News in Brief

Harrisburg – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week bolstered the case of an Allegheny County man who is challenging his hazardous-waste conviction, in an opinion intended to clarify a murky point of law for the nation’s highest court.

William Fiore, who owned a landfill in Elizabeth Township, appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court last year after state appeals courts threw out a co-defendant’s conviction but refused to overturn his.

The U.S. court asked the Pennsylvania court to clarify whether it had set a precedent when it interpreted a state statute in a way that allowed co-defendant David Scarpone’s release. If so, that could justify the differing result for Fiore since he exhausted his state appeals before the Scarpone decision.

But in its opinion last Tuesday, the Pennsylvania high court said it had not created new law but simply clarified existing law requiring permits to operate landfills.

“When we have not yet answered a specific question about the meaning of a statute, our initial interpretation does not announce a new rule of law,” stated Justice Sandra Shultz Newman in Fiore v. White, PICS Case No. 00-1701 (Pa. Aug. 23, 2000) Newman, J. (12 pages).

Fiore’s attorney, James Lieber, said he believes the state Supreme Court affirmed his argument that his client should be released. He said he expected the U.S. Supreme Court to make a final ruling this fall based on the Pennsylvania opinion.

“I think it is an important decision,” Lieber said. “It favors my client’s release, but more than that it vindicates certain values that are important to the effective working of our system of justice.”

Robert Graci, a lawyer in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office who represented the state before the U.S. Supreme Court, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Fiore and Scarpone, the landfill’s general manager, were prosecuted in 1984 after state officials found that a monitoring pipe was altered so that hazardous waste could be dumped without being detected by inspectors.

Fiore and Scarpone were convicted of operating a hazardous waste facility without a permit. The plant had a permit, but prosecutors argued that the altered monitoring system was such a significant violation that it in effect canceled the permit.

Both men appealed, and their cases were handled by separate state appeals courts. Fiore’s conviction was upheld by the state Superior Court, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.

But the state Commonwealth Court threw out Scarpone’s conviction, reasoning that he was prosecuted under the wrong law. The appellate court said prosecutors should have charged Scarpone with violating the permit, rather than failing to obtain one, and that ruling was upheld by the state Supreme Court.

Fiore’s appeal to the nation’s highest court says Pennsylvania courts wrongly refused to apply the ruling in Scarpone’s case to his. Two state courts ruled that Fiore is not entitled to any relief because “at the time of … [his] conviction and direct appeals, the interpretation of the law was otherwise.”

Fiore was convicted of 60 felonies and misdemeanors in connection with the plant in Allegheny County, including trying to hire two hit men to kill a state environmental official. He is imprisoned at a state prison in Pittsburgh.

Grand Jury to Investigate 1969 York Race Riot

York – Following a request by the district attorney for a grand jury to re-examine two deaths during the 1969 York race riots, 19 people have been sworn in and sworn to secrecy, according to a newspaper report.

The York Dispatch reported that a transcript of court proceedings filed last week shows President Judge John C. Uhler administered an oath on Aug. 2 to “persons who will be present and who are investigating and part of the investigation” into the deaths of South Carolina resident Lillie Belle Allen and York City Patrolman Henry Schaad.

Schaad was in the back seat of an armored vehicle when a bullet penetrated the steel plating and broke apart, wounding him in three places. He died on Aug. 1, 1969, after 14 days in a hospital.

Allen of Aiken, S.C., was in town to visit relatives when she and four family members were fired upon on July 21, 1969. Allen died that day.

Where and when the grand jury is meeting, and whether it has met at all, remains secret.

York County District Attorney H. Stanley Rebert announced two months ago he was seeking the grand jury after a lengthy investigation uncovered new evidence into the deaths of Schaad and Allen.

On July 31, Rebert requested in writing that the grand jury look into the Schaad and Allen murders. Two days later, the 19 courthouse and police personnel were sworn in.

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