Shapiro makes clean sweep of AG’s office

HARRISBURG — Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s twin sister was ousted late last week from her $105,000 job with the agency, part of a larger personnel clean sweep by the office’s new top prosecutor, according to sources familiar with the decision.

Ellen Granahan, who ran the office’s child predator unit, was asked to resign Friday by Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Mr. Shapiro, a Democrat who was sworn in last week, also asked for the resignations of four other staffers once considered part of Kane’s inner circle: Renee Martin, Kane’s one-time spokeswoman; Chad Ellis, who headed the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility; Louis DeTitto, a one-time member of Kane’s security detail; and Angela Beaverson, the executive secretary in charge of the grand jury.

Separately, Mr. Shapiro’s administration also terminated a lawyer in the office who had accused Kane’s former chief of staff of sexual harassment, and had later spoken out publicly about the incident. The lawyer, Michele Kluk, was not considered close to Kane.

Kane was convicted last year of abusing her office in a bid to embarrass a former state prosecutor she considered an enemy. She was sentenced to serve up to 23 months in jail, but is free on bail pending the outcome of an appeal.

Reached for comment Saturday, Mr. Shapiro’s communications director, Joe Grace, said the office does not discuss “individual personnel decisions.”

He would only say: “This is a new administration, and the attorney general is focused on building out a new team to do the people’s work.”

Ms. Granahan, Ms. Martin, Mr. DeTitto and Mr. Ellis could not be reached for comment. Ms. Kluk was also unavailable for comment.

Ms. Granahan, who like Kane was a former Lackawanna County assistant district attorney, was hired by Kane’s Republican predecessor, Tom Corbett, in 2008. After Kane took office in 2013, Ms. Granahan was promoted to head the office’s Child Predator Unit, a move accompanied by a nearly $14,000 pay raise.

Before Kane was convicted and resigned from office, her administration settled a pay-equity complaint that Ms. Granahan had filed against the office. As part of that settlement, Ms. Granahan received a pay raise of nearly $17,000, and an additional $80,000 in backpay and other damages.

Ms. Martin had worked on Kane’s 2012 campaign, and was hired by Kane after her election to do community outreach for the attorney general’s office. She briefly served as a spokeswoman for Kane, who became notorious during her nearly four years in office for high turnover in her press office.

Mr. DeTitto, a supervisory agent, was promoted and given a pay raise by Kane, even though he was among dozens of employees in the attorney general’s office who had participated in the exchange of pornographic and offensive emails using state computers, a scandal that cost others harsh discipline — and others their jobs.

Ms. Kluk, an assistant state prosecutor, was not a Kane confidante. When Kane in 2015 named Jonathan Duecker as her new chief of staff, Ms. Kluk spoke publicly about how Mr. Duecker just a year earlier had made unwanted sexual advances toward her. The agency’s human resources department recommended to Kane that she fire Mr. Duecker — advice she rejected.

After Kane was convicted and resigned from office last year, Mr. Duecker was fired by then-Attorney General Bruce Beemer.