Ex- Pa. Senate leader Mellow to plead to federal charges

HARRISBURG - Robert J. Mellow, once a top Democat in the Pennsylvania Senate, has agreed to plead guilty in a federal mail-fraud case.

Authorities on Thursday announced criminal charges against the former legislator, alleging that he used his taxpayer-funded staff for political fund-raising and other campaign work.

Mellow, 69, the onetime Senate minority leader from Lackawanna County who served four decades in the Senate, was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and with filing a false income tax return. He has agreed to plead guilty, said Peter J. Smith, U.S. attorney for the state's middle district, and faces up to five years in prison.

Smith declined to comment further on the plea agreement.

Smith said that between 2006 and 2010, Mellow and his top advisers tapped state-paid staffers to raise money and perform campaign-related tasks for Mellow's personal reelection campaign, as well as the campaigns of candidates he supported.

Mellow, contended Smith, demonstrated "willful blindness" to the illegal activity, and that as a public official, he "had a duty to refrain from the improper use of Senate resources and staff."

Sal Cognetti Jr., Mellow's attorney, would not comment on the charges, nor the plea deal.

Cognetti did say that Mellow, for the last two years, "has been fighting a war on two fronts: the first concerns his health, the second relates to an investigation by the federal government."

"He cannot continue to wage battle on both fronts," said Cognetti, and decided "to resolve the dispute with the federal government."

Cognetti would not elaborate on Mellow's health.

The charges Thursday did not include any mention of the controversy that erupted in 2009 over tens of thousands of dollars in rent payments - paid for by taxpayers - for one of Mellow's district offices.

The Inquirer reported in 2009 that Mellow had charged taxpayers more than $200,000 over seven years for rent on his district office near Scranton in a building co-owned by his then-wife - and later by himself.

At various times, people with ownership stakes in the building also included Mellow's longtime aide, Gabriel J. Giordano, and Giordano's wife.

Under the 1978 state ethics law, it is a conflict for a public official to use his office for the financial gain of himself, an immediate family member or a family business interest. In 1990, the State Ethics Commission ruled that it is a conflict for lawmakers to rent an office from themselves.

At the time, Mellow said he done nothing improper.

Soon after, though, the FBI interviewed Mellow's ex-wife about the matter. Mellow announced his retirement in early 2010, saying he wanted to spend more time with family.

In the summer of 2010, federal agents raided Mellow's home and district office in Lackawanna County. At the time, federal authorities confirmed only that they were conducting a joint investigation into "alleged illegal activities."

Thursday's charges of campaigning on the taxpayer dime and time had an all-too-familiar ring.

Since 2007, the state Attorney General's Office has charged 25 people in three separate cases for using taxpayer resources for political benefit. They include the high-profile "Bonusgate" and "Computergate" cases.

Those prosecutions have resulted in jail time for former top House Democrat Mike Veon of Beaver County and former Republican Rep. Brett Feese of Lycoming County; and will likely end in prison time for former House Speaker John M. Perzel (R., Philadelphia) and Rep. Bill DeWeese (D., Greene), who are both awaiting sentencing.