Democracy Has Prevailed.

April 2, 2014

How Long Has It Been??

Hey, you remember former County Councilman Chuck McCullough, right?

You remember that 52-page document that a Grand Jury presented?  Here's how the P-G described it:
A county grand jury today handed up a 52-page presentment that alleges Mr. McCullough, an attorney, and his sister, Kathleen A. McCullough, bilked money from the $14.5 million trust fund of an Upper St. Clair widow, Shirley H. Jordan, 90.

The investigation began after an article appeared in the Post-Gazette in April 2007 in which Mrs. Jordan denied that she donated $10,000 to each of four political candidates the year before, according to an affidavit that accompanied the arrests of Mr. McCullough and his sister.
And so on.  Did you see the date on that?

Chuck McCullough was arrested a little more than 5 years ago.

Has there been a trial yet?

Um, no.  In fact an astute reader emailed a legal document to me a few days ago.  Here's the first paragraph:
Appellant, Charles P. McCullough, appeals from the denial of his pre-trial motions to dismiss criminal charges, pursuant to this Court’s grant of McCullough’s pro se petition for review on May 23, 2012. After careful review, we affirm the trial court’s pre-trial rulings.
If I am reading the rest of it correctly (and as I am not an attorney, that's always a possibility), it says that McCullough's appeal to have the charges dropped were denied.  A point reinforced by my astute reader, who wrote:
Basically the Superior Court dismissed his appeal of the lower court's refusal to dismiss the charges. I assume he will now appeal to Pa. Supreme Court. If he loses there, I would think there is no reason the trial can't finally start, subject, of course, to whatever legal maneuvers he has up his sleeve. To me, the most interesting thing is that he is representing himself.
So how long has it been?

Let's put this in some context.
  • Jerry Sandusky was arrested in November 2011 and he was found guilty the following July.
  • Richard Poplawski killed three police officers in April 2009 and he was found guilty in June 2011
  • Jane Orie was indicted in April 2010 and was convicted March 2012
I am NOT saying that McCullough is guilty.  He has every assumption of innocence until proven guilty that everyone else has.  Nor am I saying that he's been charged with anything as heinous as killing a police officer or raping young boys.

What I AM asking is this: How is it that such high profile cases as Sandusky, Poplawski and Orie can go to trial and our friend Chuck is still filing appeals?

7 comments:

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

How about adding to your list Pittsburgh's former corrupt Chief of Police
or
John Perzel, Former Pennsylvania House Speaker, Pleads Guilty To Corruption
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/john-perzel-corruption_n_943659.html
or
Bill DeWeese
or
pro-choice hero Kermit Gosnell

Ol' Froth said...

WHat exactly is your point? I don't recall any of those cases moving at a glacier's pace, and Harper and Perzel entered guilty pleas.

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

Dayvoe focused on Jerry Sandusky, Richard Poplawski and Jane Orie case not any Democrats as examples.

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

"In 2007, security camera footage surfaced of an intoxicated off-duty police officer, Anthony Abbate, punching and kicking a female bartender, Karolina Obrycka. Abbate was shown in the video punching and kicking Obrycka at Jesse's Shortstop Inn on February 19, 2007, after Obrycka refused to serve him any more alcohol."

Over 2 years
"Abbate was convicted of aggravated battery, a felony, on June 2, 2009."

Over 5 Years
On April 30, 2007 a lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the city of Chicago and Abbate and several other individuals by attorneys representing Obrycka.[34] On November 13, 2012, a federal jury found that a "widespread code of silence" within the Chicago Police Department had allowed Abbate to feel that he could attack Obrycka without fear of reprisal. They also found that Abbate participated in a conspiracy to cover up the attack. The jury awarded Obrycka $850,000 in damages.

Ol' Froth said...

I have no idea what the political orientation of Sandusky, Gosnell, Harper, or Poplawski are, and I don't see how someone's political affliation is at relevent. And what happened in Chicago is again, irrelevent.

Perzel is a republican, but again, so what?

Ol' Froth said...

I'll also add that McCullough's political affliation isn't mention in the post. Again, what's your point? The issue is that its been five years, and we still haven't had a trial, while far more serious cases were disposed of comparativly rapidly.

This is about the filing of frivilous motions in order to drag the case out. Usually, this is done in the hope that witnesses die or memories become fuzzy. Political partisanship isn't the issue here, and you bringing it up is typical.

StandingBull said...

It is naive for you to think that political partisanship didn't play into the charges being brought in the first place. There is a reason you keep hearing readers ring that bell...