Posted: Wednesday, 07 October 2009 10:46AM
Just Say No To Olszewski
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
When I interviewed Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. live on “Corbett” a few weeks ago, he made a statement that I found intriguing. Referring back to his days as county district attorney, he said that we had worked closely together.
The judge purposely used an interesting choice of words.
Back then I wrote news columns for the Times Leader and often wrote about crime. I wrote so much about crime that one day I got charged with a crime – a felony I did not commit and argued was retribution for embarrassing a DA other than Olszewski who had botched a couple of murder cases.
When Olszewski got elected he dropped the charges against me and my bosses.
Olszewski eventually got elected as a judge.
And, because of my arrest, I joined my bosses in receiving one of the nation’s most prestigious journalism awards for service to the First Amendment. Eventually I landed here on WILK News Radio where I continue to talk and write about crime, political corruption and our lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Over the past few years I ran into Olszewski a couple of times in the supermarket as the ongoing federal public corruption scandal was just beginning to explode. Now our paths cross once again.
I guess you could say that Olszewski and I worked closely together when I went to him occasionally for information for a column. I remember speaking with him about whether he could do anything about revoking reputed mobster Billy D’Elia’s concealed weapons permit that was issued through Luzerne County. Olszewski agreed but D’Elia kept his permit when the sheriff refused to take it away.
I even confronted Olszewski a couple of times about some serious rumors that came to me about him and his behavior. But Olszewski always denied the accusations and since I had no evidence to the contrary I always gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Now I have evidence to the contrary.
The Citizens Voice newspaper recently published a photograph showing Olszewski posing in June 2005 with a smile and a drink and a convicted drug dealer at the Florida condominium that federal prosecutors claim was controlled by two former judges who once served on the county bench with Olszewski.
The United States government has indicted those former Luzerne County president judges - Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan - for racketeering and 45 other federal felonies.
Conahan, who invited Olszewski and his date to the condo as his guest, is also shown posing in the photograph. Olszewski later reimbursed Conahan $400 for a private jet plane ride to Florida but did not reimburse him for his vacation at the condo.
Some people believe that Olszewski should have claimed the condo vacation as a gift of value and declared the cost on the official Commonwealth form that requires judges to publicly claim any gift of value over $250 from anybody other than family members.
Prosecutors claim Ciavarella and Conahan used the condo to hide cash they took as kickbacks. Prosecutors claim the gangster judges juggled the books in a variety of ways while their wives officially owned the vacation palace and various guests, including a Forty Fort lawyer who regularly appeared in county court and the chief county court stenographer, partied by the sea.
Even though Olszewski served for years as Luzerne County DA, he said he did not know the drug dealer background when he posed for the photo. Hazleton native Ronald Belletiere served four years in a federal prison after admitting to being part of the most notorious cocaine smuggling scheme in Luzerne County history.
At that time Belletiere was the talk of the courthouse. I knew about Belletiere and wrote a column about him in 1994, even naming Conahan as the godfather to Belletiere’s daughter.
You would think then district attorney Olszewski would have remembered.
Times Leader reporter Jerry Lynott broke the 1994 story when he quoted federal court records in two lengthy articles naming then Hazleton magistrate Conahan as an unindicted co-conspirator in the cocaine investigation.
Conahan even called a press conference during which I asked him what an unindicted co-conspirator was.
Conahan said he didn’t know.
You’d think Olszewski would know and remember that discussion as well.
Prior to Conahan’s successful retention election in 2003, reporter Dave Janoski even interviewed him about those same notorious accusations.
Olszewski should remember that discussion, too.
But the judge claims ignorance.
If Olszewski didn’t know he should have known.
Too much is at stake to re-elect such a know-nothing judge. On Nov. 3 vote no on retention for Olszewski. He really should know better. So should you.
Let’s work together to reject Olszewski.
Just say no.
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