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And other true stories from
the case files of a town gone bad
'Bubba' takes the fall
Missing county sofa found in DA's basement
Chief Becky Downing hoped Pennsylvania
Attorney General Tom Corbett
would help fight the courthouse corruption she'd
uncovered
But Corbett had his own 'sofas' to hide
by Bill Keisling
In a town gone bad everybody has their place.
As a woman, Becky Downing didn't know her
place in the old boy's courthouse. Her place was to go
along, and shut up.
Becky Downing was hired as Chief of
Detectives of York County, Pennsylvania, in 2001.
In her four years as chief detective, Downing
says she uncovered a "culture" of illegalities and
improprieties in the Republicancontrolled courthouse.
Her boss, Republican District Attorney Stanley
Rebert, fired her in late 2004.
In early 2005, Chief Downing filed a federal civil
wrongful termination lawsuit against DA Rebert.
Downing's lawyers, over the next year, took the
sworn testimony of more than two dozen law
enforcement officials, courthouse personnel, and
others.
In July 2006, Downing's attorneys gave
upwards of a thousand pages of the federal court
records to two criminal investigators working for
Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett.
Becky Downing hoped AG Tom Corbett would
help stamp out the blatant courthouse corruption.
But Corbett had his own reasons not to help.
DA Stan Rebert, meanwhile, in 2006, settled
the wrongful termination lawsuit.
Rebert agreed to pay Downing up to $200,000
in public money, and other conditions.
In return for the settlement, former Chief
Downing accepted a nondisclosure agreement,
forbidding her to talk about the case. At least,
thankfully, they convinced her to shut up.
The court documents associated with Downing
case were then secreted away to a federal court
document depository in Philadelphia, PA.
We wondered what Chief Becky Downing found
in the York County, Pennsylvania, courthouse. And
what did Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett
choose to ignore?
Just the facts, ma'am.
'Bubba' takes the fall:
Missing county sofa found
in DA's basement
What happens, in a town gone bad, when you
take an idealistic young female police officer and place
her in charge of a detective's bureau in a corrupt old
boy's courthouse?
Becky Downing was about to find out. So were
the old boys.
Soon after District Attorney Stanley Rebert hired
Downing as his new chief detective in January 2001,
Chief Downing was given reason to suspect she'd
replaced a thief.
Soon she would be investigating and
prosecuting her immediate predecessor, former Chief
County Detective Kenneth "Bubba" Ingle.
There came the day, Chief Downing recounts,
when "I received a phone call from a gentleman whose
gun (Chief Ingle) stole. And I first affirmed that this, in
fact, gun should have been in police property. I verified
that it was signed for and taken as property by W.
Kenneth Ingle, who was my predecessor, who
represented the York County District Attorney's
Detective Bureau. I confirmed that the gun was, in fact,
missing.
"I went to (DA) Rebert on that afternoon and
explained to him that this happened, and he said, 'Can
we not do anything about this? This would be an
embarrassment to my office,'" Downing recounts.
"We had a lengthy discussion that afternoon,
where it was evident to me by his statements that (DA
Rebert) didn't want to do anything about this and it was
'only one gun,' et cetera. And he continued to affirm it
would embarrass him and the fact that he was going to
run for reelection.
"I did everything I could to convince him that it,
in fact, would be a feather in his cap politically; that he
was showing that he was not running the illegal things
under the carpet...
"I also said, 'If he stole from you once, he
probably stole from you for 11 years, so let's, please, do
a complete investigation on this.'"
Rebert "wanted me not to mention it happened,"
Downing says. "He wanted it under the rug. He wanted
the man's gun returned, and 'can't we forget it?' ... I
changed his mind, yes, trying to get him to do the right
thing, and he did."
It would turn out that DA Rebert had reasons of
his own for not wanting Chief Downing to look too
closely into Bubba Ingle.
District Attorney Stan Rebert had forced Chief
Ingle into retirement a few months before, in October
2000. DA Rebert says this had happened after he was
told by his office administrator "that Mr. Ingle had been
padding his overtime ... and I confronted him with it and
he apologized and resigned."
Some of Chief Ingle's transgressions, it would
turn out, included "putting in overtime ... for supposedly
a legitimate law enforcement event for the county while
he was actually ferrying Mr. Rebert's family members to
the airport."
Bubba Ingle was quietly let go. DA Rebert sent
around a letter to all the chiefs of police in York County
saying that Bubba Ingle "has left the District Attorney's
Office for personal reasons.... I do intend to fill this
position." The DA wrote the chiefs that he was
"soliciting letters of interest." Becky Downing applied,
and was hired as Ingle's replacement.
Now Chief Downing was in Stan's face to look
into what all Bubba may have taken.
DA Rebert reluctantly agreed. To supposedly
avoid a conflict, the case was turned over to the state
police and the Republicancontrolled state attorney
general's office.
Even so, Downing realized, District Attorney
Stan Rebert for unexplained reasons continued not to
want the matter completely investigated.
Soon the state police got a warrant and
searched former Chief Bubba Ingle's house. Downing
recounts, they "searched his house and came back
with seven stolen handguns." It turned out that Bubba
Ingle had over the years helped himself to lots of
county property.
"It was approximately $20,000 worth of boxes of
notebooks, boxes of evidence booties, cameras, VCRs,
two laptop computers, (an) underwater camera, a
telephone that was issued by the U.S. Marshall's office
for discreet communications," Downing says. The state
police estimated the value of the stolen property at
$20,000. I asked (DA Rebert) that we bring additional
charges for this, and he told me no. He said to me,
'Haven't you done enough?'"
"Mr. Rebert ... told (me and the AG's office) to
stop. 'We don't want to go there,'" Downing recalls
Rebert telling them.
Even though the matter now was supposedly in
the hands of the state attorney general, DA Rebert was
still calling the shots.
"And did they stop?" Downing was asked.
"They did."
Former Chief Ingle would only be prosecuted for
several of the stolen guns. Bubba wouldn't have to pay
his debt to society for the rest of the $20,000 in stolen
county property.
Soon it dawned on Chief Downing that DA
Rebert wanted the matter dropped for personal
reasons. Downing learned that DA Rebert kept a gun in
his office desk drawer. Bubba Ingle had taken the gun
from the DA's evidence room and had given it to DA
Rebert.
DA Rebert commandeered other property that
should have been in the evidence lockup, or destroyed.
Rebert kept a confiscated slot machine at his house,
and another slot machine in his office. Rebert once had
one of his detectives drive a broken slot machine to a
repair shop.
"We had to take it to a place off of King Street,"
Detective Anthony Glowczewski says. "Something was
wrong with it." DA Rebert, Glowczewski says, told "me
to take it to a certain address. In fact, the boss went
with me."
"So Stanley Rebert has this onearmed bandit
or slot machine in his office and it needs to be
repaired? Is that right?" the detective is asked.
"Right," says Det. Glowczewski.
"I later learned from detectives who were on the
scene of two raids," Downing says, "one a bingo raid
and one a Liquor Control Agency raid, where they
informed me that these items had been taken." The
machine in the DA's house, Downing says, "was a slot
machine or a video machine ... some confiscated
entertainment machine. He also had a slot machine in
his office that was taken also before I became the
chief."
"I complained to Mr. Rebert on many occasions
that those slot machines ... that they should be
destroyed. I complained to him many, many times.... I
was trying to protect him."
A lot of people were helping themselves to
public property in the York County DA's office.
DA Rebert, Downing says, "asked me several
times when we made forfeitures of evidence to provide
him some for his personal use, but I refused on all
those occasions."
As the trial date loomed for former Chief Ingle,
DA Rebert found himself in a legal and moral dilemma.
Bubba in his time had done some favors for DA
Rebert. Ingle had helped transport certain county
property to DA Rebert's house.
And now Bubba Ingle was going down for theft.
District Attorney Rebert feared that an
ungrateful Bubba Ingle would drop some dimes on him.
Rebert asked two of the county detectives to do
him a favor and bring a slot machine back to the office
from his house. While they were at it, he asked them to
a carry a tv set in to his house from his car.
"On the same date when Mr. Rebert directed
Detectives James and Millsaps to take his personal TV
from the back of his vehicle to his personal home, it is
my understanding that he directed them to bring (the)
slot machine that was in his home back to the DA's
office," Downing recounts.
On the morning of Bubba's trial, Rebert found
himself worrying about the sofa.
He brought the matter up about what to do
about the sofa in front of the state attorney general's
own prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Eric
Augustine. Augustine had been brought in to prosecute
Bubba for the theft of county property.
