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	Senate Staff Helped Lawyer Targeting Reporters Associated Press, carried in Philly.com July 3, 2008 http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20080703_ap_senatestaffhelpedlawyertargetingreporters.html HARRISBURG, Pa. - The state Senate's top Democrat said his staff helped a lawyer who was trying to obtain cell phone numbers of Pennsylvania reporters subpoenaed in an investigation of alleged grand jury secrecy violations, a paper reported Thursday. Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow said the aides were simply providing a constituent service when they acted at the request of the lawyer for one of two men accused of lying under oath to the grand jury, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday. The Lackawanna County Democrat said he knew nothing about the help his staff provided to the lawyer for the Rev. Joseph Sica until the paper began asking questions Tuesday. "A constituent asked openly for something. There is nothing backhanded, no sleight of hand, nothing deceiving about it," Mellow told the Inquirer. The priest and casino owner Louis DeNaples are charged with perjury. Fifteen reporters have been subpoenaed to testify in Dauphin County Court at a hearing to determine whether a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate alleged leaks in the county grand jury investigation that led to those charges. Judge Todd Hoover presided over two days of closed-door testimony in the case earlier this week, and the only news media witness called to testify was the owner of a Harrisburg-based Internet news company. The other subpoenaed reporters are from The Associated Press; The Morning Call of Allentown; The Inquirer; the Philadelphia Daily News; and The Citizens' Voice in Wilkes-Barre. DeNaples was charged in January. He is accused of lying to investigators for the state Gaming Control Board to hide his relationships with four men , two reputed mobsters and two other men at the center of a political corruption scandal in Philadelphia , to win a $50 million slot-machine gambling license. Sica, a Roman Catholic priest and longtime DeNaples friend, faces a single perjury charge for allegedly lying to the grand jury about his relationship with a mobster. Mellow, DeNaples and Sica are all from the Scranton area. Mellow is a longtime friend of DeNaples. DeNaples, his relatives and his businesses have contributed about $300,000 to Senate Democrats and a Mellow political-action committee since 2001, the Inquirer said. Scott K. Baker, general counsel for Philadelphia Media Holdings, publisher of the Inquirer and the Daily News, said the attempts to obtain reporters' cell phone numbers is "further evidence of the DeNaples and Sica defense team's intent to harass members of the media." "To say the least, this would not seem to be an appropriate use of our taxpayer dollars," Baker said. It's unclear why Sica's lawyer, Sal Cognetti, wanted the numbers. He did not return a telephone call from the AP on Thursday. Mellow said he had not spoken with Cognetti about the request. "I don't get involved with constituent requests," he told the Inquirer. Also last week, two of the subpoenaed reporters , one from the Daily News and one from The Morning Call , reported receiving calls from someone posing as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and asking to confirm their cell phone numbers. David M. Shribman, executive editor of the Post-Gazette, called the impersonation "repugnant."
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