Ex-lawmaker guilty in Pa. 'ghost-employee' scheme

HARRISBURG - A former state representative from Western Pennsylvania pleaded guilty yesterday to conflict-of-interest charges for putting two relatives on his legislative payroll in what prosecutors called a "ghost-employee" scheme.

In a deal with prosecutors, Frank LaGrotta avoided a jail sentence but must repay the state $27,092 and serve three years of probation, the first six months of which will be on house arrest while he wears an ankle monitor.

Leaving the Dauphin County Courthouse yesterday after he was sentenced, LaGrotta was contrite.

"I want to apologize to the people of Pennsylvania, and I want to say that this has been an unfortunate situation for which I take full responsibility," said LaGrotta, who also must pay $10,000 in fines and perform 500 hours of community service.

LaGrotta, 49, a Democrat who served 20 years in the House representing Lawrence County, was charged in November with arranging to have his niece and sister hired as his legislative aides in jobs for which they did little or no work.

The niece, Alissa Lemmon, and the sister, Ann Bartolomeo, both pleaded no contest to a count of false swearing for lying to a grand jury and were fined $3,000 apiece. Lemmon was given 18 months of probation; her mother, Bartolomeo, 12 months.

LaGrotta faced up to seven years in prison, but the sentence imposed yesterday by President Judge Richard A. Lewis was within the statutory guidelines.

Anthony J. Krastek, senior deputy attorney general, said that he was satisfied with the outcome and that prosecutors did not push for a prison term because LaGrotta had cooperated in a broader public corruption investigation. He would not elaborate.

"This would have been a much different proceeding if there was not cooperation," Krastek said. "Charges would have been different, today would have been different."

The criminal charges against LaGrotta were the first and to date only ones to grow out of a continuing inquiry by the state Attorney General's Office into whether taxpayer-funded bonuses were paid to legislative staffers for purely political campaign work.

LaGrotta lost his seat in 2006 amid voter anger over legislative pay raises.

Prosecutors alleged that Lemmon was paid about $6,000 by the state for work she never performed.

In January 2006, she left LaGrotta's office to take a tourism job with the Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau, but continued to received two paychecks from the state.

In an e-mail exchange that was made part of the court case, Lemmon told her uncle about the checks and asked whether it was illegal to keep them.

LaGrotta responded, "Not illegal. Mistake. You can pay it back if you choose - but no one here is asking that. Besides, it is like your severance pay."

Lemmon wrote back: "Eh - works for me!!!!!"

To that, LaGrotta responded, "You can give it all to me!! I am broke =("

Wrote Lemmon: "Hell no!!"

Bartolomeo received more than $20,000 as an aide to LaGrotta while also working full-time as an elementary school teacher in Lawrence County, prosecutors alleged. She reportedly was assigned to sort through boxes of records of LaGrotta's constituents in order to cross out personal information. Prosecutors said they were never able to document whether those boxes ever existed.

When LaGrotta was charged in the fall, prosecutors said House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D., Greene) had signed paperwork authorizing Bartolomeo's hiring. DeWeese countered that one of his staffers had signed his name to the hiring form.

The money to pay Lemmon and Bartolomeo came from LaGrotta's legislative account - taxpayer dollars that cover office expenses of a representative. Most of it was paid after the 2006 May primary, which he lost. He served until November of that year.

Krastek said LaGrotta drained that account in the waning days of his legislative tenure, awarding some of it as staff raises, and "the rest of it he gave as a present to his family."

After LaGrotta left office, House Democrats kept him on the payroll as a consultant, making the same amount he did as a legislator. However, they fired him in July after learning that Lemmon and Bartolomeo were his relatives. Hiring immediate family members is illegal under the state Ethics Act.

Although the two conflict-of-interest charges to which LaGrotta pleaded guilty are felonies, he will not have to forfeit his state pension, Krastek said.

Go to http://go.philly.com/lagrotta for a video of his apology.EndText