Lawyers, liars,
lovers and losers
BY ROBERT SCOTT WALKER
Harold Beck recently said about a local law
firm: "Law firms that have their offices in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones
or call people criminals." He likened it to the classic case of the pot calling the
kettle black.
The staff of The Mountain Laurel Review knew what he was speaking about and we
have all been waiting to see what he was going to do about it. The time might finally be
here and it looks like our chief is ready to act on the information he received nearly a
year ago.
Maybe you might have guessed that we really don’t have much respect for lawyers.
It’s not that we do not respect the fact that they had to go to school for three
years just to receive a doctorate in the fine art of lying. It’s not that we also
don’t realize that they all had to study harder to pass a test on ignoring ethics and
fair play known as the bar exam. What it really is, I think at least, is they all would
sell out their own mothers given half the chance and the opportunity to be paid for it.
Take the case of one well known McKean County barrister. This is a man who enjoys his
vodka. We of all people can’t hold that against him. What we do hold against him is
the fact that he is a thief. After a few too many vodkas he steals the bartender’s
tips right off the bar. We’ve seen him do that. Lawyers!
Historically, we have not been kind to the legal profession. In fact, we have even been
a bit unkind to a judge or two. What the heck!
Poor Charlie the Tuna; look what we did to him. He let rapists and child molesters off
with plea bargains and even let a rapist go free and then defended it on national
television. Is it any wonder that we named him LIAR OF THE YEAR in 1994, 1995 and 1996?
The Tuna was a very dangerous person.
Then there was the FOOL OF THE YEAR in 1995, Richard Hernan. We called him ghoulish,
crass and an opportunist when he told Kathy Wilson’s sisters that her hands were tied
behind her back with her panty hose when she was raped and murdered. He would have no
knowledge that it happened that way unless he was there. We pointed that out and also
explained that when her remains were found, they were an incomplete skeleton that were
scattered by animals over a hillside and a creek bed. That would make his statement a pure
fabrication unless he participated in the crime.
Aside from the facts, we had three sound reasons for naming Hernan FOOL OF THE YEAR.
The first was for inviting us to interview him. The second was for not believing we would
be prepared and know the facts of the case. Finally, the third was for lying to us in the
interview and believing we wouldn’t call him out on it.
However, while it might seem that we genuinely hate all lawyers, that certainly is not
true. We named Tony Clark LAWYER OF THE YEAR in 1995 and also named Barry Lee Smith WARREN
COUNTY CITIZEN OF THE YEAR.
Tony recently told Mr. Beck and Mr. Gates that to have your name in The Mountain
Laurel Review was a badge of honor of sorts for the lawyers. It looks like we will be
passing out a lot of badges of honor in this piece.
In spite of the fact we named Tony LAWYER OF THE YEAR, probably because of his youth
and inexperience, and the fact he hadn’t been turned to the dark side of the force as
of that time, we still look upon him as one of the good guys. We really feel that Pecora
and Duke should have insisted on him in the trade that sent Mark Hollenbeck to Mutzabaugh
and the rest of the crowd, instead of a settling for a player to be named later. We always
thought Stanley was a better horse trader than that. Even though the loss of Hollenbeck
was really no big thing in the sense of a great legal mind, he was a warm body and could
play a position on the softball team at the company picnic.
As solicitor for the City of Bradford, he has hardly distinguished himself as any kind
of reasonable replacement for Stanley or the Tuna. Actually, that isn’t fair, because
I can’t think of too many solicitors who really do much except attend meetings and
collect a check. To single Mark out is wrong, but it is fun. After all, he was the
brilliant mind that composed and sent the letter to Mayo Funari accusing him of
malfeasance, misfeasance and non-feasance over his vote on the Comfort Inn. We always
understood that there was more to that letter than what met the eye. We understood that
Mayo didn’t want to go to someone’s Class Reunion with them.
Speaking of solicitors, Mr. Beck recently joked with the County Solicitor, Jay Paul
Kahle. When told that Jay was going to have minor eye surgery, the chief accused him of
actually getting an "ethics implant."
Continuing with the discussion of ethics implants for solicitors, Fred Gallup should
look in the mirror. As solicitor for the Bradford Area School District, he made some very
outrageous statements regarding Carol Gulnac, Tax Collector for Foster Township. He was on
the radio and in the newspaper in so many words accusing her of taking $210,000. He told a
story that sounded good on the surface and it was very damning to Mrs. Gulnac. What he
didn’t tell you was that the school district has been aware of accounting
discrepancies since 1993 and the school district has dismissed these each and every year
until this year. The $210,000 that Fred Gallup spoke of is a culmination of deficits and
didn’t just occur this year.
There is no doubt a problem here. It is a problem that Mrs. Gulnac and the School
District share. When he went on the attack, Mr. Gallup was attempting to divert attention
away from the financial mismanagement of the Bradford Area School District and lay all the
blame on Mrs. Gulnac. That was a lot of bunk.
Cheri O’Mara can go in the paper and brag about their state audits. We’d like
to know about other audits that were required by law that were never done. How about the
audit of the tax collector? Where is the explanation of why the School District, when it
first realized that there was a problem in the final reconciliation of the books with the
tax collector in 1993, did not do an audit then and there and get to the root of the
problem?
Why did they have to ask Carol Gulnac for the tax records? Why haven’t they
retained the books as the law requires? Maybe someone should ask Cheri if they have any of
the books from any of the tax collectors as the law requires. Maybe someone else should
ask Cheri about the books they burned because they didn’t have the room to store
them? They must have needed space for the furniture they spent a half a million dollars on
for their offices "...because the old furniture wouldn’t match." Think
about the half a million dollars on furniture when this kindergarten teacher goes to the
School Board next year and requests an increase in the millage and your taxes to cover the
enormous debt that she has placed on us.
