Free Republic

Ross Scarantino was "Mr. Pittston Area," a superintendent wholly dedicated to the school district's 3,400 students, according to 80 supporters who pleaded for leniency in letters written to the federal judge who sentenced him on bribery charges Thursday. But Mr. Scarantino's betrayal of that reputation persuaded U.S. District Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie to send him to prison for 13 months - two months longer than the sentence called for under federal sentencing guidelines and court precedent. "What you worked so hard to create was destroyed by your acts," Judge Vanaskie told Mr. Scarantino. "You were 'Mr. Pittston Area' and you...