Ex-Pa. A.G. Kathleen Kane ordered to report to prison
“Because defendant has exhausted her direct appeal rights in the state courts, she is no longer entitled to bail. In fact, the law forbids it.”
_Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele wrote in court papers filed on Tuesday
“Two different appellate courts have reviewed her case, yet her judgment of sentence remains. She received a fair trial, her guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt and now it is time for her to serve her sentence.”
NORRISTOWN >> Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, whose appeal of her 2016 perjury conviction was denied by a state court this week, was ordered by a judge to surrender to begin serving her stint behind bars.
“Given that the rationale for defendant remaining at liberty pending appeal has expired, post-sentence bail is revoked,” Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy wrote in a court order issued late Tuesday afternoon.
Demchick-Alloy, who presided over Kane’s August
2016 trial, ordered Kane, 52, to surrender at the county jail in Lower Providence no later than 9 a.m. Nov. 29 to begin serving a 10-to-23month jail term. Earlier on Tuesday, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele asked the judge to revoke Kane’s bail and order her to jail after she exhausted her state appeals.
“Because defendant has exhausted her direct appeal rights in the state courts, she is no longer entitled to bail. In fact, the law forbids it,” Steele wrote in court papers.
“Defendant has been on bail pending appeal for more than two years. Two different appellate courts have reviewed her case, yet her judgment of sentence remains. She received a fair trial, her guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt and now it is time for her to serve her sentence,” Steele added.
In May, the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld Kane’s conviction and sentence. On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided not to hear Kane’s most recent appeal, setting the stage for her to begin serving her sentence.
On Aug. 15, 2016, Kane, the first Democrat and the first woman ever elected attorney general, was convicted of charges of perjury, obstructing administration of law, official oppression, false swearing and conspiracy. The jury determined Kane orchestrated the illegal disclosure of secret grand jury information to the media and then engaged in acts designed to conceal and cover up her conduct.
Steele and co-prosecutor Michelle Henry argued Kane did so to exact “revenge” on a former state prosecutor with whom she was feuding.
Kane, now 52, a former Lackawanna County prosecutor who was elected attorney general in 2012, was permitted to remain free pending her appeal.
After Kane filed her appeal to the state courts in 2017, Demchick-Alloy wrote an opinion stating Kane’s trial was fair and that the conviction and sentence on charges of perjury and abuse
-Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele
of power should be upheld by the state courts. Demchick-Alloy, who presided over Kane’s trial, said Kane was accorded all of the “constitutional, statutory and rulebased rights” to which she was entitled.
“(Kane) was tried before a jury, the members of which found beyond a reasonable doubt that she violated the law she swore to uphold,” Demchick-Alloy wrote in court papers at the time urging the state Superior Court to uphold Kane’s conviction and sentence.
In her appeal, Kane, through her lawyer, Joshua D. Lock, cited nine allegations of trial error, including the denial of her pretrial motion to recuse all county judges from hearing her trial based on her contention that Judges William R. Carpenter, Carolyn T. Carluccio and Risa Vetri Ferman had close ties to the investigation surrounding her.
“In these actions, neither Judges Carpenter, Carluccio and Ferman, nor their spouses, held any interest in the outcome, financial or otherwise,” Demchick-Alloy previously responded in an opinion, adding she “correctly” denied Kane’s motion for recusal.
Kane’s appeal also challenged the denial of her pretrial request to dismiss the case due to “selective and vindictive prosecution.” Demchick-Alloy responded that Kane failed to plead facts sufficient to support her claims.
At trial, prosecutors argued Kane’s quest for revenge took root on March 16, 2014, when she read a Philadelphia Inquirer article that was “critical” of her for failing to pursue criminal charges against some Philadelphia politicians and for shutting down that sting operation which was led by a former state prosecutor, Frank Fina.
During the trial, witnesses testified Kane believed Fina was responsible for the negative publicity.
To retaliate against Fina, Steele and Henry alleged, Kane orchestrated the release to a reporter of a memo, emails and the transcript of an interview pertaining to the 2009 Investigating Grand Jury No. 29, an investigation that centered on a Philadelphia civil rights official, which Fina supervised and then didn’t pursue charges. Prosecutors argued the civil rights official, who was never charged with any crime, was harmed by the release of the grand jury information.
Kane also was convicted of lying to the 35th statewide grand jury in November 2014 to cover up her leaks by lying under oath when she claimed she never agreed to maintain her secrecy regarding the 2009 grand jury investigation.
Prosecutors said they discovered evidence that Kane signed a so-called “secrecy oath” on her second day in office on Jan. 17, 2013, promising her secrecy for statewide investigating grand juries one through 32. The oath compelled Kane to maintain the secrecy of all matters occurring before past and present statewide grand juries, prosecutors alleged.
Kane did not testify at her trial.
However, throughout the investigation, Kane claimed she did nothing wrong and implied the charges were part of an effort to force her out of office because she discovered pornographic emails being exchanged between state employees on state email addresses.