Is it ethics
or just breaking the law?
BY HAROLD THOMAS BECK
When my father wanted to really get my goat he would tell me that the law applied to
everyone else and not him. "I am the law," he would boast, realizing how much
that would irritate an idealistic high school student. I would say to him that his
attitude was pure hypocrisy, and he must have known that life certainly had a lot of
lessons in store for me.
Harold Beck, the Chief of Police, certainly knew what he was saying as he chided me
even if he did not believe it. He was a very law-abiding man and raised his family to be
the same. He had many good sayings that I have carried with me. "Dead men tell no
tales" was one of them. Another was: "If you are going to be a liar, then be a
lawyer. In most cases it’s legal; and if it isn’t, who will try you?"
We don’t have to go very far to see how true that little saying of his really was.
All we have to do is look at the national news and the President of the United States. Is
it a sex scandal, or is it just breaking the law?
I am not going to bore you with a re-hashing of what the media has bombarded all of us
with for the past three weeks. The point that the media fails to harp on because it is not
as spicy is oh so horribly simple. Did the President of the United States tell a woman to
lie under oath about her involvement with him? If he did, he broke the law unless he
believes what my father used to say about the law applying to everyone else.
For four years now I have written about the Kathy Wilson Murder. I have also discussed
the trial of Jay William Buckley. We have followed the private criminal complaints against
the Commonwealth’s witness in that case, Michael Ruben Brown, District Attorney
Joseph Massa, Jr. and State Police Investigator John Herzog that are now under
consideration by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The allegations are that Brown not only
lied about Buckley’s involvement in the murder and alleged rape but that Massa and
Herzog actually allowed and aided Brown to lie on the witness stand a the trial that could
have sent Buckley to the electric chair. Does the law apply to a State Police
Investigator? Does the law apply to a District Attorney? Do they have a license to get a
conviction at all costs? Can they lie? Can they help someone else to lie? Is it a case of
over zealousness, or is it breaking the law?
During the past year, THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL REVIEW printed several stories in
which it was pointed out that an area law firm had an employee who embezzled $70,000 in
client trust funds. We pointed out that the employee was allowed to make restitution and
quietly go on their way. In reality, no one was hurt. The clients lost nothing because the
law firm would have made good all losses and in fact did by getting restitution. While we
were not, and are not, all that anxious to see someone go to jail, we are forced to
examine the ethics of the situation.
Lawyers are sworn to uphold the law. As officers of the court they take an oath to do
so. Their own Canon of Ethics mandates that they report all offenses and can be disbarred
if they fail to do so.
What happened here? Was a crime committed? Is stealing $70,000 a crime? Did they as
employers have an obligation to report that crime to the proper authorities? By not
reporting that crime, did they break the law? Are they allowed as private citizens to
conceal a crime, or does the mere fact that they concealed the crime make them guilty
also?
As lawyers and Officers of the Court did they have an obligation to report one another
for withholding their knowledge that a crime had taken place? Was it just a question of
ethics, or did they all break the law along with the person they protected?
The interesting note on this story is I never would have known about it except that a
well known area lawyer had one of his business associates leak this to me. That leak came
complete with the means of verifying the story and that lawyer of all people knew for a
fact that I would print it. For that reason, he should be interested in this next piece.
It is very uncommon for DUI’s to be publicized by the local media unless there is
an accident or property damage involved. Even prominent people avoid the limelight in most
cases. The admission that you have done something wrong is usually enough. When they are
publicized, especially for a simple refusal to take a blood alcohol test, some might raise
eyebrows. Still, news is what is interesting to the readers of any publication.
When a prominent area businessman is involved in an automobile accident in town and is
very visibly intoxicated it may or may not be news. He hires a lawyer, goes to court,
pleads guilty, gets into the ARD Program, goes to school, picks up papers and goes about
his business. No big deal one way or the other.
When that same prominent businessman is arrested for a second DUI, then the rules
change, or do they? Is the ARD revoked or is the second charge conveniently lost either by
the police or the District Attorney?
The Democratic National Party raises millions of dollars in campaign funds from Asian
interests, some of which have direct ties to Communist China. Oh? The Vice President of
the United States solicits campaign contributions from the Office of the Vice President.
Oh? The same Vice President of the United States of America goes to a Bhuddist Temple and
receives five million dollars in campaign contributions. Oh?
