State police identify woman killed in Thursday crash

Poor start haunts Pens in loss

First Posted: 4/10/2014 HARRISBURG &#8212; A man who wore a wire for Pennsylvania prosecutors claimed in a court filing unsealed Thursday that he paid cash bribes to several elected state House representatives in exchange for favorable votes.
The allegation surfaced after a judge released documents related to Tyron Ali, a Philadelphia businessman and lobbyist who began to secretly record contacts with unnamed public officials from Philadelphia after being charged in a fraud case five years ago.
&#8220;Mr. Ali, in cooperation with the (Office of Attorney General), paid cash bribes to no fewer than eight elected state representatives in exchange for favorable votes on a variety of public laws, all of which was documented and recorded by OAG,&#8221; wrote his attorney, Robert Levant, in the Sept. 12 filing.
Levant did not return a phone message left Thursday afternoon.
A state prosecutor said at a news conference after the documents were released, however, that the evidence on the still-sealed secret tapes does not support Ali&#8217;s claims that the money resulted in the sort of action required to show in court that the payments amounted to bribes.
The claim was made as Levant fought to have the judge enforce a cooperation agreement that called for Ali&#8217;s own criminal charges to be dismissed, as occurred two months later.
&#8220;I have a strong disagreement with those assertions,&#8221; said Bruce Beemer, a senior state prosecutor, told reporters at the attorney general&#8217;s offices in Harrisburg. He continued, saying, &#8220;I did not find evidence that would be sufficient to support a quid pro quo.&#8221;
The September court filing does not identify the eight alleged recipients by name, but provided a breakdown of Ali&#8217;s contacts that claimed that he gave cash to five state representatives in exchange for a vote or votes, that he gave cash to two others and he gave meals to three more. He also claimed in that filing to have hosted a dinner for five state representatives; gave meals, tickets or cash to three lobbyists; and gave meals and an expensive bracelet to a Philadelphia traffic court judge.
The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported last month about the bracelet claims and said that four Democratic state lawmakers from Philadelphia, all African-American, had been captured on tape accepting money from Ali.
Ali was charged in 2009 with defrauding the Pennsylvania Department of Education out of some $430,000 through the nonprofit Logan Child Care Resource Center. Officials said the money was meant to provide food to lower-income people enrolled in child and adult care centers.
Prosecutors at that time accused Ali of giving the state agency records that included ghost employees, forged bank statements, counterfeit payroll records and inflated expenses.
The attorney general&#8217;s office agreed in late 2012 to drop more than 2,000 charges against Ali, a deal made shortly after Kathleen Kane was elected, but before she took office as attorney general in January 2013.
Kane has said she abandoned the investigation into the public officials because of concerns it was poorly managed, it may have improperly targeted subjects based on their race and it was not likely to result in any successful prosecutions.
&#8220;We reviewed this case and according to our standards of prosecution, according to our duty, according to the law and according to our high professional morals and ethics, we said that we could not prosecute this case and it should not be prosecuted,&#8221; Kane told reporters Thursday.
The scandal has already prompted the state House and Senate to consider legislation to limit the types of cash gifts that lawmakers and staff are allowed to receive. Pennsylvania&#8217;s main ethics law for public officials only requires disclosure of gifts worth more than $250 or hospitality and similar costs worth at least $650 from a single source over the course of a year.

Informant claims he bribed several Pa. lawmakers