Morganelli Wants Grand Jury Report on Sexual Misconduct by Catholic Clergy

John Morganelli is a practicing Catholic. He is also Pennsylvania's most senior District Attorney. He wants to be able to review a statewide grand jury report into decades of alleged sexual abuse and cover-ups by Catholic clerics. Nearly two dozen of them are attempting to block the report from being made public. On Monday, he called on the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association to file an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief with the state Supreme Court, calling for the report's public release. Morganelli is himself a past president of that organization. If necessary, Morganelli said he would file a brief himself.

Morganelli, a prosecutor who has long used grand juries as an investigatory tool in criminal and noncriminal matters, is concerned that the system itself is under siege. In addition to its use in criminal matters, Pennsylvania's Grand Jury Act permits a grand jury to make recommendations for legislative, executive or administrative action that are in the public interest. Morganelli has used the grand jury to seek changes at the National Museum of Industrial History, Easton Area School District and Bethlehem City Council Statewide grand juries have also delved into the Turnpike Commission, Philadelphia Department of Human Services, and child abuse at the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese. in Chester County, a grand jury admonished a school board that engaged in rampant cronyism and nepotism, including the hiring of felons.

Those seeking to block the statewide grand jury report argue that the process for those who are criticized, but not charges, is unconstitutionally insufficient. These unnamed clerics argue that due process and the state constitutional right to reputation gives them the right to see and challenge evidence and make their own case.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro did give these unnamed clerics and unrestricted right to file responses, which would be released simultaneously with the report. They also have the right to council if called to appear before the grand jury. Morganelli argues that what these unnamed objectors really seek is to "eradicate the grand jury report as an instrument of accountability for public and private institutions."

Morganelli said he was an arrangement with the Allentown Diocese under which he is notified whenever an allegation is made against a priest. The Allentown Diocese, incidentally, has no objection to a public release of the grand jury report. Right Rev. Alfred A Schlert has asked everyone to join him in praying for "the victims and survivors, and for all those hurt by child abuse, wherever it occurs in society."

According to Morganelli, it was common for English grand juries to issue reports on non-criminal matters, and that practice was carried over the the American colonies. They served as watchdogs over state and local government, and reported on numerous matters, from road conditions to jail overcrowding to the financial accounts of public officials. In early America, where a public distrust of authority meant there were few police departments, grand juries were the investigators.

In recent years, grand juries have come under criticism as rubber stamps for the prosecution. Sol Wachtler, the former chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, once told a reporter that grand juries should be eliminated because prosecutors had so much influence over them that they could get them to "indict a ham sandwich."

Later in his career, Wachtler was himself indicted for extortion, racketeering and blackmail. He did 15 months.

Grand Jury Helps Bethlehem PD Crack Attempted Homicide

Castellanos and Cadwallader

Bethlehem police are crediting a Northampton County Investigating Grad Jury with assisting them in cracking the attempted homicide of Anthony Berliner, earlier this summer, near Yosko Park. He was shot in the chest outside his Atlantic Street residence on June 15. He immediately turned and ran, and could hear another bullet pass by his head as he fled to a neighbor's home.He suffered massive blood loss, a collapsed lung and multiple fractured ribs. The couple whom police think are responsible are now behind bars in Florida, awaiting extradition.

According to Berliner, he was lured from his residence by a phone call from by Leah Calwallader, age 18. When he left the house, her boyfriend Evan Castellanos, age 19,  got out of a Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Calwallader and shot him.

Castellanos and Cadwallader told Detective Sean Molony that they were in New York City at the time of the shooting and denied any involvement. Because of communications issues with potential witnesses, Molony reached out to the District Attorney John Morganelli and received his permission to use that tool to continue the investigation.

Through video surveillance footage, Molony was able to establish that Castellanos and
Cadwallader were at the Lehigh Valley Mall on the evening prior to the shooting. They were also able to identify the Grand Prix in South Bethlehem on the morning of the shooting. Through cellular telephone record mapping, he was able to establish that they had been in the Lehigh Valley and were, in fact, in South Bethlehem on the morning of the shooting.