"...It was on the day that Mr. Ingle's trial was to
begin," in March 2003, Chief Downing recounts. "I was
in my office going over some reports with some
detectives and Eric Augustine from the Attorney
General's office ... when Mr. Rebert came into my office
and asked that I dispatch county detectives to his
house to pick up a county couch. He wanted this done
because he was afraid that Ken Ingle would reveal
during trial testimony that they took this couch to Mr.
Rebert's house."
Now a state deputy attorney general was a
party to discussions about retrieving a stolen couch
from the DA's house.
Bubba Ingle, it turns out, wasn't the only crook
in the courthouse.
But Bubba would take the fall. He would be the
only one prosecuted.
County Detective Anthony Glowczewski
remembers it like this:
Q: Do you remember being in a group or
gathering where Stan Rebert came in and asked that a
county couch be removed from his basement?
Detective Glowczewski: Yes.
Q: Let me ask you who was present, by the
way, for this, first of all?
Detective Glowczewski: There was the little
guy from the AG's office.
Q: Eric Augustine?
Detective Glowczewski: (Deputy AG) Eric
Augustine, (Detectives) Jeff Martz, Doug Demangone,
myself and these were people that were there. They
were coming in.
Q: Downing was there too?
Detective Glowczewski: Yes. She was sitting
at her desk.
Q: Was that right before the commencement
of the (Ingle theft) trial?
Detective Glowczewski: Yes.
Q: Were you discussing strategy for the trial?
Detective Glowczewski: Yes.
DA Rebert, for his part, explains that he was
actually doing the county a favor by keeping the couch
at his home.
"Well, when Mr. Ingle was being prosecuted for
having county property," Rebert says, "it crossed my
mind that I had a couch that had been purchased when
I physically moved my office, my private office to the
courthouse. I bought a couch with county money and
had it in my office.... Then when we relocated ... I took
the couch home because there was no place for it in
my office anymore...."
DA Rebert was helping the county avoid
storage expenses.
"Well," Rebert goes on, "it came to mind that if
I'm prosecuting my detective for having county property,
I better take the county property that I have back to the
courthouse, or whatever."
Later Downing would learn that former Chief
Detective Bubba Ingle every year received a car load of
stuffed animals from a York Fair proprietor in return for
the county detectives policing the fair.
Ingle also improperly billed the county for liquor,
and meals.
("I looked at his receipts and I remember
walking into (Chief Ingle), I said, 'There is no way in
God's life you had five steak dinners at the
MAGLOCLEN conference," Assistant District Attorney
Bill Graff recounts. "You just scammed me out of the
money, so I want the money back.")
Det. Glowczewski says that Chief Ingle "would
take the boss (DA Rebert) from poll to poll" on Election
Day.
Electioneering in the courthouse
A town gone bad runs on favors.
Sometimes these favors include helping your
boss get reelected.
Chief Becky Downing recounts, "Early on in Mr.
Rebert's quest for reelection for the year 2001, I was
walking back the hall one day and I was stopped
abruptly by the sheriff, Bill Hose, who was very upset
because he had just seen in Mr. Rebert's office that
there was a unified group of people. I believe he called
it an 'assembly line,' assembling campaign signs for
(DA) Rebert.
"(Sheriff Hose) was very upset. He said that's
highly improper. 'You better,' he said to me, 'you better
get your boss to stop it.'"
Downing continues, "So I went into the office
and it was (secretary) Randy Rizzuto and (DA deputy
office administrator) Susan Voyzey and Stan Rebert. It
wasn't an assembly line. They were folding them. For
some reason I think there was someone else there too.
But I explained to Stan that Bill Hose had just come in
and filed a complaint. We had to get them out of there.
"(DA Rebert's) response was He indicated to
me that he didn't care about Bill Hose. I said, 'Look, the
guy is not happy. It shouldn't be here. Let's get them
out of here.' And I left at that point.... I went to my own
office and had a phone conversation with my
husband.... I said to him what had happened. He said,
'Man, that is highly improper. You've got to tell Stan to
get them out of there.'
"I went back over and assembled the signs. My
husband came in in his own vehicle and we got the
signs out of the DA's office...."
Downing goes on, "One time we had the deputy
sheriff come over and unlock the back door so that we
could take (the campaign signs) out the back door and
unto the back plaza and into my husband's personal
vehicle. And one time we actually put them out the
window of Stan Rebert's office to get them out.
"At that time I thought it was illegal to do
campaign things inside a courthouse. I mean, I had
thought through my previous knowledge that you
couldn't do anything like that in a courthouse. You
couldn't campaign, you couldn't circulate petitions, or
anything. I was trying to protect the boss at that point in
time. And we got them out of there."
Once, Downing says, DA Rebert asked her to
pick up a campaign petition from a supporter. "I picked
it up, and then I told (DA Rebert) that it was improper
and I believed illegal."
Campaigning on the public dime among
members of the DA's staff seemed pervasive, Downing
told the federal court. After she expressed displeasure
with picking up a petition for DA Rebert, Downing
recollects, Assistant District Attorney Tom Kelley asked
her to circulate a campaign petition for Rebert.
"I also explained to Mr. Kelley about the law,
and he too claimed that he didn't know that," Downing
says. Today, in 2008, Tom Kelley is a York County
Common Pleas Court judge.
Downing continues, "Randy Rizzuto, Mr.
Rebert's secretary, would handle invitations, circulation,
addressing envelopes, stuffing envelopes, et cetera.
Now, while (this) was done at their house on occasions,
Randy Rizzuto also did it from the office. At one time
she was showing me initiations (for a campaign event)
that I believe a woman and her brother were having at
the Country Club of York. That was on duty. That was
... political."
"I don't know where the invitations came from,"
Downing continues, "but Randy was stuffing invitations
into an envelope in her office for a woman and her. It
might have been her son, I don't know. They were
members of the country club and put on a benefit for
(DA Rebert) for his reelection campaign."
Another time, Downing testifies, "I was directed
by Mr. Rebert to go to the Country Club of York. There
had been a large campaign sign left there by him, and
they were complaining that they wanted it removed.... It
was after one of the political parties (DA Rebert) had at
the country club."
DA Rebert was asked, "Did you ask Ms.
Downing ... to pick up an election petition for you?"
"Not that I recall," Rebert answers.
"Did she complain to you about the assemblage
of campaign posters of signs in your office?"
"I don't recall that specifically," Rebert says.
"But she very well may have."
An admission
In 2000, Bev Mackereth, former mayor of Spring
Grove, PA, and a former county employee, ran
successfully for a vacant state representative's seat.
Mackereth's campaign treasurer was DA Rebert's
deputy office administrator Susan Voyzey.
"Bev Mackereth was having a promotional golf
tournament," Downing says, "and Susan Voyzey was at
work that day, but she spent most of her day there. And
I asked her if she was on vacation and she said no, she
was working Bev's golf tournament. I told Mr. Rebert
about that."
DA Rebert, she says, "did not answer."
This occurred during Mackereth's "first year's
gold tournament because Susan Voyzey, and employee
of the DA office, was her treasurer."
Republican Rep. Mackereth announced her
retirement from the state General Assembly in early
July 2008, a few days before AG Tom Corbett unveiled
his prosecutions of past and present Democrat state
reps accused of campaigning with public employees.
In 2005, DA Rebert's Chief Deputy Prosecutor
Chuck Patterson unsuccessfully ran for county judge.
Voyzey was for a time Patterson's campaign treasurer.
Trouble involving DA Rebert's office
administrator Susan Voyzey did not end with the
political campaigns of Rep. Mackereth, Patterson, or
DA Rebert.
"(T)here were several employees that came in
late habitually," Downing told the federal court, "and
other employees would see this and nothing would
happen to them. So it was really causing difficulty,
ripping the office apart."
DA deputy office administrator Voyzey,
Downing's federal deposition reads, "would come to
work anywhere from 10 o'clock to 8:30 to 10 o'clock
when she was due there at 8 o'clock. This continued for
a long amount of time. There were a lot of rumors
about this employee, about drug addiction. I don't know
if they were true or not, but I did know that she was
coming to work late. This was confirmed by (DA Office
Administrator) Paul Crouse."
In his federal court deposition, DA Office
Administrator Crouse picks up the story. Crouse was
asked, "Do you recall a period of time in 2004 where
Miss Voyzey was routinely late for work?"
"Yes," Crouse replies. "...I believe she went out
on medical leave Good Friday of 2005. It would have
been about. Off and on for about a year prior to that
there were. I had issues with her time and attendance.
I think I have that day right."
Crouse continues, "I confronted Susan in
Stanley's office, and Stan's secretary Randy was there
as my witness. I confronted her with a number of
observations that I had and observations that had been
expressed to me by other individuals about her
behavior, her appearance, her attitude, and possible
explanations that came to mind as to what could be
causing those things. Ultimately, I focused on
substance abuse....
