PSU 3 and JUSTICE Won Partial Victory Today

Today's superior court ruling quashed some of the perjury, obstruction, and conspiracy charges for the PSU 3 and noted former AG prosecutor Frank Fina's unethical behavior

By
Ray Blehar

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court released opinions that quashed several charges against former Penn State University (PSU) officials Tim Curley, Gary Schultz, and Graham Spanier.

Baldwin "incompetent to testify" 

The Court ruled that former PSU Counsel Cynthia Baldwin "was incompetent to testify" regarding privileged communications with the PSU 3.  Moreover, the Court ruled that none of the men were "properly represented by Ms. Baldwin" during their grand jury testimony as agents of the University.  

As a result of the violations of Baldwin, testimony given under her representation is not admissible.  As such, the perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy charges against Schultz and Spanier were quashed.  One count of perjury against Curley remained (because he did not raise the issue in his appeal), while the other two counts were quashed.

All three men still face a misdemeanor charge of failure to report child abuse and two felony counts for endangering the welfare of children (EWOC), and one count of conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children.

Today's ruling did not address the merits of the remaining charges, however, they too will eventually be dismissed.   None of the men were mandated reporters in 2001 nor would they be included under the law today even with the revisions to the law after the Sandusky scandal.  

Additionally, the criteria for a conviction on EWOC would almost be impossible for the Commonwealth to prove.

Schultz attorney Tom Farrell noted:  .


"I think the Lynn case creates real problems for the

prosecution.  Further, I think this case is a much weaker 

case than the Lynn case, specifically in terms of whether any

of the defendants were in a position where they had 

supervisory responsibilities over children or over other 

individuals who had supervisory responsibility over

children."  

"PA  Corruption Network" Receives  A  Blow

Former prosecutor Fina called out for "highly improper" conduct in the matter

While today was a partial victory for the PSU 3 - and Penn Staters - it was also a partial victory for justice.

All three opinions noted that Former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina's conduct was "highly improper" for  improperly compelling Baldwin to testify against the PSU 3 without proper approval and for misleading Judge Feudale.

Feudale: "no babe in the woods."

Apparently the courts tended to ignore the fact that Judge Feudale is "no babe in the woods" either.  He was already tossed off the bench for his lack of judicial objectivity.  

It is also notable that Feudale also had a long history in overseeing child abuse cases.  

The evidence in the PSU 3 case indicates that he and Fina may have suppressed the PSU email evidence in order to charge the PSU 3 with failure to report child abuse and obstruction of justice.  

It's not going out on a limb to think that Feudale turned a blind eye to Fina's misconduct.

PSU explicitly stated to Fina that it did not waive privilege that existed between Baldwin and the PSU 3.   Moreover, Fina told Judge Feudale he would not question Baldwin about privileged matters.  




After making that statement to Judge Feudale, a significant amount of the questioning of Baldwin regarded confidential communications.   

Fina has been lauded by the PA media as a corruption fighter due to his prosecutions of the Bonusgate and Computergate show trials.  

Today, the curtain began to be pulled back.  The PA Corruption Network's abuse of the grand jury system and courts is being exposed. 

In closing, what does that say about those who are questioning AG Kane's selection of Maryland attorney Douglas Gansler to look into all matters around the email evidence?

Next:  Grand Jury Abuses

The PA Corruption Network's Playbook

The similarities between the prosecution of Kathleen Kane and of the PSU 3 reveal the "playbook" of Pennsylvania's corruption network

By

Ray Blehar

The cases of current Pennsylvania Attorney General (AG) Kathleen Kane and that of former Penn State University (PSU) officials (i.e., the PSU 3) are connected by a common thread.

A group of the Commonwealth's attorneys, judges, political operatives, and their media accomplices -- hereafter referred to as the "network" -- used trumped up charges, purposely misinterpreted laws, and oversold highly dubious evidence to convict these individuals in the court of public opinion.

After examining the timelines and evidence of these cases, it appears that the network has a well defined playbook for taking out its targets and it works like this:

1.  Individuals within the network fear their own heinous acts may be exposed and publicly accuse their opponents of crimes as a means of  deflecting attention away from themselves. 

2.  The network next co-opts individuals close to the target(s) --insiders -- to assist in setting up the target(s) to be charged with perjury and other crimes.

3.  After the insiders have sufficiently undermined the targets (using various means of deception), the network's attorneys and/or judges leak damaging information about the targets to the media. 

4.  The media arm of the network uses the information in an attempt to compromise the targets or to promote guilt by association in the press.

5.  At the conclusion of this "framing," that was mislabeled as a criminal investigation, attorneys go public with charging documents that allege crimes based on misinterpretations of the laws and that are chocked full of questionable testimony from unreliable witnesses, completely illogical scenarios, and dubious evidence.  Perjury charges are standard in order to publicly smear the defendants as being dishonest individuals while attempting to pump up the veracity of the Commonwealth's lousy witnesses (who would be eviscerated at an actual trial).

6.  The media accomplices ignore the illegal application of relevant laws, that the charging documents are illogical, the lousy witnesses, and the highly questionable evidence in order to continue treating the allegations as facts and even go as far as to allege the target committed crimes for which he or she has not been charged.

7.  The public falls for the deception and believes the targets are guilty of everything and are corrupt individuals -- whether they have been charged with a crime or not. Citizen activists, public officials, and other groups and individuals -- who are beneficiaries of the corrupt network -- jump on the media bandwagon to publicly condemn the targets.

8.  Witting and/or unwitting employers recommend the targets be relieved of their duties or actually do so through employment actions -- before anything is proven and without conducting a legitimate legal review.  

9.  When legal proceedings in the cases reveal the false and questionable testimony put forth in the charging documents and the dubious evidence used in the case, the network's media arm ignores the information and continues to slant the reports so the public continues to assume the targets are guilty.

10.  The legal issues from the misapplications of the laws result in appeals to the network's  judges, who refused to rule on simple matters and keep the trials on permanent hold.  If the cases make it to trial, the targets will be convicted of lesser crimes -- that the media will treat like crimes of the century.

The network's playbook achieves the goal of protecting its corrupt dealings and/or heinous crimes by never legally proving, but publicly scapegoating the targets in a media firestorm that is high in supposition and light on facts.

To wit:  the grand jury and Montgomery County DA Risa Ferman did not find the evidence to charge AG Kane with directly leaking grand grand jury information in the Mondesire case, but you wouldn't know that if you just read the news headlines. 

Instead, they charged her with perjury (part of the playbook), lesser crimes, and for orchestrating the leaks, the latter of which Ferman and others know can't be proven.

Then again, the network's playbook doesn't necessarily include actually prosecuting the case -- because the media has already done it. 

In the following weeks, the dubious evidence used in Kane's case will be exposed, as will the details showing how the network of attorney, judges, and media worked together in an attempt to prevent AG Kathleen Kane from breaking PA's chain of corruption.