Attorney General Corbett announces criminal charges against former State Rep. Frank LaGrotta for hiring "ghost employees"

HARRISBURG - Former Pennsylvania State Representative Frank LaGrotta today was charged with two felony counts for hiring his sister and niece as legislative assistants in 2006 and paying them thousands of dollars in public funds for work which they never performed.

Corbett identified the defendants as former state representative Frank LaGrotta, 49, 777 Adams Ave, Ellwood City; his sister, Ann Bartolomeo, 46, 640 Crabapple Lane, Ellwood City; and his niece (Bartolomeo's daughter), Alissa Lemmon, 24, 115 Ada Drive, Ellwood City.

LaGrotta is charged with two felony counts of conflict of interests and Bartolomeo and Lemmon are each charged with false swearing for lying to the grand jury.

LaGrotta was a state representative from the 10th legislative district, which includes Lawrence County and parts of Beaver and Butler counties, from 1987 to 2007, and was defeated in the 2006 May Democratic Primary.

"This is a case of a public servant abusing his position of trust and power to financially reward his family members at the taxpayer's expense," Corbett said. "We allege that Frank LaGrotta hired his sister and niece on the state payroll and said they performed work that simply never existed."

Corbett said evidence of LaGrotta's ghost employment scheme was presented before a statewide investigating grand jury, which recommended that criminal charges be filed.

Ann Bartolomeo
The grand jury found that after LaGrotta's defeat in the May 2006 primary, he asked H. William DeWeese, Leader of the House Democratic Caucus, to authorize the hiring of his sister, Ann Bartolomeo, as a legislative assistant in his Lawrence County district office.

Corbett said since 1998 to the present, Bartolomeo has been a full-time elementary school teacher in the Ellwood City Area School District.

Although Bartolomeo applied for the position of legislative assistant on June 5, 2006, the grand jury found that the terms of her employment was antedated to Feb. 1, 2006, in an agreement signed by LaGrotta, DeWeese and Bartolomeo. The agreement stated that the Democratic Caucus of the House of Representatives agreed to pay Bartolomeo $1,932 based on a 37.5 work week.

The grand jury obtained an "Employee Payroll Information" document in which Earl Mosley, the House Democratic Caucus Personnel Director, authorized Bartolomeo to receive $19,329 effective June 20, 2006 and to revert to a regular bi-weekly salary of $1,932 beginning on June 21, 2006.

The grand jury obtained a June 20, 2006, email where LaGrotta notified the Democratic Caucus that Bartolomeo will be leaving his office effective June 30, 2006.

Bartolomeo told the grand jury she did archival work which involved sorting through 60 to 70 boxes of documents that LaGrotta had kept for 20 years in a storage facility called the Wampum Mines. She stated that at least half of the boxes contained PennDot drivers' license and vehicle registration applications and that she crossed out drivers' license and vehicle registration numbers and re-filed the applications chronologically.

Bartolomeo provided the grand jury with monthly calendars from February 2006 to June 2006 purporting to show the time she spent doing archival work. She stated that LaGrotta directed her to keep the calendars, even though she did not have an agreement to be paid by the state until June 2006.

The calendars Bartolomeo gave the grand jury showed that she only worked 37.5 hours during one week. Bartolomeo claimed to have worked a total of 451 hours, an average of 20.5 per week, which computes to an hourly wage of $46.29.

Alissa Lemmon
The grand jury found that LaGrotta's niece, Alissa Lemmon, was hired as a full-time legislative assistant on May 16, 2005, and was reduced to a part-time legislative assistant on Sept. 12, 2005.

Lemmon told the grand jury that on Jan. 3, 2006, she began employment as an administrative assistant to the executive director of Tourism and Cultural Heritage for the Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau.

LaGrotta notified the House Democratic Caucus that Lemmon "will be leaving me on Jan. 31, 2006." Although she was not working for LaGrotta, the grand jury reviewed payroll records that show that Lemmon was paid $1,131 on Jan. 16, 2006 and another $1,131 on Jan. 31, 2006.

On Dec. 27, 2005 LaGrotta wrote the House Personnel Office stating that Lemmon "has 10 unused vacation days and 11 accumulated comp days which she will be paid for."

Lemmon testified before the grand jury that she never kept track of her compensatory time or vacation time so she did not know how much she had accumulated or used.

An email obtained by the grand jury demonstrates that Lemmon was well aware that she was not entitled to vacation or compensatory time.