"She repeatedly denied any illegal substance
abuse," Crouse continues. "I told her that I needed to
know that that wasn't true, and the only way I knew how
to do that was to compel her to submit to drug testing,
and I was going to require her to do it immediately. I
think immediately before that discussion or maybe
during a break during that discussion I talked to Becky
(Downing) and told her, 'I'm going to need
transportation. I can't have her drive herself.'
"...(I) asked (Chief Downing) to secure
transportation with one of the detectives with a vehicle,
which she assured me she would do," Crouse testifies.
"Anyway ... the interview went on between me and
Susan, and she was denying substance abuse, and all
but refusing to submit to a test. And I finally had to draw
the line with her and explain to her that 'you have no
choice. Your choice is right now tell me you're going to
take the test or right now I'm terminating you.' At which
point she acknowledged that she couldn't take the test
because she wasn't sure it would be negative. She
acknowledged to me, admitted to me that she had used
cocaine, I think it was a day or do or two days before
that. She insisted it was one time, it was only one time
that she had ever done it.
"At that point," Crouse recalls, "having
previously discussed the issue with (Human Resources
Director) Sharon Luker, (I) made the determination,
(that) we have an admission.... And then I asked her
whether she would cooperate with counseling. She
acknowledged that she would. She didn't think there
was any reason to do that, any need to do that because
this was the one and only time she had ever used any
illegal drug, but that she would do whatever was
required of her.
"In my mind the focus then shifted to a
personnel issue," Crouse testifies. "It was no longer a
matter of termination. It was a substance abuse issue,
and (I) erroneously made the judgment that I no longer
needed to do the drug test because I had an
admission." Crouse says he "spent probably another
hour with Susan Voyzey and set up the counseling
contacts with her."
No immediate drug test of Voyzey was ordered.
"A day or so later," Crouse recalls, "...I spoke to
I think it was a physician from WorkFirst who handles
these types of issues, any type of employee health
issue for us. That we should have still sent her out to
have the test done, to, basically, I think he referred to it
as establishing a baseline. And I told Susan, okay, we
need to go take the blood test. She agreed to I think it
was a blood test, or a urine test, I don't know which.
She agreed she would do that. That was at least a day
or two later that was done."
By that time, Crouse says, "the results of that
test came back negative."
At his deposition, York County drug task force
prosecutor Bill Graff was asked, "Were you aware
through your functions with the drug task force of a
situation or a time when Ms.Voyzey's business card
was located during a drug raid?
"Yeah," Graff replies, "and I can't think what
drug raid it was. But I remember her business I
remember one of the cops commenting that her card
had been found."
But these would not be the only ongoing
problems with Susan Voyzey in the DA's office.
"That same employee," Downing testifies,
"Susan Voyzey, it had come to my knowledge that she
had displayed ... a badge from the district attorney's
office in an attempt to identify herself and get out of
charges that her boyfriend ... was facing. I asked that
she be disciplined for that. I asked that the badge be
retrieved from her because she had misused it. He (DA
Stan Rebert) refused to do it."
"That same employee, Susan Voyzey, had
called West Manchester Township requesting a police
report on another incident, a road rage incident of her
same boyfriend ... and identified herself as an assistant
district attorney."
'White trash'
In order for a town gone bad to function
smoothly, as I say, everyone must know their place.
Becky Downing goes on to testify that York
attorney Tom Keaney "contacted our office"
complaining that "part of the focal crime scene photos"
of a child's grisly murder, known as the Witman case,
"had been taken out of the DA's office and shown at a
party.... The person that removed the photos and took
them to this home was (deputy office administrator)
Susan Voyzey."
Downing says she was attempting to "Bring
some accountability to the agency that it so suffered
without for so long." So Chief Downing found herself
pushing, once again, for a theft investigation involving
one of DA Rebert's staff.
The accusation was that Voyzey "took (the
photos) out for her personal use, i.e., to shock and
show the individuals at this party of this information that
she had."
When confronted, deputy office administrator
Susan Voyzey, Downing relates, "denied ever taking
the photos from the office. In fact, (she) admitted it
would be wrong and she'd never do it. And because
they were so graphic and because the victim was such
a little child, that's not something she would ever have
done."
Told of the complaint, DA Rebert said, "'this was
just Tom Kearney making things up because he wanted
to be DA,'" Downing relates. Kearney obviously did not
know his place.
Nevertheless, DA Rebert initially approved an
investigation of the alleged theft of the child's crime
scene photos.
"(W)e had a meeting in the office of Stan Rebert
and it was agreed that we would go out and talk to the
individuals and determine if it seemed valid," Downing
testified.
"The individuals that we were talking about
were the people that had this gathering. I would call it a
gathering rather than a party, whereby, they allege(d)
that Susan Voyzey brought Witman crime scene photos
to their house and displayed them on a counter. The
couples' name who owned the house was Rita and
Michael Wynegar."
DA Rebert explained that he had past dealings
in other cases with the Wynegars. The Wynegars,
Rebert intimated, were not the type of people a York
County judge or district attorney would ever consider
paying much attention to, except to hand out a stiff
sentence.
"Mr. Rebert referred to the Wynegars as 'white
trash,'" Downing relates.
'Mr. Rebert referred to them as white trash'
"...We were directed, we being Lieutenant
(Anthony) Glowczewski and I, to go interview Mr. and
Mrs. Wynegar and see what we thought," Downing
continues. "We did that. We made an appointment and
we visited with them at their home. We spoke to them
individually and together, and received information from
them about Susan Voyzey and these photos. We found
them credible."
The Wynegars even volunteered to take
polygraph tests "at their own expense to bolster their
statements in the case," Downing says.
"By that time," Downing continues, "the district
attorney did allow us to move forward in this
investigation. At that point in time I had contacted an
individual from out of town to come in and be available
to do polygraphs for two civilians. I did not tell them
who. ...I told him I would get back to him, and before I
could get back to him I was notified by Mr. Rebert, both
in person and later in a memo, stopping the
investigation because it was 'an insult to Susan Voyzey
and to himself.'"
DA Rebert, for his part, explains that he closed
the investigation of Voyzey's alleged theft of crime
scene evidence, "Because I thought it was ludicrous....
This was all being generated by Tom Kearney who I
thought was not a legitimate source of information, as
well as I thought that the (Wynegars) were not
legitimate sources of information."
While this seems at first like a small, offhand
statement, it cuts to the heart of things. These
troublemakers just did not know their place.
In a town gone bad, the thinking goes like this:
Unless you are one of our buddies, or a contributor to
us, or you go to our club, you are "not legitimate," and
you are not considered worthy or eligible for the
protection of the law. You are instead eligible for
denigration and ridicule.
It's how a town gone bad is held together.
Friends and party allies are naturally protected, while
whistleblowers luckily have nowhere to go with their
concerns, and often find themselves persecuted, or the
target of retaliation.
Former Chief Becky Downing would go on to
complain in her deposition that Susan Voyzey on at
least one occasion sat on DA Rebert's lap at a
Christmas party.
"Did Miss Voyzey ever sit on your lap at
Christmas parties?" DA Rebert was asked during his
federal court deposition.
"Oh yes," replies DA Rebert. Rebert is now
wheelchair bound, suffering from MS.
"How did that come about?" the DA was asked.
"She walked over to me and sat on my lap."
"Okay. Did you allow that?" Rebert was asked.
"I wasn't going to push her away," Rebert
replies.
"Why's that?"
"Did you ever see her?" DA Rebert explains.
"...I mean, you know," the DA goes on, "she
wanted to sit on my lap and I let her sit on my lap. I do
that to any ... willing female. I'm not sure I'd do that to.
I'm kind of homophobic, so I'm not sure I'd do it with
you," District Attorney Rebert tells Downing's lawyer.
DA Rebert would say that deputy office
administrator Voyzey eventually was terminated. Why
was she terminated? Rebert was asked.
"I believe she was terminated because she just
wasn't doing her job," Rebert replies. "...She went into
counseling. I don't know if it was at that point ... she
was dismissed. It was during the time of the drug
allegations she, I believe, went into counseling and was
tested, and so forth. But I'm not sure how that relates in
time to her ultimate dismissal."
The stinking badges
In a town gone bad, in the literal lap of corrupt
law enforcement, those close to DA Rebert and AG
Corbett find themselves eligible for all sorts of badges
of privilege, figurative and real.
Take the badges. The issue of the distribution of
York County DA's office badges as "favors" for "friends"
continually crops up in the Downing depositions. At one
point Downing complains that DA Rebert's wife wanted
a DA's office badge issued to her dentist.
Dick Parks, a deceased DA's office hangeron
who was connected to a York courthouse prostitution
ring in the late 1990s, was said to frequently flash a
York County DA's office badge.