Are any charges filed? Were any laws broken? Oh?
A State Senator who was the area campaign coordinator for Attorney General Mike Fisher
takes out an underage prostitute, buys her alcoholic beverages and spends the night with
her. Oh my! That same State Senator, friend of Attorney General Mike Fisher, pays the
underage and intoxicated prostitute and then charges it off against the taxpayers. Because
he has been put under so much stress and because it has been so much of a strain on his
family, that State Senator announces that he will not run for re-election.
Where is the expensive investigation? Where is the press conference announcing the
charges that ARE NOT being brought against the State Senator because there is no credible
witness against him (only an underage drunk prostitute). Oh?
Football pools are common in bars and offices during football season just as World
Series pools are during the great fall event. Generally, a group of people come together
and make some sort of pick (number of runs in the game or the most winners in a weekend)
and whoever is closest to the amount is the winner and takes the sum of all the money that
it cost to enter the pool.
During football season there are two common pools. One is pick the most winners. The
other is set up a sheet with ten squares across and ten squares down (a total of 100
squares) and you buy a square. If the cost of a square is one dollar, then the pool has
one hundred dollars. Ten dollars a square give you a pool of one thousand dollars. Several
area pools have as much as twenty thousand dollars in the total pot. Numbers from 0 to 9
are randomly selected and go across the top and down the side. This type of pool is based
on the score of the game at any given time, usually at the end of each quarter, the half
and the end of the game. Keep in mind that this harmless activity is illegal in
Pennsylvania and before the Super Bowl three area bars were busted by the State Police for
having such a pool. This is operating an illegal lottery. It is a criminal offense and
subject to prosecution by the McKean County District Attorney.
Small games of chance are licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. These licenses
are obtained through the County Treasurer and generally obtained by volunteer fire
companies, churches, schools, etc. to operate bingo and
50-50 drawings, as well as many other raffles, etc. Bars, because of the general nature of
their business and because they, unlike clubs, are for profit, are excluded from being
able to obtain such a license. Nevertheless, to operate such a pool, only a certain set of
circumstances must exist before you are not in violation of the law. Furthermore, one
would believe that the District Attorney would have full knowledge of the law and
understand the circumstances of when such a pool is illegal.
One would certainly believe that of all people, District Attorney Michele Alfieri would
understand all about football pools and not fail to remember their illegal nature.
However, based on her "performance" on the witness stand in my hearing on
alleged election code violations, we might be led to believe that she "forgot"
football pools were illegal if and when she not only participated in, but actually
promoted, one such pool during the football season.
The lottery, or pool, was supposedly split between the weekly winner who guessed the
most winners on the Sunday NFL schedule and an area Pool Association. I am told that the
participants raised several hundred dollars to be used for a worthy cause. I am also told
that her husband, Attorney Anthony Alfieri, was alleged to be the big winner during the
term the pool ran.
Now I am not condemning anyone who participates in or has participated in a football
pool. God knows how many I have been in during my years and have even won on occasion. It
is basically a harmless activity that hurts no one. Still, absent a small games of chance
license, it is illegal, and I am unaware that any small game of chance license was ever
extended to the premises of the McKean County Court House. Allegedly, that is where the
District Attorney not only delivered the pools to members of her staff and various
employees of John Cleland’s Court System, she also allegedly collected their money,
too.
Now, if this is in fact true, how can the District Attorney or any member of her staff
prosecute anyone who was busted for running a football pool during the season or for the
Super Bowl? If this is true will the esteemed District Attorney have to call up Attorney
General Mike Fisher and claim a conflict and ask him to appoint a special prosecutor so
that these dastardly criminal bar owners are brought to justice? Will we bring back Pyle
to conduct an investigation and then lose the report?
Maybe we can put wire taps on phones and maybe Mrs. Alfieri, like her old boss, Charley
the Tuna, will just plain forget that anything ever happened. In spite of the fact that
she has a near perfect record of not being able to win a case unless someone accepts a
plea bargain; and, in spite of the fact that the most incompetent of McKean County
Attorneys consistently rips her to shreds in court; the fact of the matter is, Michelle,
you should go back to knitting school and leave serious business to competent people. If
you are going to be so pious and enforce the letter of the law, then you should abide by
it also.
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