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First Posted: 8/13/2013 William Brace has been rebuffed by a federal appeals court in his ongoing bid to recover pension benefits lost after he pleaded guilty to corruption charges three years ago.
The former Luzerne County official, who served prison time for accepting a custom suit from a county contractor, sued the county over the termination of his pension benefits in 2009, prior to his guilty plea in the case.
Brace&#8217;s lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo in June 2012. Brace&#8217;s appeal of Caputo&#8217;s dismissal, which was argued on Jan. 16, was denied in a ruling filed Tuesday by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Efforts to reach Brace were unsuccessful Tuesday afternoon.
In April 2010, Brace was sentenced to three months in jail and fined $10,000 for accepting a $1,500 suit from a company seeking county business. Federal agents said the incident took place in 2007 or 2008, when he was the county&#8217;s deputy chief clerk.
A longtime government employee, Brace worked three decades for the city of Wilkes-Barre, retiring as clerk/administrator in 2001 with a $42,000 annual pension from city.
Weeks later, he was hired as deputy to county Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly, a position he held until December 2005. Former commissioners Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid then hired Brace for the deputy chief clerk job.
He took advantage of an early-retirement package in 2008 and was quickly appointed by the state as a registrar with the Bureau of Vital Statistics. He resigned the post in December 2009, shortly after agreeing to plead guilty.
That same month, the Luzerne County Retirement Board unanimously voted to end Brace&#8217;s $740-per-month county pension once his guilty plea was accepted, which took place on Jan. 6, 2010.
U.S. District Judge James Munley also said Brace had accepted $800 a month over a two-year period from a company that believed he would help it get business with Wilkes-Barre city.
Brace had faced up to 10 years in prison. Sentencing guidelines under his plea agreement called for four to 10 months, and prosecutors agreed to recommend a lesser sentence if Brace assisted in the investigation of others.
In his lawsuit, Brace claimed he discovered his benefits had been withheld as early as November 2009, prior to the termination vote. He claimed he was never given a legally required hearing prior to the termination vote.
In their motion to dismiss, which was granted by Caputo, county officials countered there had been no due process or equal protection violations against Brace, and that they were entitled to immunity for taking action in their official capacity.
County Councilman Stephen A. Urban, who served as a county commissioner from 2000 until the end of 2011, when he took office on county council, was pleased to learn of Tuesday&#8217;s ruling.
&#8220;I&#8217;m glad he lost his appeal, because Bill Brace was a disgrace to public officials in Luzerne County and did not deserve a pension,&#8221; said Urban, who was one of the defendants named in Brace&#8217;s suit.
Councilman Eugene Kelleher, who serves on the retirement board, agreed, saying he was glad the county&#8217;s position was upheld &#8220;in the best interest of the taxpayers.&#8221;

Federal court upholds Brace pension denial