In the Downing transcripts, DA Rebert even
testifies that a "friend," "political supporter," and York
County businessman in "the disposal business" was
given a DA's office badge.
"What did you expect he was going to do with
that badge?" Rebert was asked.
"Well, I was hoping he wouldn't do anything in
terms of trying to get out of tickets," DA Rebert testified.
"What he did do was, he pulled the badge out when he
was stopped over in Lancaster County, I think. Then I
asked him to give it back. I'm not sure I ever did get it
back."
Downing testified that the same businessman
"got stopped by (York) city police and they took his
badge from him."
State police computers used to access child
porn sites
In a town gone bad, all sorts of bad offenses
naturally must be protected.
In the pages of the Downing court documents
we take a strange trip through the looking glass, and all
sorts of intolerable things suddenly are tolerated,
thanks to AG Tom Corbett.
Consider the uninvestigated federal court
testimony of York County Detective Jeffrey Martz.
Det. Martz is asked about an office occurrence
involving county Detective Matthew Millsap.
Elsewhere in the court documents Det. Millsap
is described as having a slovenly and unprofessional
appearance.
Becky Downing explains that, upon taking her
job as Chief Detective, she made it a policy that her
detectives not accept free meals from restaurant
owners. Everyone but Det. Millsap complied, she says.
"When I was a police officer in the city of York,"
Downing explains, "there were approximately five or six
restaurants that extended that same courtesy.... There
were many times in my early years where I confronted
the owner and said, 'I don't like this. I'm not comfortable
with it.' It was hounded in my head in the police
academy. And I actually had business owners say, 'I'd
be offended. This is my business, I can do whatever I
want.'
"I do not believe it is illegal to do this. However, I
made it a policy very early in my career never, never,
never to walk out (of) there without paying my full bill. It
was my belief and ethics that once you did that,
nothing. Nothing is ever free. And I extended that to
my detectives when I started up there. And every time I
went to lunch with them they always put more money
on the table, except (Det.) Millsaps.
"My officers knew that that was what I wanted
done," Chief Downing continues. "I told them that from
the time I came in. This is how I instructed my officers
in York City for 20 years. And to my knowledge all
those officers did that except for Detective Millsaps,
who many times we'd have to go leave a tip for him
because he'd walk out leaving nothing."
So, that's Det. Millsaps.
In his federal court deposition, Det. Jeffrey
Martz is asked, "Was there an incident where Mr.
Millsap improperly accessed a child porn website from
the PSP (Pennsylvania State Police) in your office? Do
you remember that?
"Yes," Det. Martz replies. "I conduct forensic
examinations on computers through my investigations,
as well as other county departments. I am assigned a
laptop computer issued to me by the Pennsylvania
State Police Computer Crime Unit. That particular
laptop is used strictly for forensic analysis.
"I recall Detective Millsaps asking me to go into
my office to 'use the computer,' is how he expressed it,
to later find out that he, as well as the information
service representative, loaded the internet onto my
forensic laptop and there was pornography observed."
Think you could get away with that, if you were
not protected by law enforcement officers like District
Attorney Stan Rebert, and state Attorney General Tom
Corbett?
'Watch your back':
Your coke can now
In a town gone bad, bad leads to worse.
Tolerance of unacceptable behavior in the cyber world,
parallels deadly risks in the real world. Innocent
people's lives are continually put in danger in York
County, PA.
Throughout the Downing papers it's evident that
an awful lot of insider York Countians are drunk driving,
and wrecking cars (even publicly owned cars) and then
getting their cases fixed.
Take the case of York city Detective Scott Hose.
Hose is the son of recently retired county Republican
Sheriff Bill Hose.
In July 2003 Det. Hose was drunk driving in a
county car issued by DA Rebert's office. Det. Hose hit
another vehicle headon. The vehicle he hit was driven
by a mother, Candy Byers, accompanied her 13year
old son, Joey Raciunas.
Mother and son were lucky to escape with their
lives. How does it feel to see a car driven by a drunk
heading straight for you?
Candy Byers told the local newspaper she felt
"lucky to be alive."
Det. Hose was taken to the hospital in critical
condition.
In his deposition, county drug prosecutor Bill
Graff tries to explain how he came to give city Detective
Hose the official county car that Hose wrecked in the
violent DUI.
Of all the depositions in the Downing federal
lawsuit, Bill Graff's is probably the most enjoyable to
read. Graff is a character and a half. Graff comes
across as both likeable and experienced. He's the guy,
running the drug task force, where the rubber meets
the road.
The ongoing question withADA Graff and his
loose oversight of drug task force funds and equipment
is whether too much rubber is hitting too much of the
road.
Still, ADA Bill Graff has a vivid vocabulary and
one senses he could be a very good writer. Graff
doesn't give written reprimands to misbehaving drug
cops, he tells Downing's lawyers at one point. "I give
ass chewings." He even corrects one of his sentences.
"That's improper English," he apologizes.
But Bill Graff has to work on that honesty thing.
In a town gone bad, it helps not to care. Graff
says he doesn't care who uses the federally funded cell
phones he passes around. He says he also doesn't
care who drives the state funded cars, or what they do
with them.
"I don't want to be bothered by daytoday who's
driving what car, what buy money is going out, that kind
of loosestring crap," Graff says at one point. "I don't
have time for that crap."
"I don't care what they use (the official cars) for
as log as I call them at two in the morning and they
show up in a car," Graff says. "Everything they do is
official business, as far as I'm concerned."
Graff also doesn't care about longstanding
allegations that some of his drug task force cops are
thugs who steal evidence money, lie and cheat, or that
impounded cars are kept with a contractor who is
accused of alleged contacts with the sex trade.
All this came back to bite Bill Graff. When it did,
it endangered innocent families and children, like 13
yearold Joey Raciunas, and his mom.
How did city Det. Hose come to possess the
county car? Graff is asked.
"I don't remember," Graff says at first. "I
probably had a hand in it. I probably gave it to him
because it was sitting there. It was a Montana or
something like that. (I told him), 'It's now your coke
can.'"
It's your what? Graff is asked.
"Coke can," Graff replies, lightly. "It's probably
that can over there because it's in a million pieces."
Did he mean coke in car (top) or making a 'coke
can car' with a Stanley knife?
Graff goes on to explain that he oversees drug
forfeiture property like cars and houses, and that, "I
probably own more cars in City Hall than York Police
own."
You own them? Graff is asked.
"Stanley owns them," Graff replies.
"Stan owns them?"
"Yeah, sure," Graff replies.
Forgotten here, again, is the public.
Did Det. Hose wreck a drug car? Graff is asked.
"I don't think that Montana was a drug car,"
Graff replies. "I think it was a 'grant car.' It was a grant
car. It wasn't a drug forfeiture car."
What grant could it have been? Graff is asked.
"You know, I can't tell you," ADA Graff says, "but
I know it was a grant car. It was a grant car that was
under. It wasn't under my control, but I had my hands
on it. I had my hands on a lot of cars."
Graff goes on, "I gave it to (Det. Hose) to drive
for a while to put his forensic gear in, this, that and the
other thing, and obviously at this point I've been made
to realize it was a mistake.... And I believe I was
responsible for him having it.... And he wrecked it. And
he wrecked it."
"He's a very good kid," Det. Hose's father, the
county sheriff, told the local paper, the York Daily
Record, while his son recovered in the hospital from his
DUI headon.
Their kids are always very good kids, in a town
gone bad.
Det. Scott Hose was given an ARD
(Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition) and was soon
back in the saddle again.
"I learned that after Scott Hose had been
arrested for DUI, he had been driving a county vehicle
and he had been involved in an injury accident, both to
him and other parties," Chief Downing summarizes.
"And after he returned to work. He had been placed
on ARD and then returned to work. He was again
issued another vehicle by Mr. Graff, and I complained
to Mr. Rebert about that."
"After the DUI accident, I believe you then
issued a second car to Mr. Hose; is that correct?" drug
prosecutor Graff is asked.
"Oh, yeah," ADA Graff replies. "At some point in
time. It wasn't immediately. They needed a car. A lot of
city detectives who are assigned to the drug task force
do a lot of drug work, have cars out of the forfeiture
account. They're like widgets to me. (They're) things
like coffee cups, you just move them around. He
needed some vehicle, I put him in some old van."
Then, Graff says, "I got a memo saying, 'Are
you out of your mind?' And we took it back
immediately."
Ask yourself, could you get away with any of
this?
"Are you kidding?" a director of a York social
service agency complains to me. "What do you think
would happen if I wrecked an agency car in a DUI? I'd
lose my job."
The Downing case file, however, is loaded with
fixed, insider cases like this, many of which bother
Chief Downing. Some of these cases are presented like
mysterious little nuggets, just alluded to in passing.
