Court to Decide Today If Angle Can Remain on Council During Appeal

When Northampton County DA John Morganelli first challenged Ron Angle's right to sit on County Council and Bangor School Board simultaneously, he insisted he had no personal motive. He just wanted courts to "clarify" the law. Of course, that's complete bullshit, and events since Friday demonstrate quite clearly that Morganelli, with a little help from Senior Judge Franciosa, is trying to take Angle out.

Will he succeed? We'll find out at 2:30 PM today. Let me fill you in.

There is little doubt that Morganelli has both a political and personal motive to rid Council of Angle. Angle and his fellow Republicans now control seven of Council's nine seats, making Democrat Lamont McClure, whose wife works for Democrat John Morganelli, very lonely. What's worse, as Council Prez, Angle has actually been getting things done. Democrats desparately want to get rid of him, and if they can't do it at the polls, they'll try government by litigation to upset your will.

If Morganelli were really interested in getting the law clarified, he would have acted twice before. In 2006, when Hellertown Borough Council President Tony Branco was appointed to County Council, Morganelli had no objection and even made robo calls for him. Branco, incidentally, is a Democrat. Last year, when another Democrat, Bangor Mayor Joe Capozzolo, was appointed to succeed the late Wayne Grube, Morganelli voiced no concerns.

Now he's suddenly concerned about the law? Bullshit. It's politics.

It's also personal. Remember political consultant Tom "Scissorhands" Severson? He and Morganelli are big pals. In fact, when Severson was convicted by a jury for his bizarre and threatening behavior towards Ron Angle during a funeral mass, the DA John suddenly became a defense counsel, trying his best to downplay the reality that his friend and political consultant is now a criminal. Things got worse. Severson has nailed with deceptive campaign practices, and went down again.

Morganelli suit's was assigned to Senior Judge Franciosa, a judge of the very same Court that twice refused to recuse itself from Angle's right to hold public office, even though it immediately stepped aside in a Will controversy. On Friday, as expected, Franciosa ruled against Angle. In a rambling, 21-page opinion, Judge Franciosa concedes there is no Pennsylvania decision addressing this point. But in ruling against Angle, Franciosa gives him only ten days to "cure" his violation by resigning from the school board. By Monday, three days were already gone.

Brian Monahan, representing Angle, immediately filed a motion seeking a stay of that order pending appeal. Suddenly, DA Morganelli, who claimed to be interested solely in the law, is opposed and wants to force the issue before it is decided by the Supreme Court. What's even worse, nobody can find Franciosa.

This afternoon, Angle was told he's get a hearing before Franciosa on Friday. Gee, that's nice. If Franciosa refuses to grant the stay, that gives him just one day to appeal and get a ruling from the state Supremes, a practical impossibility. Of course, Angle exploded at this obvious denial of due process.

Now, Judge Francios has agreed to return from wherever he is to hear Angle's request for a stay tomorrow. If he rules against Angle tomorrow, that gives Ron just two business days to seek a stay from the Supreme Court.

Since this is a novel question, why did Franciosa impose a ten day limitation in the first place? He could just have easily provided that a stay would go into effect if an appeal were perfected. His refusal to do that, along with his dragging his feet about a hearing on the stay, is just more evidence of bias.