Guilty plea in Bucks corruption case

The first of four defendants in the Bucks County Register of Wills corruption case pleaded guilty this morning.

Candace Quinn entered guilty pleas in Bucks County Court to felony charges of theft and conspiracy; and to misdemeanor charges of obstructing law enforcement, official oppression, tampering with evidence, tampering with records and conspiracy.

Quinn, 53, of Bristol Borough, also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor theft charge and a related conspiracy count.

Until her resignation last spring, Quinn had worked as an administrator in the office of longtime Register of Wills Barbara Reilly.

Reilly is awaiting trial in November with two other codefendants in the case.

Prosecutors say Reilly and her top lieutenants ran an office rife with corruption and intimidation for many years, forcing employees to perform political work on county time and retaliating against any who resisted.

"This practice of illegally paying employees for doing political work was able to continue for so long because of the people Reilly put in place to help her run her office," states a grand jury presentment supporting the charges

Among them was Quinn, an 18-year employee whose transgressions ranged from ironfisted coercion to petty theft, the grand jury said.

Quinn was in charge of maintaining the infamous "pink book" - a handwritten ledger of otherwise undocumented compensatory time given office employees who worked the polls for Reilly or performed other political functions.

In court, Quinn acknowledged having shredded the book and other incriminating office records during an eight-month criminal investigation of the office, identifying a plastic evidence bag filled with strips of pink loose-leaf paper that once constituted the "pink book."

Undocumented payments for making photocopies for lawyer and other office visitors often wound up in Quinn's desk drawer, and was spent on her lunches and sodas instead of being deposited into the county till, prosecutors said. She did not admit to that crime, but instead pleaded no contest, acknowledging that prosecutors probably had enough evidence to convict her of it.

Quinn and her lawyer declined to comment after the hearing. In court, Deputy District Attorney Robin Twombly said Quinn had been offered no deals or promises of sentencing breaks, but that she had pledged to testify at her former cohorts' trial if asked.

The most serious charge against Quinn carries a possible seven-year maximum sentence, Twombly said.

Philadelphia Senior Judge John Braxton, who is hearing the case because of potential conflicts of interest the Bucks County bench might have in this case, accepted the plea. He said that Quinn will be scheduled for sentencing after the other defendants in the case are tried.