The reader is left to suppose that DA Rebert
was performing "favors" for political insiders, prominent
citizens, and their families. Chief Downing just doesn't
seem to understand that, in a town gone bad, favors
like these are what hold things together.
DA Rebert attempts to intervene in a case
involving the wife of a prominent printing company
owner. A case involving a "barmaid at Murph's," who
was friends with DA Rebert's wife, receives special
handling.
DA Stan Rebert "wanted to know who filed
charges and what the status of the investigations are
for personal and political reasons; not for district
attorney investigations," Chief Downing complains.
There was, for another example, "the
unarresting of Mr. Fitzkee." Mr. Fitzkee was a former
York County DA.
Outrageous cases abound. An underage son of
a county judge shot another young man in a drug deal.
The judge's son was given an ARD. The judge himself
was handling domestic relations cases, instructing
other parents how to raise their kids. "A real expert on
raising kids, that judge," one shopkeeper says to me.
Could your kid get away with shooting another
man's son in a drug deal?
Some of these blatant case fixings don't sit right
even with DA Rebert's close loyalists.
Becky Downing says at one point that York
County Senior Prosecutor Tim Barker "was one of the
biggest supporters of my opposition to Mr. Rebert's
improprieties and illegalities. I can remember many
conversations when Tim came to me upset that Mr.
Rebert didn't want to continue prosecution against
certain political patrons, such as Mr. Kinsley." Kinsley is
a prominent York County name.
"The Kinsley case particularly bothered Becky,"
a friend of her tells me.
"But then (Barker) did admit to me that yes, ...it
reaches a point where we all have to support Stan in
what he does. And then there was some conversation
about (me watching) my back, where he mentioned my
back. Then pretty much we said goodbye."
Crude, lewd, sexist, and racist
To go along in a courthouse like this is not just
to live with, and ignore, dangerous "improprieties and
illegalities." It means you must live and work daytoday
in a demeaning environment. Even young children must
endure it.
Take, for example, the openly displayed photo
of Hillary Clinton's face that was pasted onto a pinup
poster.
"There was a day where it was 'bring your
children to work day,'" Chief Downing recounts. "There
were children literally from the ages of 3 to high school
age. I was asked to take them on a tour, explain what
the police department does, and take them on a tour of
the forensic lab, which at that time was across the alley
from the back of the courthouse. It was an old church.
"Detective Demangone and I took the tour over.
And after the kids had walked in through past the
counter, either Demangone or myself, I can't remember,
noticed that there was a morphed picture of Hillary
Clinton. It was her face, but it was (over) some
woman's bare breasts displayed on the wall.... Mr.
Rebert just laughed at the incident."
In his deposition, DA Rebert played down the
incident, and even keeps the "joke" running.
Was a photo like that inappropriate for the
forensics lab? Rebert was asked.
"Well for a kindergarten class going through it,
yeah. For a bunch of detectives, I don't know," Rebert
replies. "I never saw the picture."
The lawyer treads on: "Okay. Well, just assume
that there was a poster where Hillary Clinton's"
DA Rebert says a pinup with Hillary's face is
'hard to imagine'
"Assume a picture of Hillary Clinton," DA
Rebert repeats.
"face was superimposed" the lawyer
fumbles.
"with large breasts" Rebert says.
"on a largebreasted woman," the defense
lawyer finishes.
"It's hard to imagine," Rebert jokes.
In a town gone bad it boils down to humiliation,
ridicule and degradation.
"I tried to create a different culture," Downing
says at one point. "There was a lot of lewd jokes that
would carry on and go on, especially during executive
staff meetings....
"As I said about the culture," Chief Downing
continues, "these executive staff meetings, most of the
time it was mostly men. On three occasions there was
another female with me, which I was really happy for.
But it was a lot of male jocularity at these meetings.
The meetings would stop dead center because,
perhaps a pretty woman went by that was jogging, or a
very obese person that they'd like to make comments
about.
"The meetings, they weren't very useful, but a
lot of times they'd get off on tangents of things that had
happened before, such as assistant district attorneys
that were commingling sexually and how they'd get
caught, and things that I really didn't want to hear."
DA Rebert himself was involved in a car
accident. The DA asked the responding officer to write
up the police report so that points wouldn't be accessed
to Rebert's drivers license, the transcripts discuss.
"And on one occasion there had been an article
in the newspaper," Downing continues. "It was a point
in time where Mr. and Mrs. Rebert had decided to have
an article written about themselves to reveal that Mr.
Rebert had MS. There was a lot of rumors and false
inferences that he was an alcohol abuser and he, in
fact, was not. They wanted to get it out in the public that
he was suffering from this disability.
"And in the course of that article, there was a
statement that Mr. Rebert liked to hire beautiful women.
The very next staff meeting there was a lot of jocularity
about that and 'beautiful women,' and they added (that
DA Rebert also liked) 'big tits.' And then they came over
to me and looked at my chest and said, 'How did you
ever get hired?' ...It was just a culture that was very
unpleasant to be around."
When asked about this, Rebert says, "I don't
remember that happening. But I do have my standards,
yes, sir."
In a town gone bad, we must always have our
standards.
"He (DA Rebert) allowed that atmosphere, that
culture, that conduct to continue the whole four years I
was there," Chief Downing says. "I would tell him about
that on occasion and complain to him. Yet, it never
changed for my entire time there."
"She complained about everybody," DA Rebert
at one point dismisses Chief Downing's concerns. Well,
yeah. In a town gone bad, there's a lot to complain
about.
Once, Downing recalls, "I was informed by my
sergeant, Doug Demangone, that he had been
downstairs. When I say downstairs, some of the
detectives' offices were downstairs intermingled with
the ADAs (Assistant District Attorneys). And while
Sergeant Demangone was there, an ADA named
Joshua Neiderheiser ... walked around an employee
named Julie Patrick and patted her on the rear end or
grabbed her, I'm not certain....
"And one of us told Mr. Rebert there had been
an example of harassment in the workplace that day,"
Downing continues.
"And with just that information Mr. Rebert said,
'Did I get caught sticking that rolledup $20 bill down
Carletta's bra?' laughing, and he said he knew that (his
secretary) Randy saw him do that."
Rebert, Chief Downing says, thought they were
confronting him. In his deposition, for his part, Rebert
says he was only making some sort of strange joke
about shoving a $20 bill down his employee's bra.
"I didn't think any of these things were founded,"
Rebert explains.
"Well, didn't you say (Mr. Neiderheiser) was
investigated and he did receive discipline?"
"Yes, sir," Rebert says.
"So wasn't that founded?"
"That was founded, yes, sir. But I don't recall
making any jokes about that incident. I know I didn't,"
Rebert says.
"Well, do you remember making, in a 'joking'
way, (a statement about), 'What sexual harassment?
Did I get caught sticking a rolledup $20 bill down?"
"Yes. I do remember that, yes sir," Rebert says.
"Do you think that's appropriate?"
"It's probably not in the best judgment to say
that, no," Rebert reflects.
On another occasion, Downing relates, "in the
district attorney's circle we had some friends that were
lesbians. And (DA Rebert) would ask me to. When it
would come up he said, 'Explain to me how they do it?'
I'd tell him that was improper. 'No, no tell me how they
do it. Explain to me how they do it.' I took offense to
that because both of them were very good friends of
mine, and that was their choice of sexuality."
Once, Downing says, "I had been to an accident
in West Manchester Township and a gentleman by the
name of Chandrakant Shah was killed in an accident
and it was a shame. (DA Rebert) called him a terrorist. I
told him that was improper; that a foreigner does not a
terrorist make. This is just the kind of culture. You don't
know the guy, he's got a strange name, he's a terrorist.
I didn't like that."
'Treat him like a white man'
In a town gone bad there is a natural pecking
order. Chief Becky Downing never understood this.
The mask of pretense came off one day, and
Becky Downing was made to consider the natural order
of things.
Det. John Daryman
DA Rebert decided to hire a new county
detective named John Daryman, who was a longtime
York city drug cop.
Now in DA Rebert's office, Daryman wanted to
work only 32 hours a week, unlike the 40 hours the
other detectives worked.
Chief Downing told DA Rebert that this would
cause a labor grievance to be filed by the other officers.
Rebert didn't seem to care.
Det. Daryman, as well, against the rules, for
some reason didn't want to take a polygraph test before
he was hired. Nor did Daryman even file an application
for employment.
In August 2002, Det. John Daryman was
arrested for DUI in Potter County, Pennsylvania.
Daryman swerved across a centerline three times, and
was found to have a blood alcohol content of .113
percent. If convicted of drunk driving charges, Daryman
would lose his police certification, and could not work
for DA Rebert.
