C: The silence regarding the John Pettit corruption, that broke 4 weeks ago, is deafening. Last I heard, he was in New Zealand fishing ( ya, right). Since then: nothing. Makes you wonder what kind of deals are being made behind closed doors. ex: "Plead guilty to malfeasance in office and we'll get you a suspended 6 month sentence". There may even be judges, police and politicians who hope he never returns to testify against them. Can't imagine someone as corrupt as him not keeping a "little black book". Just some thoughts in this world of ever-increasing ( it seems) criminal public "officials". - F.S.
A: You may not have heard anything, but if you had picked up the newspaper, you'd know that our former district attorney has returned from his golf trip to New Zealand and is at home in Washington, embroiled in divorce proceedings, which now involve his pension, and is the subject of a continuing grand jury investigation.
Because the grand jury probe is secret, we can only guess at what charges, if any, might come out of it. We here at the O-R prefer not to guess. We like to think we're in the news business, not the rumor and speculation business.
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5 comments:
I'm less concerned with our former DA than the man that currently holds that office. I'd like the following questions asked and answered in the pages of your paper:
1. What has Steve Toprani been up to in the course of his first 2+ months?
2. How has the office changed in that time?
3. When does Mr. Toprani plan on prosecuting his first case? (Assuming he does?)
4. Who the hell is Steve Fischer, what does he do, and why does he make more than the actual attorneys in that office?
5. Additionally, who are the rest of the people in Mr. Toprani's entourage and what are they bringing to the table?
6. In short, how is Washington County going to be measurable better off one year after our DA has taken office?
These are tough questions, but I think it's time the citizens of this county actually demand some accountability. Note to Mr. Toprani: the campaign is over.
Wow, I guess someone believes that the county would be better off with a D.A. having sex with the inmates, premarking the times on documents (before they were actually written) to avoid rule 600, cutting deals like the ones like nearly 100 domestic disputes dropped. Wow that was accountability under the Pettit regime.
For our answer, lets see:
Toprani has been cleaning up the mess that Pettit left. Preparing a case with his staff against for the homicide in Charleroi. Updating the equipment in the office. Refiling the files that were a mess. Toprani like Steven Zappala will adminster,not try cases. Pettit tried almost no actual cases either (only a few high profile ones)
Steve Fischer is the chief of staff, an Iraqi war veteran and quite frankly one of the hardest working and ethical people the office has ever seen.
Mr. McKay was a federal prosecutor and Mike Arians is a former police officer from Cecil and later New Jersey with hundreds of homicide investigations under his belt.
So how are we better off, no case fixing, updated office, end of insider dealing, end of taking women from the jail, end of failing to follow court orders, end use of terror to control opposition. Does that explain it enough. To state that the citizens demand accountability in the wake of what Pettit did after 24 years is laughable. Where were you sir during that time?
This is what Cody does with his time now that his rag is defunct?
Defunct? I don't know if he posted that comment but there haven't been any changes to the newspaper.
Yeah... Knotts continues to publish...and comment on this blog.
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