Editorial: Public corruption is everywhere
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Public corruption seems like the kind of thing that happens where public service is big business.
People almost expect to see dirty politics in Washington — and let’s face it, there is a reason that “drain the swamp” was an easy refrain to encourage.
The bigger the city, the less we are surprised by a government employee or elected official being caught up in a scandal or criminal charges. That’s a New York thing. That happens in Chicago. Philadelphia or Harrisburg or even, yes, perhaps in Pittsburgh.
But public corruption is what the federal Department of Justice defines as “a breach of the public’s trust by government officials who use their public office to obtain personal gain,” and that is the kind of thing that can and does happen everywhere.
Like Fayette County.
On Thursday, District Attorney Rich Bower announced the results of a grand jury investigation that began hearing evidence in February. It resulted in 30 criminal cases involving a total of 23 defendants, including seven county employees, plus inmates and others.
The charges related to smuggling marijuana and Suboxone into the county prison in a book, bringing in loose tobacco taped to a guard’s leg, money laundering, threatening a former inmate with a gun, tampering with public records and more. Two court employees are being charged for defrauding a widow. Other charges are being referred to federal prosecutors.
All of it points to a collision of not just criminal activity but a lack of attention that allowed it to flourish.
“This is a deep-seated problem,” Bower said. “The corruption that has gone on here has gone on for many years.”
That is usually the problem.
Pennsylvania does not use grand juries the way some other states do. In New York or Virginia, a grand jury indictment is where a felony case will start, with a large body off jurors hearing the case and deciding whether there is enough evidence to charge and move along towards trial.
In the Keystone State, investigating grand juries occupy a very specific role in the justice system. They are used in cases with broad scope — specifically for organized crime and public corruption.
In recent years, they seem to be used more and more for those very public betrayals, with grand juries diving into cases about Catholic Church sexual abuse, the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case, the perjury case against then-Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
At the same time, there are the less convoluted crimes that never rise to a grand jury. Money disappearing from a fire company or being diverted in a municipal office.
Corruption isn’t something that we can pretend happens in other places to other people, because that’s how corruption flourishes. We have to acknowledge that there are temptations, and bad decisions that can happen at every level of public life and every corner of the map.
And we have to hold every office to the highest standards.