Longtime Bucks row officer faces corruption charges

Bucks County Register of Wills Barbara Reilly and two top lieutenants face criminal charges today after a yearlong corruption probe accused them of coercing employees to do political work, illegally reimbursing them on the public dime and then destroying or hiding evidence as investigators closed in.

Reilly, 74, of Bensalem, who has held the office since 1976, was charged with felony theft, conspiracy, official oppression, obstructing law enforcement and tampering with evidence or records.

So were Rebecca Kiefer, 64, of Warrington, Reilly's second deputy until she resigned in August; and administrator Candace Quinn, 53, of Bristol.

Also charged, but only with misdemeanor counts of official oppression and conspiracy, was first deputy James McCullen, 75, of Bristol.

A 240-page grand jury presentment paints Reilly's third-floor courthouse office as a once-pleasant workplace that became an abusive, politics-fueled fiefdom rife with intimidation, grand and petty thievery, and vengeance on anyone who objected.

Reilly's office employees - registered Republicans, without exception - were told to work outside polling places on primary and general election days, the presentment said. Those are county holidays, so managers kept "off-the-books" tallies of the hours spent on political work and then illegally compensated the employees by giving them time off from their taxpayer-funded public jobs.

Employees also were made to sign election petitions, make campaign calls and do other political work in the office, the grand jury found. Some were enlisted to help Kiefer maintain her seat when she was a Warrington Township supervisor, the presentment said.

"In her 35 years as the Register of Wills, Reilly created an environment of absolute management control and influence stretching beyond the workday and workplace," a grand jury synopsis said. "This control was used to deliver workers, some willing and others not, to support Republican candidates. This in turn enhanced Reilly's ability to gain endorsements and political influence, term after term."

The public's alleged monetary losses were not exactly Madoff-like. County detectives have documented about $6,500 worth of stolen comp time, the presentment said.

But the grand jury said such thefts went undocumented for many years, adding that Reilly's administrators "engaged in the wholesale destruction of evidence" in recent months. The county's total loss "was vastly greater even if one assumes such thefts occurred during only a portion of Reilly's 35-year tenure and extended only to some of her employees," the panel concluded.

Reilly, citing health concerns, is not seeking reelection this year. As the grand jury concluded its work Thursday night, county Republicans were gathered at their headquarters across the street to endorse a candidate to succeed her.

The charges began taking root last March, when Republican County Controller Raymond McHugh assigned an investigator to probe complaints surrounding Reilly's office. Twice before - after a 1998 audit and again in 2001 - the controller's office had told Reilly to stop allowing undocumented comp time.

When his latest investigation turned up possible crimes, McHugh went in July to District Attorney David Heckler, also a Republican, who sent the case to the grand jury.

The resulting charges are a kick in the teeth to McHugh's and Heckler's own party, which has controlled county government and most of its row offices since 1988.

And for Democrats who say 25 years of one-party rule have corrupted county government, the presentment may have delivered a viable campaign issue. The document is a scathing indictment of a patronage-fueled political office run amok, laid out in graphic testimony by Reilly's own hires.

Once the investigation became known, the grand jury said, Quinn destroyed a so-called "pink book" binder containing handwritten records of "off-the-books" comp time. She and Kiefer also conducted a "shredding party" in the office on May 14, the presentment said - a day when employees recalled hearing the sound of a shredder running all day.

The grand jury heard "overwhelming evidence that hundreds, if not thousands, of documents were shredded" during the investigation, according to a synopsis of the probe. Computer files were deleted and Kiefer, Quinn and Reilly routinely grilled workers about what they planned to tell the grand jury, prosecutors say, with Reilly even calling some employees at home the night before their scheduled testimony.

Kiefer, in particular, is portrayed in the presentment as a mercurial, micromanaging tyrant, bent on succeeding Reilly. She allegedly sent underlings out on personal errands - from picking up groceries and dry cleaning to waiting at her house for a Comcast cable technician to arrive.

Former probate clerk Jane Wenda testified that when Kiefer, Quinn and Reilly heard she was a potential rival to replace Reilly, they piled up her workload, reprimanded her constantly and harassed her for four months until she suffered a nervous breakdown and resigned. She now works for a different county department.

Employees said Kiefer and Quinn routinely dipped into undocumented office cash from copying fees and other sales to buy themselves sodas and lunches. The two allegedly pilfered so many quarters from a Tootsie Pop charity collection jar set up by McCullen that someone finally taped a cover over the jar's mouth.

An investigator testified that instead of doing traditional background checks on job applicants, Reilly's office reviewed their party affiliation, voting records, political contributions and other signs of political activity.

Cindy Lauer, a former clerk, testified that employees once were sent to an office in Warrington to make political phone calls for Kiefer's campaign for Warrington supervisor. Workers also were asked to work at GOP headquarters, across the street from the courthouse, on their lunch breaks, and were given comp time for working there after hours.

Lauer said Reilly, Kiefer and Quinn held a meeting in 2006 to remind employees that political work done in their county office had to be kept a secret. Some said they were asked to make political phone calls and prepare political mailings during their office shifts.

Robin Gallagher, an employee from 1994 to 2004, testified that McCullen told her when she was hired that "you have to put your time in" on political activities because "that's how you got your job."

Gallagher said employees were required to work on Reilly's campaigns, and that Keifer would dispatch her and others to hand out pamphlets at a train station for entire work days the week before an election.

Reilly and Kiefer are also accused of pressuring employees to buy seats costing up to $100 each to attend fund-raising dinners for Reilly. One former worker, Mary Ellen Jacoby, described Reilly as such a rabid partisan that she became angry after a Democratic county commissioner came into the Register of Wills office.

"I can't believe that she was in this office. Get her out of here," Jacoby quoted Reilly as saying. "I don't want any Democrat in my office."

Employees who bridled at the political demands were chastised and humiliated, several said. Those who fell out of favor with the bosses were relegated to what was called "the bad girl chair" - a desk by the front counter where the occupant was punished by having to answer the phones all day.

It was, Jacoby testified, like being "in kindergarten, the timeout chair."

Reilly, Kiefer, Quinn and McCullen are expected to appear on the charges this afternoon in Buckingham before District Judge Maggie Snow.