AG's Office settles pay-equity complaint with Kane's sister

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane's twin sister has received a pay raise of nearly $17,000, and an additional $80,000 in back pay and other damages, after settling a labor complaint against the Attorney General's Office, the agency said Tuesday.

Ellen Granahan, who heads the office's Child Predator Unit, filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the office last year, claiming she was not paid as much as other lawyers in the office who have similar experience and titles.

Bruce L. Castor Jr., whom Kane just promoted from solicitor general to the office's second-in-command, decided to settle Granahan's complaint this month because he believed it had merit, Kane spokesman Jeff Johnson said Tuesday.

Granahan's annual salary is now $105,018, up from $88,509.

She will also receive $24,764 in retroactive pay from January of last year to the present; $26,666 in attorney fees; and $28,570 for emotional distress, said Johnson.

"Solicitor General Castor reviewed the facts, and it was clear to him that . . . Granahan received less of a pay increase compared with other people with her years of experience," Johnson said. "His review also led to the determination that a decision was made in the past that it would have looked bad for the attorney general's sister to receive a pay increase - and he thought that should be corrected."

Granahan, who like Kane is a former Lackawanna County assistant district attorney, was hired by Kane's Republican predecessor, Tom Corbett, in 2008. After Kane took office in 2013, she promoted Granahan to head the office's Child Predator Unit, a move accompanied by a pay raise of nearly $14,000.

At the time, top Kane aides defended the move and said Granahan's salary was lower than the majority of the office's other division heads.

Kane, 50, is awaiting trial on criminal charges that she leaked confidential information to the Daily News, and then lied about it under oath.

Prosecutors allege Kane leaked secret documents in a bid to punish a former state prosecutor with whom she was feuding and whom she blamed for negative publicity about decisions she had made on high-profile cases.

She has pleaded not guilty. Her trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 8.