On Aug. 24, 2006, LaGrotta requested that Lemmon be rehired as a legislative assistant. The request was approved by House Democratic Leader H. William DeWeese, effective Sept. 12, 2006, for 20 hours a week at a salaried rate of $27.32 per hour.

LaGrotta notified the House Democratic Caucus on Sept. 14, 2006, that Lemmon would resign effective Oct. 10, 2006. She was paid $3,954 for this time period.

From September 12 through Oct. 10, 2006, Lemmon told the grand jury that she performed archival work for LaGrotta, similar to that of her mother, by crossing out drivers' license numbers.

Lemmon was paid $6, 216 in 2006 for work which she never performed.

Archival Work
The grand jury found that PennDot applications in Rep. LaGrotta's office were routinely destroyed in the district office after three to six months. The grand jury found that the documents that Bartolomeo and Lemmon claimed to have worked on did not exist.

Agents of the Attorney General's Office interviewed the manager of the Wampum Mines storage facility, which is the location where LaGrotta claimed to have stored the documents. The manager, who has worked there for 23 years, stated that LaGrotta never kept boxes at the storage facility and that because of its humidity, the Wampum Mines was ill-suited to safely store paper documents.

LaGrotta was asked by the grand jury to produce any and all documents worked on by Bartolomeo and Lemmon in 2006. Through his attorney, LaGrotta stated that certain of these documents were destroyed on Sept. 1, 2006 and all of the other documents were taken for destruction by Wright's Hauling on Nov. 30, 2006.

The grand jury found that LaGrotta hired Wright's Hauling on Sept. 1, 2006, and again on Nov. 30, 2006, however agents interviewed the owner of the hauling company who denied removing any boxes of paper documents on either date.

LaGrotta is charged with two counts of conflict of interest, a statutory felony, which each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $15,000 fine. Bartolomeo and Lemmon are charged with one count each of false swearing, a second degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The defendants are scheduled to surrender on Thursday, Nov. 15, at 8:30 am before Harrisburg Magisterial District Judge Joseph Solomon, 1705 N. Front St., Harrisburg.

Corbett said that LaGrotta, Bartolomeo and Lemmon will be prosecuted in Dauphin County by Senior Deputy Attorney General Anthony Krastek of the Attorney General's Public Corruption Unit.

(A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.)

http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/press.aspx?id=3117

Police arrest 13 in prostitution sting

New Castle News

The state police plan to file charges next week against 11 men in connection with a prostitution sting Tuesday night.

In addition, one woman was arrested as an alleged prostitute, and another man is to be cited for disorderly conduct.

The sting was a joint effort between state and New Castle police, using undercover officers and troopers.

The men were arrested after they allegedly solicited a female trooper who was working undercover as a prostitute, according to New Castle Police Chief Tom Sansone.

They allegedly requested sexual acts from the trooper in exchange for money.

He said the names of those allegedly involved will be released when charges are filed.

According to Sansone, the goal of the operation was to identify and arrest people involved in illegal prostitution activities. The detail was part of an ongoing investigation into illegal prostitution activities that have been occurring in the city, he said.

http://www.ncnewsonline.com/local/local_story_193081502.html

Three plead guilty to prostitution

Five of six women charged with prostitution in New Castle appeared in Lawrence County Central Court yesterday for their hearings.

Three women pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor offense and agreed to pay a total of $287 each ’ a fine of $150, plus $137 in court costs.

They are Dianna May Isenberg, 46, of 20 N. East St.; Darlene Doran, 51, of 706 N. Cedar St.; and Christine Louise Mefferd, 36, of 309 E. Falls St.

Kellie Ann Mars, 21, of 919 Croton Ave., did not show up for her preliminary hearing and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Charges against Scarlett Rice were dropped, pending refiling, because the state police trooper who filed them did not receive notice of the hearing, according to the court. Her age and address were not available this morning.

The arrests were part of an ongoing effort by police to rid the city of prostitution. The women were arrested by undercover police for allegedly soliciting plainclothes officers in unmarked cars.

The women allegedly quoted the officers prices that ranged from $15 to $60. One of them told an officer she is hepatitis C positive, police said.

Mars had been arrested twice within a month for alleged prostitution, and a hearing yesterday was for the first case.

In the second arrest, she was charged with prostitution and possession of drug paraphernalia. Her preliminary hearing on those charges is set for July 26 in Central Court.

http://www.ncnewsonline.com/archivesearch/local_story_178093859.html

Police Investigating Two Rapes Near New Castle

New Castle, PA (AP) - State police in Lawrence County are trying to determine if a reported rape over the weekend is related to another rape reported earlier this month.

