The dirty tangled web of local politics

The Orie case is a demonstration of local politics at their worst in every possible way. State Senator Jane Orie was tried on charges of using state offices and staffers for campaign work back in February. At the time, the defense presented seemed somewhat compelling and many spectators would not have been surprised at an acquittal. This also would have lent credence to Governor Corbett’s decision as then-Attorney General to not pursue the Orie matter, as opposed to the murmurs of Corbett turning a blind eye to the possible criminality of the politically connected Orie family. Jane Orie once worked under Corbett in the AG’s office and her brother was employed there at the time the DA's office charged her while the AG's office did not.

Just when an end was in sight, the case screeched to a mistrial with County Judge Jeffrey Manning exploding on the bench to declare that defense documents were obviously forged. The case is rife with questions about professional conduct on all sides. The entire matter offers a disturbing snapshot of the grossly incestuous state of local politics.

Starting at the beginning means going back to the 1990’s, when Orie worked in the state Attorney General’s office. There was a dispute between Orie and a supervisor that led to Orie’s transfer and, according to her, the supervisor’s dismissal. That supervisor was Lawrence Claus, who later became the Allegheny County District Attorney’s lead prosecutor in the Orie case. Choosing Claus to lead the case seems to be a calculated shot at Orie, at best. There are many talented prosecutors working out of the DA’s office so giving this particular plum to Claus seems to be a questionable decision on the part of our DA, Stephen Zappala.

Zappala’s behavior may be explained by a longstanding feud between his family and the Orie family. Orie contends that this is political payback for her opposition to gambling casinos in Pennsylvania, an industry with which his family has strong ties. His father, Stephen Zappala Sr. (a former State Supreme Court Justice) and his sister Michelle Zappala Peck are both involved in a somewhat shady pro-gambling organization called the Pennsylvania Casino Association. Among other allegations of impropriety, Zappala Sr. wasn’t properly documented as an officer on PCA legal documents such as tax returns and he has close ties to former state Senator turned federal inmate Vincent Fuomo. Fuomo not only wrote the state gaming law but also recently had his federal sentence of 55 months vacated for being grossly under federal guidelines for the crimes of which he’s been convicted. Zappala Sr. coincidentally has written letters on Fuomo’s behalf to the judge who imposed the inexplicably light sentence now in question.  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an extremely informative piece by Tracie Mauriello in 2009 detailing the controversy surrounding PCA and the Zappalas.

Orie was a steadfast opponent of legalizing casinos in PA and questioned the ethics of such groups, including PCA and the involvement of the politically connected Zappala family in the group. Charges were originally brought against Orie in early 2010 but motions to dismiss them based on the DA’s seemingly-obvious conflict of interest in the matter were sealed by the court, furthering the appearance of impropriety and fueling the vendetta gossip. Then the charges marched forward with Claus at the helm of the prosecution.

In the latest act of this circus, we have the DA’s office assuring us that defense documents were forged and they’re confident that Orie had a hand in the counterfeiting, which may well be the case. But the DA’s office does lose a little credibility for the way they handled this second round of charges: Rather than contacting Orie’s attorney or the senator herself, they dispatched detectives across the North Hills area to search for her. Not only is that grandstanding and vindictive on the part of the DA’s office but it’s also a gross waste of taxpayer money. Surely in a county with shootings and murders nearly daily over the past month, those officers have far more important things to do.

Let’s save the coordinated waves of officers for the shooters, murderers and other dangerous criminals. We can safely concede that state legislators with no history of violence can be permitted to turn themselves in or, at the very, least can be apprehended without incident at home or in the office. That Orie required a concerted sweep to be taken into custody is completely ludicrous and shows a gross lack of judgment by the DA’s office. Such misdirected priorities go a long way towards bolstering the vendetta theory, even if Orie is ultimately found to be guilty. That kind of showboating sends the message to Pennsylvanians that Zappala’s office is reveling in prosecuting Orie and obviously overzealous in their efforts to publicly embarrass her at any cost, including embarrassing themselves in order to do so.

There are no winners here as all parties appear to lack credibility and dignity, to some extent. We have a state senator with a laundry list of very serious allegations against her, a seemingly-vindictive former coworker leading the prosecution, a DA from a seemingly ethically challenged political family who appears to be going out of his way to put on a show for the cameras, and perhaps most disturbing of all, a court system which prefers gag orders to sunshine. It seems obvious that none of the players in this game feel any need to demonstrate the integrity or impartiality rquired by their elected positions. Nobody in the game seems to be concerned about using the system for personal gain at the expense of taxpayers and nobody seems to acknowledge that they are accountable to us either.

 

We can only hope that taxpayers refuse to get swept up in the drama of this disgusting little production and instead choose to hold them all duly accountable the next time we cast our votes for any and all of these offices involved.