Prosecutors: Kane had spies review opponents' e-mails

Feeling under attack from reporters and political enemies she believed were out to end her career, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane saw the conflict in stark terms.

"This is war," she declared in an e-mail to an adviser in March 2014.

Nine days later, prosecutors said, she deployed an office spy. Patrick Reese, her driver and the chief of her personal security detail, set in motion a cloak-and-dagger campaign that prosecutors said was designed to expose her enemies and snoop on state authorities as they built a criminal case against her.

Now he faces criminal charges alongside her.

Reese, a former police chief of Dunmore, a tiny borough outside Scranton, was described by prosecutors as one of Kane's "closest confidants" - a man Kane once said she trusted with her life. Others in the Attorney General's Office referred to him as Kane's "chief of staff."

He was charged Thursday with criminal contempt for allegedly violating a judge's order that barred Kane's office from meddling in the state grand jury investigation into whether she leaked confidential information in an effort to damage a political foe. She has been charged, among other offenses, with perjury.

As prosecutors told it, Kane tasked David C. Peifer, a top investigator in her office, and Reese with "secretly or surreptitiously review[ing] e-mails of employees."

On March 25, 2014, Peifer granted Reese access to the office's restricted e-mail servers, prosecutors say. Reese allegedly prowled for correspondence sent by or mentioning crucial players and critics of Kane.

Reese, 47, is the only official in addition to Kane who has been charged, although Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said the investigation was continuing and others might be charged.

Reese's lawyer, William Fetterhoff of Harrisburg, declined to comment Thursday.

No date has been set for Reese's arraignment in Norristown before Judge William R. Carpenter, whose protective order Reese is accused of violating.

Reese, according to court documents, did not cooperate with investigators. Peifer, who has not been charged, did. His lawyer, Chris Caputo, could not be reached for comment.

Not until Sept. 9, prosecutors said, did Reese's searches intensify.

That was 13 days after Carpenter issued his protective order. The identities of witnesses were "widely known within the Office of the Attorney General," according to court documents. Those witnesses were subjected to intimidation tactics, prosecutors said.

So Carpenter barred employees in Kane's office from "access to transcripts of proceedings before the grand jury or the supervising judge, exhibits, or other information pertaining to the special prosecutor's investigation."

According to court filings, Peifer had five employees' access to the e-mail archives revoked on Sept. 9 at the request of Kane. That day, records show that Reese searched for, among other terms, carpenter and castille.

Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, who first authorized the leak inquiry, said Thursday that he was outraged to learn that Reese allegedly had run his name through the e-mail servers, calling it an impeachable offense.

Another frequent Reese search term, prosecutors say, was tomc3, the beginning of a private e-mail address for Thomas Carluccio, the special prosecutor investigating Kane. Reese also scanned e-mails for Carluccio's wife, a Montgomery County Court judge, prosecutors say.

Reese also allegedly combed for messages that mentioned Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.

"The affidavit asserts that members of the Attorney General's Office have used surreptitious and illegal means to target other prosecutors whose official acts were perceived to harm the A.G.'s interests," Williams said in a statement. "I'm gratified that the legal process is now proceeding on a proper course."

Reese also entered queries for correspondence between the Attorney General's Office and Inquirer reporters Craig R. McCoy and Angela Couloumbis, according to prosecutors.

Through his searches, prosecutors said, Reese learned who would testify and when. He uncovered the identity of a grand juror. He viewed e-mails concerning the protective order that prosecutors say he violated again and again.

And on Dec. 3, as the grand jury neared its conclusion, Reese searched employees' e-mails for the terms perjury and removal from office.

The allegations suggest Reese had an outsize role in Kane's office beyond security guard. A former Kane employee told prosecutors Reese was the "go-between" for the attorney general and her staff.

"I trust him with my life," Kane told the Scranton Times-Tribune in February 2013, shortly after hiring Reese. "Pat has served with integrity and honor, and has always been an outstanding police officer and an outstanding chief."

Reese was one of two agents with Kane last October when she was involved in an early-morning accident in Dunmore.

The accident occurred just hours before she was scheduled to appear in Montgomery County to testify before the grand jury investigating whether she leaked confidential documents to the Philadelphia Daily News. Reese was in the passenger seat, while another former Dunmore officer, Robert Ruddy, was driving.

The accident report said the crash occurred when Ruddy lost sight of the dark, rain-slick road as his iPad slipped off the seat.

Kane suffered a concussion and was under a doctor's orders to work from home for several weeks, her staff said at the time.

The morning of the accident marked the second time last fall that Kane canceled plans to testify before the grand jury. She eventually testified, in November.

And, Ferman said, that is when Kane lied.