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Police: Man struck woman in the head with an ashtray during a domestic dispute

Letter to the Editor: Kukowski family grateful to Luzerne County prosecutors for dual convictions

<p>Attorney General Kathleen Kane has appointed a special prosecutor who was himself sanctioned by the courts, is not licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and has been photographed in the middle of a teen drinking party.</p><p>Doug Gansler is a former Maryland attorney general whose career has been marked by grandstanding maneuvers, one of which ended in his censure by the state&#8217;s high court. As a state&#8217;s attorney in 2003, he was sanctioned for publicly discussing evidence in pending cases. He later touted it as a sign of his independence.</p><p>Among the statements for which he was sanctioned was a pledge that he would prosecute cases he couldn&#8217;t win. After a judge tossed out charges against a high schooler accused of phoning in a bomb threat, explaining that the prosecution offered no proof they had the right person, Gansler said this: &#8220;We try hard cases. &#8230; Juveniles who phone in bomb threats will be prosecuted. It&#8217;s more important to prosecute someone and have them acquitted than let them commit crimes with impunity.&#8221;</p><p>In short: Forget proof, we&#8217;ll punish you by prosecuting. This fits perfectly with his new post.</p><p>Kane has named Gansler to ferret out all available evidence of any pornographic image transmitted on a state computer server because, well, if she&#8217;s going down on two counts of perjury, why make the journey alone? Kane has done little to disguise the fact that she will exact revenge on the world for her legal troubles. A man who conflates prosecution with persecution is ideal for this sad moment.</p><p>The state disciplinary board, which oversees licensure, has no record indicating Gansler is licensed in Pennsylvania. Possibly, he holds a license in the District of Columbia or Virginia, in which case he would presumably be free to apply here. That might be the most easily corrected of his flaws.</p><p>The irony of an attorney general whose public statements lack credibility summoning the help of an out-of-state colleague sanctioned for the same would be irony enough. Gansler, though, raises the bar. He seems to surpass himself at every turn.</p><p>After being sanctioned, he nonetheless was elected attorney general of Maryland. State troopers later complained that he would order them to run red lights and break the speed limit on routine travels.</p><p>Gansler&#8217;s response was to accuse the complaining trooper of being a political henchman for his political enemy, then-Gov. Martin O&#8217;Malley. The Maryland State Police took the unprecedented action of issuing a statement denying that one of its ranks was a henchman.</p><p>That kind of weird just seems to follow Doug Gansler.</p><p>Two years ago, readers of The Baltimore Sun were treated to a photo of Attorney General Gansler in the midst of an underage drinking party on the Delaware shore. Gansler was there to check on his son, one of the graduates for whom the beach house had been rented. The AG later told reporters that the house had been rented with certain rules laid out: no drugs, no women behind closed doors and no hard liquor.</p><p>That&#8217;s what they said: No hard liquor.</p><p>Baltimore TV stations broadcast photos of Gansler in the midst of a group of sweaty teens hoisting red cups while shirtless young men danced on a table. Nothing suspicious here, folks. After all, they&#8217;d been warned: no hard liquor.</p><p>Asked about this messy spectacle, he told The Sun: &#8220;The question is, do I have any moral authority over other people&#8217;s children at beach week in another state? I say no.&#8221; As an afterthought, he also admitted that the red cups probably contained beer which, my liver has confidentially informed me, contains alcohol.</p><p>It is, perhaps, a promising sign that this man who sees traffic laws as optional and a court censure as a mere detail, has at last found a sense of moral authority, in this case over employees of a neighboring state. So, he will now take up the sword for Kathleen Kane in her bid to take down every other person she can before the General Assembly brings down the curtain on this legal burlesque.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Dennis Roddy</p><p>Contributing Columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Dennis Roddy served as a special assistant to Gov. Tom Corbett and is a writer and consultant living in Pittsburgh.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Dennis Roddy: ‘Porngate’ special prosecutor brings more weirdness to Kathleen Kane’s collapse