LaGrotta e-mail: evidence or joke?

February 1, 2008

By PAT LITOWITZ
New Castle News


(Part four of series)

Knock. Knock.

Who's there?

Attorney General Tom Corbett.

Attorney General Tom Corbett who?

You're under arrest.

*

The state Attorney General's Office didn't find humor in an e-mail exchange between a former state legislator and his niece.

The state spotlighted that correspondence as part of its conflict of interest case against Frank LaGrotta.

While LaGrotta claimed it was a joke, state investigators weren't laughing.

The 49-year-old Ellwood City resident now faces two ethics violations. His sister, Ann Bartolomeo, and niece, Alissa Lemmon, are each charged with false swearing for allegedly lying to a state grand jury.

The three are not permitted to speak to the media because of a court-ordered gag rule.

The Beaver County Times reported yesterday that LaGrotta will enter a plea Monday in Dauphin County Court.

THE E-MAIL

The e-mail conversation between LaGrotta and Lemmon concerned $1,131.62 she received from the state Jan. 17, 2006. Two weeks later, she collected another $1,131.62 paycheck.

LaGrotta told authorities the money was for 10 unused vacation days and 11 comp days.

During that period, Lemmon started her employment with the Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"(The e-mail) demonstrates that Lemmon was well aware that she was not entitled to vacation or compensatory time," the state Attorney General's Office stated in a Nov. 14, 2007, release.

Following is the verbatim exchange that took place from 9:49 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. Jan. 18, 2006.

LaGrotta: Hi.

Lemmon: Hi -- did you ever figure out the paycheck thing?

LaGrotta: They kept you on benefits through Jan 31 and mistakenly kept you on payroll. Just keep it. They don't want it back.

Lemmon: Well, isnt' that nice of them;)

LaGrotta: You may get one more too! Hows your dog? Hows your life?

Lemmon: Isn't that illegal? Not that I'm complaining!!! The runaway is fine -- he looked longingly at the door this morning! Life is fine -- busy but fine!

LaGrotta: Not illegal. Mistake. You can pay it back if you choose -- but no one here is asking that. Besides it is like your severance pay.

Lemmon: Eh -- works for me !!!!!

LaGrotta: You can give it all to me!! I am broke =(

Lemmon: Hell no!!

WORKING WOMAN

The attorney general alleges that LaGrotta placed Lemmon on the payroll as a ghost employee. Despite that assertion, former co-workers say that the part-time employee put in more than full-time hours.

LaGrotta's former chief of staff, Kevin Bowser, said Lemmon regularly worked more than her allotted 20 hours per week.

"I thought she was a good worker," Bowser said. "As far as I was concerned, she did her job just like the rest of us."

Terry Shaffer, LaGrotta's office manager, recalled that Lemmon first worked at the Ellwood City district office at the age of 14 or 15.

"She's very bright, and she was very, very energetic," he said. "Whenever the phone rang, she was the first person on the telephone.

"She was there so often."

Shaffer said his lone concern was that she started at a young age.

"It might be a little young to be giving people advice about things because people didn't realize (they were) speaking to someone 14 or 15, but generally I think she got it right more than she got it wrong," he said.

"She wasn't afraid if she didn't know how to tell somebody something she would come to us for advice."

Lemmon officially worked for her uncle beginning in 1998 as an intern and temporary legislative assistant.

On April 16, 2005, she joined the staff full time, then reduced her role to part-time status four months later. Lemmon left at the end of December.

AT WORK

The News has obtained independent confirmation that illustrates Lemmon was not the ghost employee that Corbett claims she was.

During the week of Sept. 26, 2005, the Crisis Shelter of Lawrence County offered seminars featuring Dr. Jill Murray, a nationally recognized authority on abusive relationships.

Melissa L. Pearce, the shelter's executive director and chief executive officer, confirmed that Lemmon coordinated events with the shelter staff for the five-day series.

"I knew she was heavily involved in that," Bowser said. "Frank was able to get that group the grant money to put the program on.

"So, it was very important to him. He asked her to help them out in any manner that (she) could."

Mary Jane Hursh, a counselor in the Riverside Beaver County School District, worked with Lemmon.

"There was a good deal of pre-planning that went into this event prior to Dr. Jill's arrival that we did at night," she wrote in an e-mail. "Sometimes our meetings lasted (until) midnight."

Hursh said that Lemmon started work before 7 a.m. and ended at 11 p.m. during the week. That accounts for an 80-hour work week, 60 hours more than her weekly 20-hour status.

"Alissa was in charge of all the arrangements and comings and goings of Dr. Jill for the week," Hursh wrote. "She spent all day with Jill attending the events and functions and all evening taking Jill to the various activities that we had planned."

House representatives dictate the terms of employment for their district. However, no overtime is allowed. Under LaGrotta's management, his legislative assistants received no set vacation, sick or comp time. According to Bowser, his former boss was lenient in giving time off. "It's really up to the supervisor, and the supervisor would be Frank," Bowser said. "There's nothing official."

EXAMPLES

One other employee in addition to Lemmon left LaGrotta's employment and received vacation and comp pay.

Dale "Butch" Wehr, who operated out of the 10th District's Butler and Slippery Rock offices, ended his employment Sept. 2. The next week, he started work as the Lawrence County jail's work release coordinator.

Wehr said he received state pay for approximately three weeks into September, which included unused comp and vacation time.

"There was still (constituent) work that needed done and maybe at that time there might have been a little bit of tax rebates," Wehr said of his departure.

"When I was closing down and I knew I was leaving, I did bring boxes and some of the files that I had down to the Ellwood City office and put it in the back conference room near his office, all the way in the back."

On Aug. 24, 2006, LaGrotta rehired his niece. She stayed through Oct. 10, 2006.

According to grand jury testimony, Lemmon said she performed archival work. The grand jury rejected her claims.

"Frank never specifically came out and said Ann and Alissa were on the payroll, and this is what they're doing," Bowser recalled.

"The only hint I ever received from Frank was in July (2006) when he said he was going to have both his niece and Ann come in and go through his paperwork and may even pay them."


(Tomorrow: The LaGrotta case comes down to this -- boxes. A News photographer provides evidence of their existence.)