A former Lehigh County prosecutor who now is Northampton County "Deputy" District Attorney is himself a criminal defendant. Joseph R Stauffer, who helps run the District Attorney's Drug Task Force, was charged by Whitehall Township police with driving while under the influence (DUI) on May 30, and at the highest rate of alcohol in his system (0.16% or higher.) He was also charged with the summary offenses of careless driving and with bad tires. He has waived these charges into Lehigh County Court and is scheduled to be arraigned on September 17. He was required to post $2,500 bail.
He is represented by well-known and highly respected defense attorney Angelo Almonti.
Because it is Attorney Stauffer's first offense, he will almost certainly be eligible for ARD.
Stauffer is a 2003 graduate of Widener University School of Law and has practiced law since 2004. He has no history of any discipline by the state disciplinary board.
I only learned of these charges on Friday through an anonymous comment posted on this blog. Though the offense is from May 30, the public has a right to know when a prosecuting attorney is himself in the dock.
As an exempt employee, Stauffer has none of the job protections in place for career service or union employees. But most employees, whether they work in the public or private sector, survive a first offense DUI.
As of April, the following individuals were a part of the DA's staff: Robert Eyer - First Deputy District Attorney; Jeffrey Dimmig - Senior Deputy District Attorney; Matthew Falk - Senior Deputy District Attorney; Leonard N. Zito - Senior Deputy District Attorney; William M. Blake - Deputy District Attorney; Joseph D. Lupackino- Deputy District Attorney; Dan Polanski – Deputy District Attorney; Lisa Tresslar - Deputy District Attorney; Joseph R. Stauffer - Deputy District Attorney; Nicole Bachman – Assistant District Attorney; Catherine Kollet - Assistant District Attorney; Ellen S. Kingsley - Assistant District Attorney; and Michael S. Weinert – Assistant District Attorney.
There have been additional hires since that time, but I have no details at this time.
37 comments:
By my count there are eight senior and/or deputy district attorneys. That seems to be quite top-heavy, but according this blog and comments, Baratta can pretty much do as he pleases.
And outside of Lisa, all are white (mostly old) men. Super diverse.
Download the Uber app for him !
With Uber and Lyft it is a shame he didn't call one. If he was at a bar/restaurant they should be charged for serving someone that much. They have training for this so they can have license to sell. If at friends a distance away, take keys and have him stay over. Thank goodness an innocent driver wasn't killed for such a bad mistake. With Muskifest going on, hope people use Uber if drinking.
I first saw it as a comment on your July 24 post
BernieOHare to 6:14, I did not see it then or now. I just went back and looked. The first I knew about this was on Friday.
He is just following in your footsteps BO. You should be proud.
Welcome to the "over the hill club". All good guys but this is political cronyism at its highest level.
Looks like this DA is taking care of his friends. Gotta love the appointment of the DAS buddy as an investorgator. At a higher rate. And outside the CBA. I hope the other 4 quit. This county under Lamont is on the brink of disaster with its employees situation. It is going to break and when it does this county is in big trouble.
Also gotta love Lisa having a law suit against the county but still taking a job with them. Then getting a nice pay bump and all of a sudden the county is off the suit.
BernieOHare to 3:10, Kate Collett is a female.
Does this list include detectives? Why not list their names?
The egotistical idiot(Baratta) is clearly still taking his marching orders from "Little man Morganelli", by not listing staff on website, promoting well connected people from Lehigh County and demoting most experienced Attorney(Blake).
What did he tell council when he said he was hiring Chief County Detective, would assume the would be a leadership position but Baratta told staff he will have no supervisory responsibilities, must make the other county detectives happy to know he will be making so much more than them for same job
Baratta has been a failure as a District Attorney
This guy isn’t the only one.
9:52 the original comment was with regards to seniors and deputy DAs. Ms. Collett is an Assistant DA. The senior and deputy title are higher up on the chain.
Bernie, he also hired an attorney from Minotti’s office recently, something I believe he criticized Houck for doing.
The deputy that this article is about is by far the most unprofessional the office has to offer. He and Ms. Collett treat the staff like garbage.
Hopefully a wake up call for this guy. .16 is bad. Hope he gets help.
Questions for BaRATta:
1. How have you improved the office of the district attorney since taking power (intentional wording) in January?
2. What was your justification for firing lawyers and detectives prior to assuming power?
3. Why have you pilfered at least three attorneys from Lehigh County?
4. Explain how your disrespectful demeanor in public and around the courthouse will get you another term (I’m betting you bail before reelection or pull a Biden).
5. You told a lot of mistruths during your campaign and vowed to get rid of the backlog of cases. It doesn’t seem that you are delivering on your promises. Defend your record, to date.
And another for good measure: Raymond Lahoud pumped a lot of money into your campaign. How is that being recouped?
"Bernie, he also hired an attorney from Minotti’s office recently, something I believe he criticized Houck for doing."
This is true. He did hire an attorney who rents space in a building owned by Mark Minotti. He did criticize Houck for this. But just as it was not a conflict for Pepper, it is not a conflict here either.
"The deputy that this article is about is by far the most unprofessional the office has to offer. He and Ms. Collett treat the staff like garbage."
