You are a high-ranking attorney or investigator in the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. You are involved in a child sexual abuse investigation that leads to the resignation of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and criminal charges against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. You begin receiving pornographic emails on your state issued computer in your state email account. You:
- Delete the emails without opening the files
- Tell the sender he shouldn’t be sending pornography
- Report the emails to the HR office because state rules prohibit using state computers to send pornographic or sexually explicit materials over the system
- You open the emails, view the materials and forward them on to others with commentary
If you picked the last option, you are in good company and you are also possibly part of an all-male cadre running the show in Pennsylvania. And you probably never would have been caught with your virtual pants down around your ankles but for the poor memory of one of the email forwarders.
Some background: Tom Corbett is the governor of Pennsylvania. He used to be the attorney general who investigated the Sandusky case. Current Attorney General Kathleen Kane made it her business shortly after being elected to investigate the Corbett investigation. During that investigation, a former staffer requested copies of his own old emails, presumably to refresh his recollection, which must have been terrible. Kane screened those copies and apparently came across some “I know it when I see it” materials.
Yes, it seems staff attorneys at the OAG were busy passing around pornography – on state time and using state computers. The collection reportedly includes inspirational posters showing women performing sex acts on their bosses in the office. Other emails included ethnic “jokes” mostly aimed at Muslims and gays.
Some in the apparent old-boy network porn chain who left the OAG for plum posts with the Corbett administration have resigned from those posts. Secretary of Environmental Protection Christopher Abruzzo promptly resigned after it was apparent he had forwarded some of the emails with commentary. In one, he sent the email to a friend he called an “Ass-Man” with the comment, “yummy. Now don’t hurt your wife tonite.”
Not all caught in the release fell on their sword. Consider Randy Feathers, who has a $116,000 per year seat on the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole. Feathers supervised investigative agents in State College – the home of Penn State – who worked on the Sandusky child sex abuse investigation. He refused to resign despite evidence that showed he not only received 436 sexually explicit emails, but forwarded 40 of them to others.
Now the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is in on the act. Chief Justice Ronald Castille demanded Attorney General Kane provide his office with any of the racy emails that were sent to or from state judges, including sitting PA Supreme Court justices. She complied, forwarding “hundreds” of sexually explicit emails that met those parameters on Friday afternoon.
No doubt Justice Castille will be spending some quality time this week determining whether he knows it when he sees it.
Pingback: Pennsylvania Porn, State Supreme Court Edition - Bitter Lawyer()