Posted: Wednesday, 14 October 2009 10:50AM
What Is Judge Olszewski Hiding?
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
For weeks now, I have tried without success to persuade Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. to answer one very simple question. Will he authorize the unsealing and release of all documents, including depositions taken under oath and under threat of perjury, contained in a defamation lawsuit he filed against WILK radio host Fred Williams in 1998?
If not, why not?
So far, Olszewski has failed to return several phone calls asking if he will unveil the facts as they were presented in the case he brought as a public official in a public court proceeding.
Olszewski continues to keep his secrets.
The judge, who is up for re-election on the Nov. 3 ballot for another 10-year term, has even refused to provide the name of an attorney from whom I can make my request.
What is Olszewski hiding?
Back then, Olszewski was the county district attorney looking forward to winning his first term as judge. He sued Williams for statements Williams made on the air. Lawyers settled the case and Williams went on his way. But Olszewski was adamant that important parts of the case be sealed and kept from the very public that paid and continues to pay his salary.
Media lawyers argued during the proceedings that everything included in the case should have been made public. One of Williams’ attorneys said that requests to seal are not unusual in certain cases.
“But this is a public figure case and that is unusual in a public figure case,” the attorney said.
In a Sept. 29, 1999 Times Leader story, attorney Jonathan Blum, who represented the newspaper, was quoted as having invoked his right at a hearing before then President Judge Joseph Augello to be heard on any matter involving secret proceedings.
“Blum argued that the public should have access to all filings in the case because Olszewski and Williams are public figures,” the article says. “He further noted that Olszewski’s salary is paid through public funds.”
“Mere embarrassment (to one of the parties) is not enough to seal or close,” Blum said.
After all these years, does Olszewski’s mere embarrassment entitle him to hide from the very public he serves and wants to continue to serve pertinent facts in a public lawsuit he filed in a public court as a public official?
Last week I spoke with one of the lawyers involved in the Williams case.
Although he said he is limited in what he can say about the case, he believes Olszewski has the authority to release information sealed at Olszewski’s request. He said a legal action could shake loose some of the material but that Olszewski likely could provide all the documents if he chooses to do so.
A visiting judge eventually agreed to seal important parts of the proceeding, the lawyer said.
That information remains a secret.
With less than three weeks to go until the election, Olszewski should truly uphold the public trust and release any and all information voters might need to further understand the man whose fate on the bench they will decide. After all, Olszewski claims honesty is the cornerstone of his retention campaign.
When a photograph of Olszewski appeared on the front page of the Citizens Voice showing the judge posing with accused federal racketeer and former President Judge Michael Conahan, Olszewski promised to answer any and all questions about his character and qualifications for the bench.
In that same photo, Olszewski is seen posing with a convicted felon who served a federal prison sentence for his part in a Hazelton cocaine trafficking ring when Olszewski was the DA. Olszewski claimed ignorance of the felon’s past during Olszewski’s vacation at the Florida condo where the picture was taken – a condo controlled in part by Conahan and where Olszewski and a friend he courted during an estrangement from his wife stayed for free.
Olszewski said he did not know that the felon in the photo was the notorious player in the Luzerne County coke ring that resulted in federal prosecutors naming Conahan as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.
What Olszewski absolutely does know is what information is included in the lawsuit that he filed and that remains sealed at his command.
In order to make informed decisions, voters need all the information they can get about candidates. A decade after winning a seat on the county bench, Olszewski wants to keep such information about himself to himself.
Why?
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Corbett
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