In the most recent incident, a 25-year-old New Galilee woman says she accepted a ride from a man in a pickup who drove her to a road in Wayne Township, raped her, and threw her from the vehicle late Sunday night.

Police say a similar attack occurred on June sixth along Route 208 at about 3 a.m.

Police say the attacker in both instances was a white man in his late 20s or early 30s, who stands about 5'8" tall with a muscular build, blue eyes and short brown hair.

They say his pickup is brown and has yellow cab lights on its roof.

http://kdka.com/topstories/rape.New.Castle.2.389771.html

City police make prostitution arrest

New Castle News

A Grove City woman has joined the list of reported prostitutes arrested on New Castle’s streets.

New Castle police on Tuesday arrested 30-year-old Marsha Tillia and placed her in the Lawrence County jail on an outstanding bench warrant.

She will be charged with prostitution and possession of drug paraphernalia, after police found three hypodermic needles in her possession.

According to police, an off-duty officer said he was pulling into the lot of a West Washington Street business and Tillia, wearing an FBI T-shirt, approached him and offered him sex for money.

He summoned on-duty patrolmen and she ran. Police chased and tackled her. As she tried to get up, she was tackled again and arrested, police said.

The off-duty officer reported that Tillia asked him if he was a cop and he told her he wasn’t. She then gave him a range of prices from $30 to $150 for her services. The $150 would be the charge if she was with him all night, he said.

Police learned she was wanted on an active bench warrant from Lawrence County Adult Probation.

Tillia’s arrest is the third in a recent series of arrests within the past two months of women soliciting on the city streets. Others arrests were made in groups by undercover officers. Their cases are pending in court.

http://www.ncnewsonline.com/archivesearch/local_story_173221511.html

Charges result in prostitution sting

Misdemeanor charges were filed yesterday against 11 men and a woman following a prostitution sting in the city.

Each of the men was identified by New Castle police and state troopers as an alleged john who tried to solicit an undercover female trooper.

A woman also was arrested for trying to solicit an undercover male state trooper.

The charges were filed in the court of District Judge Melissa Amodie, who said all of the accused will receive summonses by mail to appear in court.

“We have been trying — and we’re going to continue to try — to curb the prostitution in town by going after the (women) and the johns,” New Castle Police Chief Tom Sansone said.

According to paperwork filed in court by police, the undercover detail was conducted in the parking lot of Plaza South and at intersections on New Castle’s South Side, where women are known to loiter to be hired for sexual activity.

The purpose of the detail was to identify any women engaging in the activity, and any men patronizing them, police said.

The stings are being set up not only because the activity is illegal, he said, but also dangerous because of the connection to the city’s drug activity.

He also cited the danger to the women involved. Three women who were alleged prostitutes have been found dead within the past two years in the New Castle area.

A few months ago, the city police initiated an undercover operation where several women were arrested for prostitution in the downtown and on the South Side.

The July 10 effort, which took place between 7 and 10 p.m. on the South Side, was initiated by the city police, who had requested help on the operation from the state police, Sansone said.

“We know there’s a problem here,” he said, adding the women are becoming familiar with the faces of city undercover officers, so police asked outside state troopers for help.
“We will continue to go outside (the city) for assistance,” he said.

The men who are supporting the prostitution business by soliciting the women “need to stop,” Sansone warned, “or they will risk being arrested.”

A bail bondsman and two men in their 80s are among 11 men charged for allegedly soliciting prostitutes.

The arrests were part of a sting set up last week by New Castle and state police as part of ongoing efforts to stop prostitution in the city.

A Wilmington Township woman accused of prostituting herself to an undercover trooper also was arrested July 10.

The charges were filed before District Judge Melissa Amodie. Their preliminary hearings are set for 9:30 a.m. Aug. 21 in Lawrence County Central Court.

Ethel Margaret Moyer, 41, of 381 Wilson Mill Road, faces one count of prostitution for allegedly soliciting a plainclothes trooper. Police said she got into the front passenger seat of the trooper’s car and asked him if he was a cop. He said no and she said she would provide a certain sexual favor for $20, police said.

Each of the alleged male offenders also faces one count of prostitution, a third-degree misdemeanor. They are:

•Joel Alfred Bisso, 40, of Apt. 2, 469 E. Washington St., stopped on Mill Street around 9 p.m. in a brown Chevrolet Blazer and offered the undercover trooper $50 for sexual favors before he started his shift at a local restaurant, according to police.

