Posted: Wednesday, 04 February 2009 11:42AM
Breathe Life Into Luzerne County
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Alive and as well as a Luzerne County official can be in the midst of an ongoing federal corruption probe, Commissioner Greg Skrepenak is quoted in this morning’s Times Leader as saying that he did not try to kill himself.
But yesterday the rumor was all over the place.
The caller to WILK News Radio whispered his piece of gossip like it was the gospel.
Although he refused to give his name he quickly turned over the first of some serious rumors yesterday about the ongoing federal investigation into public corruption at the Luzerne County courthouse.
The FBI had raided Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak’s house the caller told “Corbett” producer John Lucas who quickly called me in my office.
I called some sources.
The word had been on the street since morning, one source said. Reporters had gone to Skrepenak’s house but no search seemed to be underway.
“But wait ‘til you hear this,” the source said. “We’re hearing that Skrepenak might have committed suicide.”
Desperate people take desperate action. But is Skrepenak desperate?
Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, two former county president judges, recently signed plea agreements with federal prosecutors admitting that they accepted $2.6 million in kickbacks.
They agreed to serve seven year prison sentences.
News broke yesterday that a third high-ranking county court official, William Sharkey, also agreed to plead guilty to embezzlement of public funds from the courthouse.
He, too, will likely go to prison.
But Skrepenak has not been accused of any crime.
Although he was interviewed by Secret Service agents in a criminal investigation into the misuse of county funds and county-issued debit cards, the results of that probe have not been made public.
Skrepenak had cast a vote to lease the juvenile center that’s at the center of the judicial public corruption probe, but he is not accused of any wrongdoing – just gross incompetence and playing personal politics.
But to hear word that he killed himself was a stunner.
Earlier in the day Wilkes-Barre police had discovered a body with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Maybe that added to the rumor. And another incident a few weeks ago was also being whispered on the street. Maybe that added to the rumor.
And, since FBI raids on the homes and offices of county public officials is nothing new, maybe that added to the search warrant rumor.
But none of it is true, Skrepenak told reporter Jennifer Learn-Andes.
At least he’s talking.
Now maybe he can keep talking about how he plans to help fix the most dysfunctional county government in county history.
And, since Luzerne County had already rivaled Chicago in pound-for-pound political corruption, nepotism, patronage and other public disservice, that’s definitely saying something.
Skrepenak has overstayed his welcome as a public official.
Maybe he should just resign and let somebody else take over the vast responsibility of restoring the public trust to a government that is in shambles. Maybe he should just tend bar or act as a greeter at the sports bar that his father owns.
Skrepenak fails to realize that serving the public trust is harder than pouring a pint of Yuengling. Public service is deeper than a beer mug.
Most taxpayers no longer trust Skrepenak. Of course, he’s not the worst brute at the public policy pound, but he’s not the pick of the litter either.
Expect more rumors as desperation increases and more people worry about getting arrested, indicted, charged or publicly humiliated. This scene will no doubt get worse before it gets better. We’ll keep digging into the story, separating fact from fiction, and looking for truth in all the right and wrong places.
Some rumors are true. I heard about Ciavarella and Conahan getting busted two years ago. I even heard a new rumor this morning. And I’m alive and well and ready to talk.
It’s time to resuscitate the public trust and bring good government back to life.
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