Judge: Truth crying to be heard in Pa. AG investigation
HARRISBURG – The county judge who appointed a special prosecutor to look into grand jury leaks told the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Wednesday “the truth is crying to be heard” in the investigation of state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter argued in a 28-page supplemental filing, made ahead of Supreme Court arguments in the matter next month, he had authority as grand jury supervising judge to name the prosecutor.
“A supervising judge has the inherent authority, and the clear obligation, to uphold the integrity of the grand jury process, and to pursue the administration of justice,” Carpenter wrote. “I would have violated my oath of office by walking away from this situation.”
The grand jury recommended charges against Kane, including perjury and obstruction, related to a leak of grand jury information to a Philadelphia newspaper for a story published last summer.
Kane wants the appointment of special prosecutor Thomas Carluccio declared unlawful and the grand jury’s report vacated.
“Attorney General Kane should not be granted such monumental relief simply because she is the attorney general,” Carpenter wrote. “No other citizen would be granted such relief and citizen Kane should be treated no better than any other citizen.”
Kane’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, said Wednesday Carpenter could have referred the case to a county district attorney.
Davis also took issue with a sentence from Carpenter’s section headlined “Conclusion,” that said “these crimes and criminal contempt would not have been uncovered in any way other than the path that I took.”
“By using the word ‘crime,’ he has proven that he does not understand the basic constitutional guarantee of the presumption of innocence,” Davis said in a brief phone interview. “I hope I am wrong, that he forgot to use the word ‘alleged.”‘
Carpenter said Kane has not provided justification for the court to invalidate the special prosecutor’s appointment and throw out the grand jury presentment.
“The truth is crying to be heard. … The voice of truth must be allowed to speak,” he wrote.
The grand jury report issued in December said there were reasonable grounds to charge Kane with perjury, false swearing, official oppression and obstruction, and Carpenter referred the case to the local district attorney. Carpenter wrote that the panel also recommended criminal contempt, which was not referred to the district attorney.
Kane was not charged with any crime, and the Supreme Court put a hold on any county prosecution stemming from the grand jury presentment until it has resolved the dispute over Carluccio’s appointment.
The investigation into Kane surfaced in September, when The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the grand jury was looking into the publication in the Philadelphia Daily News of secret records related to an attorney general’s office investigation of the then-president of the Philadelphia NAACP in 2009.