sitting in his file cabinet, gathering dust until one of them deserves punishment for personal reasons. Who knows. All I know is that I’m as interested in seeing sound prosecutions move forward in McCandless and Bellevue as I am in Luzerne County.
Ah, thanks for the update,Infi.
@ Bram — don’t forget that the intern apparently first took this stuff to the office of Tom Corbett, though. This didn’t have to end up in the hands of the person the Ories regard as their nemesis.