DA Rebert naturally telephoned Potter County
District Attorney Jeff Leber in an effort to intervene in
the case. At the time Rebert was prosecuting a case
involving the 1969 race murder of a South Carolina
woman named Lillie Belle Allen. Rebert said Daryman
was needed for the investigation.
The Potter County DA gave Daryman an ARD.
The charges were erased, and Det. John Daryman kept
his certification to arrest others.
"I have prosecuted police officers in the past for
DUI and will continue to do so. The special
circumstance of this particular case have led me to
believe the most appropriate disposition of this case is
to take the action that I did," Potter County DA Leber
said.
In May 2003, York County Common Pleas
Judge John Kennedy, himself a former York County
assistant DA, swore in Daryman as a county detective,
despite the irregularities involving Daryman's hiring.
Why was Stan Rebert seemingly so anxious to
protect and defend Det. John Daryman? Downing was
asked.
"Well, habitually," Chief Downing says, "Mr.
Rebert had asked me to do things that I would refuse
prior to John Daryman's employment. And after John
Daryman's employment, there were many fewer things
that he would ask me to do."
Downing says that DA Rebert told her that he
wanted Daryman to do "secret stuff."
"Since Mr. Rebert told me that he wanted
Daryman to do 'secret stuff,'" Downing says, "I thought
perhaps this is what he meant; that the things that
weren't legitimate and legal, that he would have him
do."
(Elsewhere in the transcripts, the lawyers ask
DA Rebert about a comment Det. Daryman was heard
to make that Rebert "owed him." The district attorney
was asked, "You never owed Daryman any type of
personal favors for any interventions that he may have
done for you, or anything like that; members of your
family or for you personally?" "No, sir," Rebert replies.)
In any event, newly hired county Det. Daryman
was soon placed outside Chief Downing's chain of
command. One day, Downing recounts, Det. Daryman
came "to me to tell me what his work schedule was so
that I could record it on payroll. And I, very
professionally, not with nastiness, not with anything,
said to him, 'John, (Rebert's secretary) Randy does
your payroll now. You have been taken out of my chain
of command, and as such that's something she did.' He
said okay.
"Very soon after that Mr. Rebert called me and
made some statements about, why didn't I 'treat John
Daryman like a white man when he came over to me?'"
Treat him 'like a white man,' DA Rebert told
Chief Downing
"Did you make a comment to Ms. Downing at
any time about treating John Daryman like a white
man?" Rebert was asked.
'Yes, sir," says DA Rebert.
"Why would you make a racial statement like
that?"
"It was an ignorant, unthinking statement made
behind closed doors," the district attorney explains. In a
town gone bad, all sorts of things are said behind
closed doors
This was not long after DA Rebert's staff badly
botched the Lillie Belle Allen race murder trial.
It's quitin' time, Mars Rebert
In a town gone bad, you can't go by some
stinking rule book. Chief Becky Downing just never
understood that.
Becky Downing says she was trying to build a
welltrained, professional detectives bureau in York
County, Pennsylvania. A detectives bureau that went by
the book.
At every step she was undermined by a racist,
sexist, corrupt old guard that had quite different ideas
about enforcing Pennsylvania law.
Chief Downing says that DA Rebert told her
"many times" that he was the district attorney and so he
could do anything he wanted.
DA Rebert, says Downing, "loved to coin a
phrase taken from Gone With the Wind: 'It's quitin' time,
master. No it's not. It's quitin' time when I say it is,'" she
says Rebert would tell public employees.
Take, for another example, Det. John Daryman,
the drunkdriving cop who didn't want to take a
polygraph when he was hired.
Det. Sergeant Demangone was asked, "With
respect to Mr. Daryman, when he was hired. Were you
there during his orientation?"
"I did his orientation," Sgt. Demangone
answers, and Chief Downing was in the room.
"Did anything unusual happen at that
orientation?"
"What we did in our orientation is we would go
over each rule and regulation with each detective as
they were hired," Sgt. Demangone relates. "And I was
reading him the rules and regs and he says, 'You don't
need to read these to me. I'll just take the book.' And I
said, 'No, Chief (Downing) wants me to read them to
you so you understand each one so that there is no
questions.
"And (Daryman) says to me, 'Well, I am going to
violate half of these.' And I said, 'Well, if you violate
them, you will suffer the consequences.' And he says,
'Well, I am going to violate half of them.' And I said,
'Well, which ones?' He says, 'Well, like this chain of
command thing. Do you think I am going to take an
order from Millsaps?' And I looked at him and said,
'Well, John, do you think Millsaps is going to give you
an order?' And he says, 'Well, I am just telling you, I am
going to violate half of these.' And I said, 'Fine, then
you are going to suffer the consequences.' And we
continued through the book.
"And subsequently after that," Sgt. Demangone
continues, "apparently (Det. Daryman) changed his
schedule without telling anybody and he got
reprimanded and (that's when) he was removed from
our chain of command."
Chief Downing recalls that Det. Daryman "made
some statement to Detective Demangone that he's not
going to follow (the rules) and tossed the book off to the
side."
Sgt. Demangone says, "We were sitting in the
Chief's office right across from her desk and he just
like, slammed (the rule book) down on the front of her
desk."
Det. Daryman, for his part, explains how things
work in a town gone bad: "I worked a lot of good, hard
investigations," Daryman says, "and I violated them
(sic) same rules and regulations that are in that book
for county detectives that were in the city book for city
detectives. And anybody that was ever a detective
would know that you have to violate some of those
rules to get the job done. I understand that perfectly. I
don't know whether Doug Demangone understood it or
not, and I don't know whether Chief Downing
understood it or not."
"I do believe that in my 25 years of experience
that I violated some of those rules and regulations, and
I believe in the next five or ten years I'll probably violate
a couple more of those nitpicking little, tiny violations
that have no business being in a book for detectives,"
Daryman announces.
Det. Daryman says he doesn't follow rules
governing, for example, handcuffing prisoners, or a ban
on smoking tobacco in squad cars.
He says, "Many times, many times when I'm
dealing with a suspect in an important case I'll have
them If I think it helps me get the job done to get a
confession from them, we're going to violate that rule,
(no) smoking in the car, and they're going to have a
cigarette in the car."
But there's a big distinction between offering a
murder suspect a cigarette and tossing away the
rulebook. And that's a distinction Det. Daryman doesn't
seem to see.
When asked to recollect where people were
sitting or standing in a meeting, Det. Daryman says, "I
mean those facts ain't important to me." Some
detective. He doesn't let those pesky little facts get in
the way.
Elsewhere, in his deposition, drug prosecutor
Bill Graff says the whole problem with Chief Becky
Downing boiled down to this: "I worked with the lady. I
had no problem with the lady. You're asking my
personal opinion, I think she's a control freak."
The very next minute, however, ADA Graff says
of his job, "I live in my own little world. Stanley
understands." Or, "I pretty much run my own shop.
Stanley give me the authority to run my own shop in
that office."
In other words, Graff is only going to follow his
rules in his own little world, his own shop. Graff, for
example, basically says he doesn't care about federal
and state laws governing things like cars and cell
phones, paid by federal and state funding. "I probably
own more cars in City Hall than York Police own." His
own little world .
And that, as much as anything, is how it works
in a town gone bad like York, Pennsylvania. Everyone
follows his own personal little rulebook, and the rule of
law be damned. This includes York County judges, who
naturally sit on cases involving friends and contributors,
and who don't care about niceties like impartial justice,
or judicial canon; and, above them, a notoriously
corrupt Pennsylvania state appellate court system that
holds no one to account.
Just as state Attorney General Tom Corbett
doesn't hold DA Rebert to account for this travesty.
In a town gone bad, that's what systemic
corruption is all about. An entire system unwilling or
unable to follow the rule of law. And no one can do
anything about it. Don't like it? Well, flip you. We're
running this courthouse any way we see fit.
The thousands of pages of Downing court
transcripts, and all of the hundreds of thousands of
dollars spent in this case, boil down to one big fuck you
said to the public at large.
All this naturally ends up endangering children
and families in York County, Pennsylvania, and beyond.
It ends up with injured children, civil strife, and an
increasing number of expensive federal lawsuits like
this one, ultimately paid for by the already victimized
citizens of Pennsylvania.
"I mean, every cop I know controls their own
environment," drug prosecutor Bill Graff says at one
point, in a moment of surprising, unintentional insight.
"That's the way they're raised. My problem with Ms.
Downing is that she's too much of a control freak. She
puffs her own position. She puffs herself up to be more
than what she is. I don't mean to (be) insulting to you,
Becky. Don't get me wrong.
