News in Brief

Harrisburg – A state senator convicted on charges he polluted a northwestern Pennsylvania stream while responsible for a sewage-treatment plant resigned last week.



Sen. William L. Slocum resigned less than an hour before a Senate ethics panel was to consider his status in the General Assembly.



The first-term senator was sentenced recently to a month-long prison term and five months of home detention for polluting a northwestern Pennsylvania stream during the 12 years he oversaw the Youngsville sewage-treatment plant.



Slocum, a Republican from Warren County, is the fourth member of the General Assembly to resign since February. His resignation takes effect June 1.



‘Serving the people of this great commonwealth as a senator has been the greatest honor an privilege of my life,’ Slocum wrote in a three-paragraph letter to Lt. Gov. Mark S. Schweiker, who presides over the Senate.



Slocum was also given seven months of probation and a $15,000 fine after pleading guilty in January to six federal misdemeanor charges of negligent discharge. The plea was part of an agreement with federal prosecutors.



Prosecutors said Slocum allowed raw sewage to flow into Brokenstraw Creek in Youngsville on several occasions between 1983 and 1995, while he worked for the Youngsville water department and as borough manager.



Democrats called for Slocum’s resignation immediately after the sentencing and Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, said the first-term lawmaker should consider quitting. A Senate ethics panel had been scheduled to meet last week and discuss whether to expel or censure Slocum over the charges.



In Harrisburg, Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow said he was not surprised by Slocum’s resignation, citing the pressure from members of the lawmaker’s own party after the sentencing.



‘These were all issues that we brought up in the campaign four years ago,’ said Mellow (D-Lackawanna). ‘He never should have been elected when he ran because he ran under a cloud of suspicion. … He doesn’t belong here in the Senate.’



On the Republican side, Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer said Slocum’s resignation was the best course of action.



Slocum was first elected to the Senate in 1996. He had been seeking a second four-year term this year and was unopposed for the GOP nomination in the primary election in April, but faced both a Democratic and independent challenger in November.



The senator’s chief of staff, Michael Kriner, said it was ‘as yet unclear’ whether Slocum would continue with his re-election bid.



Including Rep. Tracy Seyfert, the three other lawmakers who resigned were all members of the House.



Rep. Frank J. Gigliotti (D-Allegheny) officially leaves the House on June 15 over charges of receiving bribes. Rep. Frank A. Serafini (R-Lackawanna) left office in February after being sentenced on federal perjury charges.



Rep. Thomas W. Druce (R-Bucks) is awaiting trial on vehicular homicide and other charges in a fatal hit-and-run case.

Seyfert Co-conspirator Sentenced to Prison

Erie – A man who conspired with State Rep. Tracy Seyfert (R-Erie) to convince a witness not to reveal that she illegally obtained a generator from the federal government will spend more than 11 years in federal prison.



U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin last Monday sentenced Joseph C. Wenzel, of Fairview, to five years in a federal prison for conspiracy to tamper with a federal witness and six years and three months in prison for attempted witness tampering.



Seyfert resigned her House seat recently effective June 1 after pleading guilty to illegally obtaining the generator, which had been intended for firefighters. She said she needed the generator and a 500-gallon oil tank to warm thousands of exotic birds and eggs she incubates on her property in suburban Erie.



The World War II-era generator and oil tank are worth less than $1,000.



Seyfert asked Elk Creek Township Supervisor Harold ‘Frosty’ Crane in April last year to help her get the equipment. It was supposed to be given to volunteer fire departments under a federal program to transfer excess federal property.



When Seyfert and Wenzel, who she has called her unofficially adopted brother, learned that federal investigators asked Crane to help them in their probe of the purchase, they conspired to convince him not to cooperate.



Wenzel also threatened to kill or tried to solicit others to kill people involved in the prosecution, including his brother Jeffrey Wenzel, who testified against him, authorities said.



But McLaughlin said he imposed the long sentence because of the threats as well as Wenzel’s admitted involvement in the scheme.



Assistant U.S. Attorney Leon Dillon praised the sentence, saying that the justice system cannot work if prosecutors and witnesses cannot be comfortable coming into court. Wenzel’s attorney, Gene Placidi, said his client was devastated at the sentence.



Seyfert will be sentenced Aug. 1.

Pittsburgh Court Takes Funding Hit