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The forgery case that abruptly ended former state Rep. Linda Bebko-Jones' political career will not prevent her from collecting her state pension of nearly $31,000 a year.[]
- BY Ed Palattella, Erie Times, August 6, 2008
The 62-year-old Democrat pleaded guilty Tuesday in Harrisburg to forging signatures on her nominating petitions in the 2006 primary, and she was sentenced to a year of probation and 200 hours of community service.
Her then-chief of staff, Mary Fiolek, also of Erie, pleaded guilty to the same charges and was sentenced to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service.
Each was also fined $1,500.
The charges to which Bebko-Jones pleaded guilty are violations of the PA Election Code. Election-law violations are not on the list of more than 20 crimes that, in the case of a conviction, require Pennsylvania state employees to forfeit their pensions.
The plea deal means that the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System will not be able to seek forfeiture of the pension Bebko-Jones accumulated in the 14 years she represented the 1st Legislative District, which includes Erie's east side.
A spokesman for PSERS confirmed the agency does not go after pensions unless a public employee is convicted of one of the crimes enumerated in the state's pension law, known as Act 140. Those offenses include forgery and tampering with public records, which were among the 13 counts that the state Attorney General's Office originally filed against Bebko-Jones, of the 1300 block of Lynn Street, and Fiolek, of the 700 block of East 24th Street.
As part of the plea deal, however, the Attorney General's Office dismissed all but three counts against Bebko-Jones and Fiolek -- the three election-law violations. Those counts are forging and submitting false signatures, and criminal conspiracy related to the election-law violations.
Preserving Bebko-Jones' pension "was one of the goals" of the plea deal, said David Ridge, one of Bebko-Jones' lawyers. He said the defense negotiated with the Attorney General's Office to secure a deal that would increase Bebko-Jones' chances of getting probation "and the possibility that she would keep her pension."
Bebko-Jones retired in November 2006 with a lump-sum payment of about $65,000 and a monthly pension of $2,581, or $30,972 a year.
'An appropriate disposition'
Bebko-Jones and Fiolek, 60, who also would be eligible for a state pension, pleaded guilty before Dauphin County Judge John Cherry, who sentenced them.
"We believe it is an appropriate disposition of the case," said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Attorney General Tom Corbett. "They obviously admitted their guilt, and given the circumstances with the defendants, we believe the sentences were appropriate."
Harley said those circumstances included the defendants' ages and the undisclosed health problems that Bebko-Jones suffered during the prosecution. Ridge went into the sentencing planning to cite Bebko-Jones' health and other factors in seeking probation.
"We believe probation was the appropriate resolution of the charges," Ridge said after the sentencing. "She accepted responsibility. She remains remorseful. She will continue to dedicate herself to the community, now as a private citizen."
Bebko-Jones needed 300 valid signatures to run for re-election. She was undecided on whether she wanted to run again, leading to the situation that led her and Fiolek to collect signatures right away, said Fiolek's lawyer, Joe Metz, of Harrisburg.
"Suddenly, they were up against a real hard deadline," he said.
Metz said the plea deal will allow Fiolek to keep her pension.
"I think the prosecution was fair, and the judge was fair," he said. "Our clients are not the worst people in the world, but they definitely did something they should not have done."
The Attorney General's Office, which charged Bebko-Jones and Fiolek in February 2008, prosecuted the cases in Dauphin County because Bebko-Jones filed the nominating petitions in Harrisburg in March 2006, during her re-election campaign. She abandoned the re-election effort after questions arose about the petitions, and she left office in November 2006. A Democrat, Patrick Harkins, was elected to the seat in November 2006.
'Not thinking clearly'
The Attorney General's Office charged Bebko-Jones and Fiolek based on the recommendation of a statewide grand jury. Witnesses who testified before the grand jury said that on March 6, 2006, the day before the nominating petitions were due, Bebko-Jones and Fiolek leafed through an Erie County telephone book and Bebko-Jones' address book to find names to fill her petitions.
Bebko-Jones then called her son, Bryan Jones, and had Fiolek ask him if he would allow her to sign his name as one of the circulators of the petitions, according to the charging documents.
Bryan Jones testified against his mother in exchange for immunity.
Bebko-Jones has never explained why she forged the signatures.
"I don't know whether there is a good explanation," Ridge said Tuesday, "other than they were not thinking clearly when they realized they did not have enough signatures."
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080806/NEWS02/808060326/-1/ETN