"But, it's like, 'I own this big police department,
this is a super police department.' And she hires
rookies," Graff complains of Chief Downing. "Guys that
couldn't investigate their own way out of their own
office. It doesn't mean they aren't good cops. It doesn't
mean they couldn't be good investigators, but they
certainly aren't of the superlative power that she puffed
herself up to be."
But Bill Graff misses the point, doesn't he?
Chief Becky Downing was trying to bring
something entirely new to the York County courthouse
with her freshfaced, welltrained young detectives: It's
called the rule of law. It's called the United States of
America.
Chief Becky Downing learned the hard way that
the old guard never goes quietly into that good night.
To her credit, she busted them all.
'What's done in the past':
The Schaad Christmas party
On his web page, DA Stan Rebert quotes
Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of
evil is that good men do nothing." At least we know now
what we're suppossed to do.
But what are the risks to the rest of us when we
let a town, and a state, go bad?
Russell Wantz police mugshot 2007
Throughout the Downing transcripts there are
references to a certain Russell Wantz, owner of the
Schaad Detective Agency, of York.
Chief Downing complains that DA Rebert
insisted that Downing have her detectives run a shuttle
service to the Russell Wantz's annual Schaad
Christmas party, during work hours.
"Mr. Rebert asked me the week before (the
Schaad Christmas party) to have my detectives
available to run the county district attorney's office and
clerk of courts' office employees back and forth
because that's what's been done in the past," Downing
explains. "I told him I would not permit this, it was
improper, and that my officers were going to the party
after work, not during work.
"After Rebert mentioned this to me," she
continues, "I asked the county detectives about it and
they verified that they had done that. They'd take
multiple trips back and forth transporting employees (to
the Schaad Christmas party), that (former chief) Kenny
Ingle did it too in his car."
Elsewhere in the transcripts, there are passing
references to publicly owned or impounded cars that
are kept on Wantz's car lot, thanks DA Rebert.
Like the "grant car" a drunken Det. Scott Hose
used to hit 13yearold Joey Raciunas and his mom.
Where did that car come from?
"I told (DA Rebert) he could check with Russ
Wantz because that's who had issued the vehicle at the
direction of Bill Graff," Chief Downing says.
Or, "Stan (Rebert) told Russ to have Daryman's
new 2003 pewter Blazer ready by Wednesday."
For years, I'd learn, there was concern among
York community leaders about Russell Wantz and his
close relationship with the DA's office.
One day York Police Commissioner Herbert
Grofcsik and city controller James Sneddon told me
they were concerned about outstanding allegations that
Russell Wantz had involvement with the sex trade.
In a town gone bad, even the police
commissioner could do nothing about these concerns,
city officials complained. DA Rebert protects Wantz,
and others, I was repeatedly told.
Police Commissioner Grofcsik, and Sneddon,
finally were so concerned and fedup that they
arranged an outoftown meeting with a U.S. Justice
Department agent to seek an investigation of DA
Rebert, Wantz, and others.
But they never heard back from the feds. The
country, it seems, had gone bad.
Why was it that Police Commissioner Grofcsik
didn't go to DA Rebert with his concerns about Russell
Wantz, and the others? Grofcsik was asked in another
federal court deposition.
"You said there were allegations that (DA
Rebert) and members of his staff were involved in the
whole sex ring, sex club investigation?" Grofcsik was
asked.
Police Commissioner Grofcsik replies, "The
reason I didn't go to DA Rebert was because I just
didn't trust him."
Grofcsik continues, "And it wasn't just because
of the sex ring. Just from my dealing, workings with (DA
Rebert), seeing what he was doing, I just had a feeling
that he wasn't an honest person."
The town gone bad finally threatened all
Pennsylvanians.
Russell Wantz's Schaad Detective Agency grew
to provide security for sensitive Pennsylvania state
offices, outside of backward York County. Wantz holds
lucrative state contracts to guard the driver's
registration office at the state Department of
Transportation headquarters, in Harrisburg. Wantz also
provides security for the Pennsylvania turnpike, and
other state agencies, like the Liquor Control Board.
In December 2007 Russell Wantz was finally
arrested outside of Harrisburg, in neighboring Dauphin
County, for criminal attempt to solicit a prostitute. The
case at this writing is pending.
Suddenly people outside of York County are
paying close attention to Russell Wantz.
Outside of the town gone bad, courthouse
favorite Russell Wantz didn't look so good.
A favor from Tom Corbett
Sometimes a town gone bad needs a favor from
the outside to keep things running smoothly.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett
understands all that. Corbett not only helped the town
stay bad, he played a public role enabling it.
It would turn out that AG Corbett had several
personal conflicts with Downing's case.
A few days after Chief Downing filed her
lawsuit, in February 2005, DA Rebert announced that
he would personally ask AG Tom Corbett's office to
conduct an "independent" investigation of the charges
to clear his name.
"I'm probably going to contact (Corbett's office)
today," DA Rebert told the York Dispatch on February
25, 2005.
The next day, Downing's lawyers issued a press
release requesting that Corbett "refer this matter to
another agency for investigation."
In her news release, attorney Devon Jacob
noted that DA Rebert was a supporter of AG Tom
Corbett in Corbett's recent 2004 election campaign.
Jacob also wrote that Corbett had a conflict
because "more than one potential witness to the
present allegations are currently employees of either
the Office of Attorney General or the Pennsylvania
State Police."
Little details like the stolen sofa, and the porn
sites viewed on the state police laptop.
"If Mr. Rebert truly wants an investigation to
clear his name, he should be encouraged to request
that another agency, such as the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, investigate the allegations."
But AG Tom Corbett undestands the importance
of keeping a town, and a state, bad. DA Rebert had
personally accompanied Tom Corbett at some of the
perspective attorney general's campaign appearances
in 2004. Other York County officials who endorsed
Corbett included Rep. Bev Mackereth, Coroner Barry
Bloss, Register of Wills Bradley Jacobs, and U.S.
Congressman Todd Platts.
More telling, before he became attorney
general, Corbett chaired the Pennsylvania Commission
on Crime and Delinquency. Corbett's commission
provided grant money to DA Rebert's office. This
presumably includes funds that were misused for cars,
cell phones, Christmas parties, and other
unaccountables in the town gone bad.
"We get this stipend from the Attorney General's
Office every year," ADA Bill Graff adds in his
deposition. "It's a check. We deposit it in the drug fund,
and we go from there."
AG Corbett's website listed DA Rebert as one of
35 Pennsylvania district attorneys who supported
Corbett in 2004. Makes you wonder about the other 34
district attorneys, and their towns.
In February 2005, AG Tom Corbett's office
predictably ridiculed anyone suspecting Corbett was
unwilling to investigate his corrupt loyal supporter, DA
Rebert.
"The attorney general's office and Tom Corbett
are fully capable of conducting an independent
investigation into the allegations that are detailed in the
civil suit and to suggest otherwise is ridiculous and
disingenuous," Corbett's PR flack, Kevin Harley, told
the York Daily Record on February 26, 2005.
Again, as usual, they're ridiculing concerned
citizens. To keep a town bad, you must always ridicule
concerns.
AG Tom Corbett's office waited a year, until
February 2006, to publicly announce that Corbett had
cleared DA Rebert in his requested investigation. Chief
Downing's allegations were "unfounded," Corbett said.
Just like that $20 bill stuffed down Carletta's brassiere.
Trouble is, AG Corbett publicly cleared DA
Rebert months before any of Chief Downing's dozens
of sworn federal court depositions had even been
taken.
Downing's own court deposition, for example,
wasn't even taken until April 19, 2006. DA Rebert's
deposition was recorded on April 21, two months after
AG Corbett publicly absolved Rebert of wrongdoing in
February 2006.
After the dozens of depositions had been taken,
in July 2006, Chief Downing's lawyers called AG
Corbett's investigators to pass along the sworn
testimony and to request a fresh investigation.
The two Attorney General's Office investigators
who took the information "genuinely seemed
interested," I'm told. "Later we heard back that AG
Corbett's office wouldn't be pursuing a criminal
investigation. We don't know if someone upstairs
closed the investigation."
In fact, it's my understanding that AG Corbett's
staff laughed at the request.
Tom Corbett had already performed his "favor"
for DA Stan Rebert. Corbett twice personally gave his
good housekeeping seal of approval to every outrage
and illegality you've read about here.
Since then, AG Tom Corbett has been caught
up in other corruption scandals.
Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General
Thomas Kimmett, and his assistant, recently filed a
federal lawsuit complaining about how AG Corbett
collects the state's overdue bills.
Corbett and others "were fully aware that
pervasive wrongdoing was occurring in the (state)
collections process by government employees," the
lawsuit reads. "Tom Corbett and (Department of)
Revenue officials made an express decision not to
formally investigate the illegal misconduct ... for purely
political reasons." Sound familiar?