Whatever problem has existed between the School District and the Tax Collector ended
with the reassessment the Commissioners completed last year. There was a problem and it
probably exists in the difference with the discounted taxes and the taxes at face value.
In the end, we will all probably find out that no money ever disappeared and Mr. Gallup
was only trying to destroy another innocent person in much the same manner he did with
Doug Barhight. With his law firm representing The Bradford Era, the other side of
the story will never be told there and the people will be left in the dark.
Moving away from that subject, but staying with the reassessment, Mr. Beck wants Judge
Cleland not to hear the tax appeals that have made it to court. Mr. Beck has made a very
good case for the Judge being disqualified.
"He removed himself from my case," Mr. Beck said. "There has been
historical animosity between the Judge and the County Commissioners. He sued us because we
wouldn’t give him a blank check with the county budget. He is antagonistic toward the
budget process and refuses to cooperate. That isn’t fair to the taxpayers who support
his empire in the court house. He feels that we should pay for whatever he wants, yet he
refuses to participate when we try for grants that would pump new money into McKean
County. He has refused to join the Communities That Care Program and we stand to receive a
million dollars aimed at the prevention of Juvenile Delinquency. That is the future
funding for our Family Centers and he should be a major player."
I asked Mr. Beck about the problem that he alluded to between the Judge and Mr.
Stratton. Mr. Beck laughed.
"Larry was great! He wrote the Judge a letter and basically says that the
commissioners have been concerned at the lack of any meaningful speed-up between the time
of arrest to trial in criminal cases and the complete log jam in civil cases and points
out one case is ten years old and underlines ten years old. He points out that we
have an employee that we have given the job of computerizing us on a consistent and
standard basis, not just hit and miss as they have done in the past. He also tells the
Judge about his administrator verbally haranguing him and he wants the Judge to have her
apologize. He also says that if we let egos get in the way of progress, McKean County will
retain its dubious distinction of one of the slowest judicial systems in
Pennsylvania."
"What happened?" I asked.
"He came unglued and came right into Larry’s office. He doesn’t believe
that there are any cases ten years old. He blamed us for not giving him a second judge
when we could have had one. Really, I was for it but he wouldn’t work with us. I
asked about what we would need and he gave us another court administrator, another
secretary, another law clerk, new offices for the new judge, and it went on and on. The
state would give us $70,000 a year for the cost of the second judge and we were looking at
$500,000 in annual expense. If they could have shared people and done it cost-efficiently,
we would have a second judge today. All he understands is to spend, spend, spend. Maybe he
should start working in the court house on Mondays instead of at home like he does. Then
we might speed things up. We don’t need a second judge if we have one who is a full
time president judge."
"Are there any cases ten years old?"
"There is one for sure," he laughed. "I found it."
"And the reassessment?" I asked him.
"The timber people are more than two thirds of the cases. They are mostly his rich
friends and in the past they have been taxed twenty-five dollars an acre for land rich
with cherry trees. Clean and Green is a tax on use value. We are up around two hundred and
twenty dollars an acre and that isn’t even the price they get for one tree. Other
counties have followed us and even have higher Clean and Green values for timber that
isn’t worth as much as ours. Don’t tell me, of all people, that there
aren’t inside deals in and behind any court room. I want the people of McKean County
treated fairly for once. We don’t need Cleland dishing out one of his deals. I want
someone who can be impartial and put aside his feelings toward the commissioners on that
bench. That isn’t John Cleland."
"Everything seems to come down to taxes, doesn’t it?" I asked.
"Sure it does," Mr. Beck was quick to answer. "Jeff Duke began the
largest expansion of a county office in history. Cleland did it gradually, but Duke went
crazy. The DA’s budget tripled under his administration and our knitting school
graduate who runs a lottery on the side is trying to keep up where he left off. Duke at
least was a semi-competent prosecutor.
"Holding the line on taxes is not an easy trick. Connie Eaton took some shots and
she is the most conscientious elected official I know. She is like a den mother when it
comes to investing money and bringing new money to the county. What these anonymous letter
writers and the unidentified woman in the tax collector’s office did to her was
totally unwarranted."
"What about your taxes?"
"What about them?" he asked back. "I pay the penalties when I pay them.
It was a cheap shot. When your taxes are delinquent they are printed in August with
several hundreds of other people. When mine are late, I get my name in the paper whenever
they feel like it. It was a cheap shot and everyone knows it. It wasn’t any big
thing. It didn’t bother me. I eventually pay my taxes in full just like all the other
people."
"That was Jim Buck that took the cheap shot. Right?"
"It was Jim Buck. It was the same Jim Buck who teaches a journalism class at the
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. I was unaware of my niece being one of his students
this semester and I guess he was unaware, also.
"From what I have heard it seems that The Mountain Laurel Review and me
have been the main subject of discussion for the entire semester. He even brought in
several of his associates to give his attacks on us credence."
"Like who?" I asked.
"To name a few, Pat Cercone, Marty Wilder, Gail Speedy and Mr. Bob Hand."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"You think he would have wanted to give you equal time, wouldn’t you?"
He laughed. "Never. He couldn’t have substantiated anything if he gave me
equal time. He would have looked stupid along with the rest of them who were knocking
me."
I was puzzled by what Jim Buck did. I was angered, too. We pay decent money to send our
children to college and here is a college professor, supposedly teaching journalism, and
taking shots at another publication and a writer who is one thousand times better than the
whole bunch of them rolled together. No one is giving him any phoney awards, nor does he
want any. He is just trying to give the people the part of the news that others
conveniently leave out.
"What a pile of liars and losers," I said out loud to myself.
"Don’t forget the lawyers and the lovers," the chief said. "There
are some great stories out there about the lawyers and their lovers."
"Maybe next time," I said
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