FEDS CALL SHARKEY ON SCHEME (another one down in judicial corruption case)

WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County Court Administrator William T. Sharkey Sr., the highest-paid non-judicial employee in the county court system, has agreed to plead guilty to pocketing more than $70,000 seized in illegal gambling cases over 10 years, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Sharkey is the third high-ranking court official snared in a wide-ranging, ongoing federal probe of the county court system.

Former president judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and his predecessor, Michael T. Conahan, are expected to plead guilty next week to accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks in connection with a detention center that housed county juveniles. They’ve agreed to serve 87 months in prison.

Sharkey, 57, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on one count of embezzlement. His West Hazleton home and his state pension could be subject to forfeiture in order to pay restitution to the county district attorney’s office, which was to receive the gambling proceeds to pay for investigations and community programs. Sharkey was suspended without his $97,050 annual pay Tuesday by President Judge Chester B. Muroski and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, which pays the salaries of county court administrators.

Sharkey could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Bruce S. Miller, said Sharkey is free pending a plea hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. Miller declined comment on whether Sharkey had cooperated with federal investigators.

“We have met with the U.S. attorney on numerous occasions. I’m not going to discuss the content of any of those meetings,” Miller said.

Sharkey, who has been court administrator since 1996, used his oversight of court orders and control of court funds to conceal the thefts, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors.

Under court procedures, money seized by state police and the state Liquor Control Board during gambling investigations in Luzerne County was turned over to Sharkey, who then obtained forfeiture orders from county judges, prosecutors say. Under state law, the money was supposed to be turned over to the county treasurer’s office for use by the district attorney’s office. But from June 1998 through June 2008, Sharkey kept the money and never entered the forfeiture orders into the court records, prosecutors allege.

In a press release announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney Martin C. Carlson credited county District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll with uncovering the alleged scheme after she took office in 2008.

“Without the assistance of Jackie Carroll and the district attorney’s office, this offense may have gone undetected,” Carlson said.

Musto Carroll said she began reviewing the office’s books shortly after taking office and realized there was no money coming from gambling cases.

“I discovered money that was supposed to come to the district attorney’s office was being diverted by the court administrator,” she said.

Barred by law from prosecuting the administrator, Musto Carroll said she could refer the case to state or federal investigators.

“I was aware there were federal investigations going on in Luzerne County,” Musto Carroll said, and she decided to forward the case to the FBI and IRS.

The investigation into the missing gambling proceeds became public in August when federal agents served subpoenas on the treasurer’s office and the court administrator’s office, which handles scheduling, finances and other administrative duties for the courts.

Sharkey, who’s worked at the courthouse for 35 years, went on paid medical leave the next day and never returned to work. A new court administrator would be nominated by the county’s judges and must be approved by state Court Administrator Zygmont A. Pines.

In Sharkey’s plea agreement, signed Jan. 23, he agreed to resign as administrator within 10 days of his guilty plea, make full restitution and not seek public office for five years after his release from prison. No sentence has been agreed upon. Federal prosecutors reserved the right to recommend a sentence up to the maximum of 10 years.

A list of assets Sharkey agreed to forfeit, if necessary, to make restitution included the double-block home he owns with his wife, Debra, which is assessed at $118,000 by the county and has two liens totaling $36,373; a 1997 Toyota Camry; a bank account with a balance less than $1,000 and the $42,295 he’s paid into the state pension fund.

Under the state Public Employee Pension Forfeiture Act, Sharkey’s state pension and any pension benefits he accumulated as a county employee before the state started paying the salaries of court administrators a decade ago might be revoked after a guilty plea is entered and he is sentenced.

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