I am unable to say whether this is accurate. Hopefully, it's not. The staff have much more to do with an efficient office than the prosecutors, as I am sure any DA can attest.
"Baratta has been a failure as a District Attorney"
He has a very tough job, just as Houck did. The election is over and I want him to succeed, not for his sake but for the sake of the county.
"By my count there are eight senior and/or deputy district attorneys. That seems to be quite top-heavy, but according this blog and comments, Baratta can pretty much do as he pleases."
My blog and the comments are not the reason that the DA has immense power to hire and fire. That is the law. Judges and the DA have what were known as 1620 rights, which pretty much enable them to hire and fire at will. These rights are almost always reserved in any collective bargaining agreement.
The power the DA and judges do not have is (1) negotiating contracts and (2) setting the wage. That falls to the Exec and Council, respectively.
The Exec and Council will almost always honor the DA's wishes bc the effective administration of justice is at stake. If the DA over-reaches and demands more than the people can pay, they can say no.
Baratta created a new ‘senior’ deputy role in order to pay his incoming transfers who he hopes will be loyalists. Most don’t warrant chief deputy money, and at least 1 existing (and far most senior in years of service to this county) chief most certainly deserves senior deputy pay and authority. He did the same pay-wise with benefitting new ADAs and DDAs over existing ones.
This is a poorly executed play on the Machiavellian—strike that—Morganellian model. Trample disagreement, change for the sake of change, discharge anyone from a prior administration ASAP. Of course, Morganelli would never have hired people who so clearly were not qualified to continue at their prior positions. Nor would he have paid so much for so little.
While pay is an issue in retention, there’s a limit to how much any one ADA can do against the volume of crime in NorCo. NorCo judges could, of course, assist by using their authority to have cases tried and to sentence in the mid to top standard range where appropriate.
The exec and council need to do the job of calling him out and making him explain why the problems that predated him remain if not worsen under him.
"There have been additional hires since that time, but I have no details at this time. "
I think a fair question would be how many of those hires are full time vs part time DA's? Not sure how you can effectively handle a backlog of cases with part time staff. And, correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't tackling or eliminating this mountain of cases one of the things that Baratta campaigned on? Does not appears to be living up to that promise.
Another fair question would be addressing why there are a lack of trials? Is the new administration giving away the farm? Are they afraid to take cases to trial? Or is this one of those things where they blame the bench for the lack of trials? Under Houck you knew who the staff were and they were actually taking cases to trial.
Between the reported mismanagement of staff and the office, lack of transparency, failure to reduce the backlog of cases and a top heavy staff that fails to live up to his promise of diversity, it appears that Northampton County voters were gaslighted into voting for the wrong person.
The grace period is over. These are some hard questions that need to be asked of the new DA since, as you state, you want to see the office succeed for the good of the county
We don't get our best in these positions.
4:08 pm: much of your post echoes what I have been writing for months. Baratta is a snake oil salesman who duped the voters. Well, perhaps that is a bit harsh because none of the local media outlets felt the need to fact check his mailings and statements. Baratta was very loose with the truth, but he was viewed as some sort of savior who willingly gave up the bench to save the office. From what I see, his arrogance has made matters worse, he has treated veterans of the department with disrespect (most being shown the door), and I know of no trials of note. Houck was definitely abrasive and may not have been an ideal DA, but Baratta isn’t the answer. Northampton County is not better off with him in charge of the DA’s office.
I posted a week or so ago regarding the Tresslar lawsuit. If my memory is correct, Ms. Tresslar dropped her lawsuit against the county, but is still suing the bench. Baratta was "on" the bench at the time of her departure, so how is she able to report to someone who she is suing? What is going on in that office?
All are probably Demorats! Baratta is a progressive, hates Republicans!
His Godfather Zito, is telling him what to do!! I believe he is 80 some years old!😖😖😡😡
His Godfather, Zito is his go to for opinions! He’s running the office!
Morganelli is the reason why Baratta won! He didn’t like the way Terry was running the DA’s office! How do I know this, he told me personally when I ran into him one day! Truth be told!!🤣🤣
Lol
11:03 am: Due to my lack of timeliness, I doubt this post will be seen. Since you mentioned Ms. Kollett, is she the same woman who was a master or something about a decade ago? Her name rings a bell, but I can’t recall from where.
Don’t understand the outrage as the Court Adminstrator has been charged at least once, if not twice, for DUI in Monroe County!
How is this so different from the esteemed Court Administrator having at least one, if not two, DUI’s in MonroeCounty?
And where is the outrage of the esteemed Court Administrator having at least one, if not two DUI’s in Monroe County and nothing happening to him?
I checked and am unable to find a record of DUIs involving the court administrator
You are unable because Baratta was PJ then and told Mr. Greene what to do to make sure he got the record expunged, but he did get charged and I think got ARD- his wife, who works in pretrial used to drive him every day- ask her, she will probably lie for him too
While I agree if the court administrator was charged twice, he should be gone, I believe that Mr. Stauffer should be held to a higher standard as he prosecutes people for the very same thing. He is going out and doing the very same thing he is telling other people not to do. Seems hypocritical.
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