Democracy Has Prevailed.

April 6, 2021

More On Charles P. (Chuck) Mccullough (UPDATED)

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An astute reader emailed me this link this morning:

Former Allegheny County Councilman Charles McCullough has lost his last chance to avoid complying with a prison sentence for theft and is set to appear Tuesday before a county judge.

The state Supreme Court on Monday denied his application for extraordinary relief and motion to stay the sentence.

McCullough is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. Tuesday before Judge David Cashman for a hearing to comply with a 2½- to five-year sentence.

This is set to happen today. 

Ever a McCullough-skeptic, I will believe it when I see it. He's weaseled out of this before. Perhaps Former Allegheny County Council member Charles P. (Chuck) McCullough has one more trick up his sleeve.

In any event, The Trib has more info on our good friend Chuck:

McCullough, now representing himself, was found guilty in a bench trial of five counts of theft and five counts of misapplication of funds, stemming from work he did as a power of attorney for an elderly Upper St. Clair woman.

He initially was charged in 2009. It took six years before the case went to trial, and it has been more than five years that he has tried to get out of the prison sentence imposed on him in December 2015.

In February, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to accept his appeal, clearing the way for him to begin serving his sentence. [Emphasis added.]

I guess the "Now representing himself" part means he's run out of attorneys. I think he's now on the other side of a half-dozen. Rudy Giuliani was busy? 

The Trib also has something else that can't be found at the P-G (and kudos for The Trib for the deeper coverage) - more on Chuck's application for extraordinary relief:

However, in his emergency motions, McCullough, 66, outlined a number of reasons why he should not be required to go to state prison.

Among them, he listed medical conditions — including a shoulder with torn tendons that requires surgery — and a fear of contracting covid-19 in the prison system.

Including, what amounts to a note from his doctor outlining why he shouldn't go to prison.

Then there's this:

“Defendant would be defenseless in prison which is for the most part populated by much younger men, some being no more than one-third of defendant’s age and who will outweigh defendant by more than 100 pounds,” he wrote. “He would be at great risk of being seriously injured or killed by other inmates if incarcerated.”

Instead, McCullough suggests that he could have surgery as his doctor recommends and avoid covid by being allowed to serve his sentence on house arrest.

“The commonwealth is not prejudiced at all by the presentation of this motion as it will be spared the expense of having to house, feed, treat and care for defendant,” McCullough wrote. “The current sentence of 2½ to 5 years of incarceration may well be tantamount to a death sentence for defendant due to his age, health issues, susceptibility to covid-19 and his vulnerability to deadly assault by other inmates.”

See? Everyone would have won had Chuck just gotten house arrest!

What did Sammy sing in 1976?

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. (Don't do it.)

Let's see how this turns out today.

I wonder how this will effect Patricia McCullough, a judge on the Commonwealth Court and Chuck's wife, and her campaign for Supreme Court.

Did you know she was at Wendy Bell's rally recently? And this happened:

Which divine law did Chuck break when he misappropriated that $40,000, your honor?

UPDATE: This morning the Allegheny County DA tweeted:


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