‘Due process’ has become ‘do over’

We seem to have reached a point in society where “due process” now means “do over” process. Some people think that if you don’t like the results of an investigation or any other effort to gauge the truth, you can just start all over again. It’s the Emily Litella theory of “Never Mind.”

That’s the first thing that came to mind when I heard that Pennsylvania Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, was demanding the resignation of Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17, of Delaware and Montgomery counties, even after a report that the Democratic caucus had commissioned appeared to clear Leach of accusations he’d sexually harassed former employees and clients.

I find myself in the interesting position of, yet again, defending Leach. I say “interesting” because if we want to discuss this in geographical terms, the senator from Montgomery County is the Arctic to my Antarctica: We are poles apart on everything from abortion, to same-sex marriage, to Donald Trump.

And yet, there is something that we both seem to believe in, something that transcends temporal party lines – the concept that people are entitled to fair treatment regardless of who they are and what they advocate. Leach has been accused by several people of acts as benign as making them feel uncomfortable by telling frat boy jokes, to – at the other extreme – forcing the daughter of a client to perform oral sex. The firm that was hired to investigate the allegations, Eckert Seamans, apparently found that Leach did not commit any acts that violated the law or Democratic Caucus policies. I say “apparently” because Costa has refused to release the full report, which was shared with members of the caucus on Wednesday.

For his part, Costa characterized the report as preliminary, and agreed to conduct further investigation at the request of senators in his caucus who wanted “additional information.” However, when I spoke with Leach on Thursday evening, he said that Costa’s staff had contacted him on Tuesday saying that the results of the full report were in and that they were “terrific.”

Two hours later, Leach learned that other unnamed senators were unhappy that the report exonerated him from any criminal or ethical violations, and that Costa was allegedly bowing to pressure by acquiescing in their demand for further review. Leach stated that late Wednesday night, Costa called him into his office and said, “the report does exonerate you. However, some people are not happy about the result. So, to calm them down, we’re going to give Eckert a few more weeks to interview some new people, and maybe re-interview some people who had already been interviewed.”

Leach was puzzled that a report that had been described to him 24 hours earlier as a complete vindication was now being called “preliminary” and subject to further tweaking.

Then he got angry.

“I freaked out,” he said. “I said it was outrageous to reopen a completed investigation simply because someone didn’t like the result. And you don’t keep investigating until you get the result you want. I said the facts and the law were very clear.”

Leach told Costa that he was going to release the summary publicly. Costa allegedly replied that he would come after his colleague with “all he’s got.” And that’s what happened when, late Thursday, Costa demanded Leach’s resignation.

As I said before, I am not a political ally of Daylin Leach. It is as surprising to me as it is to him that we find ourselves in the same foxhole these days, both taking fire for our refusal to acquiesce in the witch hunt of weaponized victimhood.

Leach did what he was told to do. He cooperated with the investigators, and agreed to abide by their ultimate decision. That decision, arrived at after months of interviews and painstaking research, was “not guilty.” The Power Point summary Leach released against Costa’s wishes fully supports that view, even though it criticizes him for some unprofessional behavior that occurred over a decade ago.

Of course, in this Orwellian age where we refuse to accept the “truths” that are uncomfortable and insist on finding the “truths” that accommodate our prejudices and desires, it was inevitable that Daylin Leach would find himself at the center of a public relations battle. The tragedy in all of this is that a man’s reputation is being destroyed so a bunch of other men, and women, can make a political point.

Shame on them, and on us if we let them get away with it.