PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
BY BRAD BUMSTED | Saturday, April 9, 2016
HARRISBURG
Attorney General Kathleen Kane might end the year wearing an orange jump suit as a state inmate or celebrating an amazing turn-around of her fortunes with an acquittal in criminal court that proves her critics wrong.
Either way, the crowning achievement of her final months in office might be the no-holds-barred grand jury report detailing sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests and a series of diocesan cover-ups in the Altoona-Johnstown region.
Don’t be surprised if that investigation is expanded to other dioceses — if there’s probable cause for search warrants established from 250 phone calls to a hotline established following the March 1 grand jury release.
When Kane began as attorney general in 2013, she resisted using grand juries, perhaps out of stubbornness, after criticizing former Attorney General Tom Corbett’s lengthy investigation of serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky through use of a statewide grand jury. Sandusky is behind bars for life.
Professional prosecutors in her office persevered. She eventually relented and to her credit approved the use of the grand jury, perhaps because, in her mind, it was different from the Sandusky grand jury because no one was charged.
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