Readying appeal, Kane faults trial judge rulings
Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane claims that her perjury and obstruction trial was flawed because a judge would not allow her to introduce evidence that the state prosecutor she was accused of targeting had been exchanging pornography on state email servers.
Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane claims that her perjury and obstruction trial was flawed because a judge would not allow her to introduce evidence that the state prosecutor she was accused of targeting had been exchanging pornography on state email servers.
The argument, which she has made before, was part of a nine-point, six-page appeal outline filed Tuesday in Montgomery County Court by Harrisburg-based lawyer Joshua D. Lock.
A jury convicted Kane, 50, in August, and a judge sentenced her in October to 10 to 23 months in jail for orchestrating an illegal leak of grand jury information to embarrass a political foe and then lying about it under oath. Kane has remained free on $75,000 bail as she appeals the conviction to Superior Court.
Lock wrote in Tuesday's filing that Kane would have used pornography evidence only to rebut prosecutors' argument that she leaked secret grand jury information to exact revenge against former prosecutor Frank Fina.
Kane believed Fina was the source of an Inquirer article about a corruption investigation she had shut down, prosecutors argued at trial. They said she orchestrated an illegal leak about an investigation that Fina had been involved in, then lied about the leak under oath.
In his filing, Lock argued that if Kane had wanted to embarrass Fina, she simply could have exposed his exchange of pornography.
"Accordingly, the evidence of pornography would have been presented by the defendant precisely to disprove the motive presented by the commonwealth," Lock wrote.
The filing said he also planned to appeal Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy's ruling during the trial denying a defense request to use specific language with jurors when defining grand jury secrecy.
Other issues Kane plans to appeal include: a judge's refusal to recuse all Montgomery County judges from presiding over the case because some of the judges had connections to the investigation or people involved in it; the refusal to dismiss some charges against her; and the refusal to dismiss the whole case because Kane claimed she was the victim of selective and vindictive prosecution.
A spokeswoman for District Attorney Kevin R. Steele did not respond to a request for comment about the appeal Tuesday evening.
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