•Donald Bush, 53, of 2615 New Butler Road allegedly stopped his maroon 1997 Buick LeSabre about 8:30 p.m. at a Mill Street intersection and offered an undercover female trooper $30 for sexual favors, police said.

•Carlos Cardenas, 40, of 3007 Spring Garden Ave. allegedly requested a certain sexual act from the undercover trooper in exchange for $20. Police said he had pulled his white 1994 Plymouth Acclaim sedan into Plaza South parking lot around 9:15 p.m.

•Louis Anthony DeNome, 57, of 221 Village Lane, New Wilmington, allegedly pulled into the lot of Plaza South around 8 p.m. in a white Toyota Rav 4 and offered the undercover officer $20 for sex. DeNome, a partner in Cook-DeNome Bail Bonds, told police he did not want to be charged because it would harm his business, police said.

•Domenick S. DiGiammarino, 51, of 1727 E. Washington St. allegedly pulled up to the undercover trooper in a Chevrolet Tahoe in the parking lot of Plaza South around 9:40 p.m. and offered her $200 for sex.

•Michael N. Ferrare, 80, of 111 W. Fairmont Ave. allegedly pulled his gray, 1995 Lincoln Town Car into Plaza South around 7:10 p.m. and propositioned the undercover officer for “a few dollars.”

•Paul Harley Redmond, 43, of 823 Frank Ave. allegedly pulled into Plaza South around 9:10 p.m. and offered the undercover trooper cash for sex. According to police, Redmond requested his charges be mailed to a different address to prevent his wife from finding out.

•Daniel B. Rote, 52, of Apt. 12, 459 Old Route 19, allegedly pulled up on Mill Street around 10 p.m. in a green Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and told an undercover trooper he would pay $20 for sex.

•William Franklin Sutton, 62, of Harrisville allegedly pulled up at Mill and Reynolds streets around 8 p.m. in a brown Dodge truck. Sutton, who police said is hearing impaired, allegedly made a hand gesture to indicate sexual intercourse and said $20.

•Lloyd Thompson, 86, of 29 Orchard Way allegedly pulled up on Mill Street around 7:50 p.m. in a gold 2005 Hyundai, and offered the undercover trooper $10 for a specific sex act.

•Alan Victor Williams Jr., 22, of 419 Epworth St. allegedly pulled into the Plaza South lot around 9 p.m. in a red 2000 Dodge Neon sedan and offered the female trooper $5 for certain acts.

http://www.ncnewsmedia.com/archive/tim_galleries/SPECIAL_PROJECTS_07/JULY/Prostitution_sting/story1.htm

New Castle police arrest two for prostitution

By Debbie Wachter Morris
New Castle News

The New Castle police are continuing efforts to clear the city of prostitution.

In a sting this week, officers made two arrests and found both women in possession of crack pipes, according to police reports.

One of the women, 21-year-old Kellie Ann Mars of 919 Croton Ave., had been arrested in a sting last month. This is her second set of prostitution-related charges.

Mars also has an address on Wilson Mill Road Extension in New Wilmington.

Police arrested Mars about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday when she allegedly made an offer to an undercover officer.

She rode with the officer in an unmarked car to a parking lot behind the Cascade Galleria where a marked cruiser was waiting with uniformed officers. She was then arrested.

According to police, she said her friend, “Bob,” was giving her a ride to the city’s West Side. “Bob” was actually the undercover officer.

The officer alleged Mars said she would charge $20 to $30 for various sexual favors.

She is charged with prostitution and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was mailed a summons from the office of District Judge Melissa Amodie, who set her preliminary hearing for 9:30 a.m. July 26.

Police also arrested 41-year-old Laina Winters of 814 E. Washington St., who also has a Butler County address. She was picked up about 2 a.m. Tuesday by an undercover officer. When he drove her to the lot behind the Galleria, uniformed officers arrested her, and she told them her friend, “Robbie Heart,” was giving her a ride home.

“Robbie Heart” was an undercover officer in the sting. He said Winters offered him various sexual favors ranging from $40 to $60.

She was placed in the Lawrence County jail. According to a jail spokesman, she was later transferred to Butler County jail, where she was wanted on three bench warrants.

A charge of prostitution is pending against her, police said.

She also faces identity theft-related charges from earlier this year.

Police last month made six prostitution arrests during an undercover operation downtown and on the South Side.

“This is part of our continuing effort to clean up the city and get the prostitutes and the drug dealers off the streets,” said Mayor Wayne Alexander. “We will contine to make more arrests throughout the summer.”

http://www.ncnewsonline.com/archivesearch/local_story_166232114.html?start:int=0