In addition to the records that Molony obtained, the Grand Jury was used to compel testimony. Witnesses describe Castellanos as a drug supplier. A street dealer named Joseph Shupp, who is supplied by Castellanos, told jurors that they had not been in New York, but had been with him in several occasions prior to the shooting.

Another witness told jurors that Castellanos left book bag at her residence, containing a revolver and two shell casings.

On Thursday, November 20, Grand Jury presentments and arrest warrants were sealed by Northampton county Judge Michael J. Koury, Jr. Bethlehem police had information that Castellanos and Cadwallader were hiding out in Kissimmee, Fl. Within five hours, both were in custody and are awaiting extradition on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and conspiracy.

"You can run but you can't hide," noted Morganelli. Bethlehem PD Chief Mark DiLuzio added that, thanks to recent technology, they can communicate instantly with other departments. But he and Detective Molony were even more complimentary of an older prosecutorial tool - the Grand Jury.

"It's a very powerful tool,"observed the Chief, noting that it also moves "otherwise stale cases forward."  

Morganelli to Convene New Grand Jury

DA John Morganelli

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli is convening a new Grand Jury, starting April 24, with a continued focus on unsolved homicides and official corruption. Morganelli said this new panel will work under the supervision of Judge Michael Koury. The chief prosecuting attorney will be Assistant DA Bill Blake.

The previous Grand Jury, first empaneled on March 29, 2012, worked on 30 different investigations during its two-year life span. "This, by far, was the most work done by grand juries that I have empaneled as District Attorney," he noted. He filed a termination report on April 16, at the same time he announced his intention to form a new Grand Jury.

Grand juries fell out of favor during the '60s, according to Morganelli, when rules were relaxed to allow prosecutors to file charges independently, without these charging bodies, through what is known as a criminal information.

But grand juries remain important, insists Morganelli.

"The Grand Jury represents one of the oldest tools utilized by prosecutors to investigate matters of public concern. As everyone knows, the Grand Jury has the power to compel testimony, offer immunity and obtain any and all records without probable cause."

The 1999-2000 Grand Jury

Morganelli was unable to convene a Grand Jury during his fist seven years in office, he explained, because he needed more full-time staff. Finally, in 1999, he had enough staff to justify a Grand Jury for unsolved homicides. That resulted in the successful prosecution of James McBride, who is serving a life sentence for the 1984 murder of his wife. It also resulted in a second-degree murder conviction of Joseph Strohl for the 1986 beating death of his North Catasauqua. The Grand Jury helped prosecutor Bob Eyer, now the Chief Public Defender, build a circumstantial case.

The 2010 Grand Jury

A second Grand Jury, convened in 2010, heard evidence in 14 different investigations, and solved three more old homicides. It focused a great deal of its work on the 1979 murder of Holly Branagan, a Freedom High School Senior who was found stabbed to death in her Bethlehem home. Thirty-one witnesses testified. Morganelli is hopeful that Bethlehem police may have sufficient evidence to file charges in the future, but the case is still open.

That Grand Jury also expanded its scope beyond homicide and into more complicated, white collar crimes. Its work resulted in the successful prosecution of the principals of Municipal Energy Managers, who bilked Bethlehem Township out of $832,000 in a streetlight scam.

The 2012 Grand Jury

This Grand Jury investigated the following matters:

• Conspiracy to Commit Homicide charges against Franklin Barndt for the 2009 killing of Miguel Aponte at the Easton Cafe.
• The successful prosecution of former Assistant Chief Public Defender Anthony Martino, who stole in excess of $200,000 from private clients.
• The successful prosecution of Shawnta Carmon, who conned philanthropist Linnie Fowler out of more than $1 million.
• Theft charges against investment advisor Richard Freer, who is accused of bilking clients out of more than $10 million. 
• Nonprofit mismanagement at the National Museum of Industrial History, with finding forwarded to the state Attorney General.