The attorney general's inhouse staff, Kimmett
says, performs most of the work to settle a claim. "After
the major work is done by personnel in the Attorney
General's office, the claim is then moved to a private
collection agency who (over the years) then receives a
commission of 19 percent, 20 percent, or in years up to
40 percent.... The private collection agencies, chosen
without any bidding process by the Attorney General's
Office, would then a collect a fat commission after
having done little or nothing to earn it."
"(I)t is possible that perhaps even millions of
dollars has been, and may continue to be, illegally paid
out to preferred vendors," the suit contends.
Corbett and other officials refused to give
Deputy AG Kimmett "a promised promotion in
retaliation for his persistent refusal to react favorably to
their illdisguised message, which was to tolerate the
illegal activity."
What a bunch of whiners!
As well, Tom Corbett remains under a dark
cloud of historic proportions for permitting known
members of organized crime to gain a foothold in
Pennsylvania's new casino industry.
In a state gone bad, Attorney General Tom
Corbett understands that you need to be able to look
the other way to keep the right people in their jobs.
A favor for Old Man Thomspon
"York didn't used to be like this," one wealthy
York County man told me last year. He was from old
money. He told me that his family used to own a factory
in York, back when the town was still an industrial
powerhouse.
Many of those factories have already closed up,
or are moving away from the town gone bad.
This gentleman had read some of my published
writings about York, PA. Through a mutual friend he'd
arranged a meeting with me. He wouldn't immediately
get to his point.
Trying to draw him out, I told him I'd seen
photos of York city in the old days, in the 1950s, before
the urban blight, and the flight of capital.
Downtown York used to be done up like an
ornament at Christmastime, I told him, decorated with
colorful trappings and window displays. Families
walking everywhere. There were carolers in the streets.
"That's not what I mean," he says to me.
"In the old days, you didn't have all this blatant
inyourface corruption," he finally says to me. "There
was a pride in our community. An honesty."
Well, okay, so he was a whiner. But here was
his point: The very act of manufacturing a product in a
factory was an act of honesty, he tells me. If you can't
make an honest product, at an honest price, and deal
honestly with your customers, you aren't going to be in
business long. And a crooked courthouse staff in a
town gone bad isn't going to help you stay in business.
He tells me that oldtime CEOs in York, running
oldtime factories, would never permit such overthetop
courthouse corruption.
"In the old days a factory owner would care
about everyone working in his factory, and their
families, and he cared about his community. He tried to
do the right thing," he tells me. And that's all gone now.
He worried aloud it wasn't coming back.
In York, at our first Constitutional Convention,
America was born. And today, here in York, he says,
America is dying.
See the town gone bad dying in front of your
eyes, and read it dying in the pages of the Downing
transcripts.
Ask the oldtimers, he says to me. Ask them
about how York used to be. I'd find it was nothing like
this.
And so that brings me to Old Man Thompson.
John Thompson Sr., for decades, well into his
eighties, was the Republican chairman of York County.
Not long after I moved to York County, Chairman
Thompson, I learned with some surprise, wanted to
meet me. A luncheon was arranged.
DA Stan Rebert and Chairman John Thompson
1998
Old Man Thompson showed up, driven by GOP
County Commissioner Chris Reilly. Thompson was old
and bent and he needed help getting around. Still, he
was full of spit and vinegar. He treated his hapless
driver, fortyish Chris Reilly, like a footman, yelling and
cursing at him. I feared Chairman Thompson might slap
Commissioner Reilly in the head.
With me, Chairman Thompson was a model of
good manners. He was generous with his time, and his
memories.
He asked after my Daddy. "And how's Big Bill?"
he wanted to know. He reminisced about how politics
used to be practiced in the old days, in the 1960s
Scranton administration, when Republicans and
Democrats could still sit down for a drink, and talk to
eye to eye, he says. In the end, you might not see eye
to eye, but you respected each other, and you kept the
door open.
Back then, moderate Republicans stood for
something other than themselves, and their own selfish
interests. Where have they all gone? the old man
seemed to sigh.
Back then, Chairman Thompson told me,
politics was different. Everything was different. He
didn't have much use for the way things are now.
Talk soon turned to every oldtime southern
Pennsylvania politico's favorite subject, Dwight
Eisenhower. For years into the 1960s the former
president lived in nearby Gettysburg, and continued to
rule the state's Republican party. We swapped
Eisenhower stories.
"You didn't fool around with General
Eisenhower," Thompson told me wistfully, his eyes a
twinkle. Ike, it goes without saying, had his watchful eye
out for all Americans. General Eisenhower had seen
his share of what happens when a town, and a country,
goes bad, in Germany. He'd sure straightened out
Jerry.
Old Man Thompson told some stories. He
talked about sitting down with Gov. Tom Ridge in the
1990s. He says he told the governor what York County
needed. "'I don't have a problem with that,'" smooth
Gov. Ridge would tell him. About now Tom Ridge is
starting to look pretty good.
Well into his eighties, John Thompson ran the
York County Republican party with an iron hand. He
was a sight to see at committee meetings, yelling and
cursing at anyone, and everyone, to sit down, and shut
up. Know thy place.
Over the years I'd bump into John Thompson
around York, and he'd always ask after my Daddy, and
he'd always have a kind word for me, and I'd try to say
a kind word to him.
Thompson's health finally was failing him. He
wanted to live out his days in the unchanging
countryside of York County, on a family member's farm.
I guess he wanted his old eyes to be painted with the
scenery of his youth.
Instead, I got the idea Chairman Thompson
found himself threatened with the old folks' home.
Assisted living. But John Thompson had no use for
assisted living.
Old Man Thompson wanted to be strong
enough to take care of himself, to the end.
That's about when York County Republican
Chairman John Thompson crossed paths with Chief
Detective Becky Downing.
"I was requested on many occasions to provide
ammo for John W. Thompson, who was the Republican
Party chairman," Downing complains in her court
transcripts. "And then Mr. Rebert sent Tom Kelley, who
was then the first assistant district attorney, to me on
several occasions literally hounding me to get this
accomplished.
"I didn't think it was appropriate that police
officers should provide ammunition to citizens,"
Downing continues. "It had never been done in my
experience. And I felt that if the man needed
ammunition, someone in his own family should be
providing it for him. We had several conversations
about this."
DA Stan Rebert, says Downing, "didn't let it go.
He on several occasions kept saying to me, 'Get the
ammo. Get the ammo. We have to keep the old man
happy,' or something along those lines.... He explained
to me that, politically, it was quite important that ... we
keep Mr. Thompson happy."
Finally, Det. Sgt. Demangone recalls, "(ADA)
Tom Kelley they brought the gun in and I had to figure
out what kind of caliber it was. ...It was an old I want
to say it looked like a .32 automatic, if I remember
correctly. Like a Walter PBK kind of thing. It wasn't a
Walter PBK. It was some other German pistol or
something. I ended up going and getting ammunition
for it. I don't remember where I got the ammunition, but
I remember buying it...."
The detective says that he was told, "Something
about (Thompson) wanted to keep the gun in his office
and needed ammunition for it," Sgt. Demangone
recalls. So Demangone brought the gun and the freshly
bought ammo back to Old Man Thompson's county
Republican committee office.
"I just remember going up the steps and down
the hallway and (Chairman Thompson) was in his office
and he said, 'Hey, thanks,'" Sgt. Demangone says.
Early in 2006, Thompson, frail, and full of days,
shot himself in the head, killing himself. The sharp blast
reverberates through the Downing transcripts.
District Attorney Stan Rebert is asked about a
line of transcript that reads, "Mr. Kelley came and got
information Stan requested in January on what ammo
(was) needed for John Thompson.... Then it was the
wrong caliber, so Doug (Demangone) had to intervene.
'Go to Republican headquarters and look at the gun
and tell them it was a .32 ASP Mauser.'"
Rebert is asked, "Did Mr. Thompson kill himself,
commit suicide?"
"I don't know that that's any of your concern,"
Rebert snaps back.
DA Rebert says he received limited information
about Chairman Thomson's suicide, "from Kathy Burke
with York Area Regional Police Department."
"Did she tell you whether he had shot himself in
the head with the .32 ASP Mauser?"
"No," DA Rebert replies. "The weapon was not
mentioned, no."
Just another smoky York County mystery.
Still, in my mind, I keep thinking about Sgt.
Demangone hauling the gun and the ammo over to the
old, sick party chairman, and "keeping the old man
happy."
It's a wonder, I keep thinking to myself, that
Becky Downing's freshfaced, wideeyed young
detectives weren't asked to load the gun for the old
man, and pull the trigger.
In York County, these days, that's not called
murder.
That's called doing somebody a favor.
Posted October 26, 2008
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