Pa. High Court Rejects Ex-AG Kane's Criminal Appeal
Kathleen Kane was found guilty more than two years ago, but will now begin to serve her jail sentence.
November 26, 2018 at 05:56 PM
3 minute read
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has denied former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane's bid for an appeal in her criminal case, finalizing a lower appellate court's decision to affirm her conviction on perjury and related charges.
In an order filed Monday afternoon, the court denied Kane's petition for allowance of appeal. Kane resigned from her post shortly after she was convicted in August 2016, but continued to fight the result. It has now been over two years since Kane was sentenced to 10 to 23 months in jail, but she will only now start serving her sentence.
Kane's attorney, Joshua Lock, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.
In a published opinion in May, a three-judge Superior Court panel unanimously upheld Kane's conviction. A Montgomery County jury found her guilty of intentionally leaking confidential investigative information to smear a rival, then lying about her actions under oath.
Kane was released on $75,000 cash bail for the duration of the appeals process. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office filed a motion to revoke bail Tuesday afternoon, and Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy filed an order Tuesday afternoon, stating that Kane must report to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility by 9 a.m. Thursday.
Kane argued several points on appeal, including that all of the judges in Montgomery County should have recused themselves from the bench during her case—alleging they had connections to the grand jury investigation of her conduct—and that prosecutors used vindictive tactics to secure her conviction.
The Superior Court rejected each of her arguments.
“The mere fact that some judges of a particular court may have some familiarity with a particular case has not been held to be a basis for recusal of an entire bench of judges,” Judge Anne Lazarus wrote in the court's opinion. Additionally, there was no evidence of a vindictive prosecution, Lazarus said.
Kane's slow-motion fall from grace began with the revelation in 2014 that she had shut down a political corruption investigation that eventually resulted in a series of guilty pleas in a prosecution revived by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. It continued as Kane—as the jury found—broke the law in the process of seeking revenge on Frank Fina, the former prosecutor she believed let loose the information to the media that led to her public embarrassment.
In addition to criminal charges, Kane faced a series of lawsuits filed by employees and former employees of the Office of Attorney General. Earlier this month, the OAG agreed to settle a case brought by two agents who had alleged that Kane retaliated against them and tried to damage their reputations after they testified before a grand jury about an OAG investigation Kane shut down, paying $75,000 to the two agents, Michael Carlson and Michael Cranga.
READ MORE:
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllPhila. Med Mal Lawyers In for Busy Year as Court Adjusts for Filing Boom
3 minute read'Recover, Reflect, Retool and Retry': Lessons From Women Atop Pa. Legal Community
3 minute readEDPA's New Chief Judge Plans to Advance Efforts to Combat Threats to Judiciary
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250