Trending
Pennsylvania law is clear that governments may not seal settlements of cases brought against them, or which they might bring as plaintiffs, because citizens are the government and taxpayers foot the bill.
Yet, the Pittston Area School District has tried to make an end run around disclosing the details of settlements with four victims of a former district band director, Brendan J. Carter, whom a court deemed a violent sexual predator and sentenced to 7-to-14 years in prison in 2021.
District lawyers Sam Falcone and John E. Freund III have acknowledged a settlement and that the district did not admit any wrongdoing, which is a standard settlement term. The plaintiffs' attorney, Neill T. O'Donnell, has filed legal documents stating that the case is "settled, ended and discontinued with prejudice."
But when The Citizens' Voice, The Times-Tribune's sister paper in Wilkes-Barre, filed a Right-to-Know request for the settlement, the district rejected the request with a semantic dodge. It replied that the relevant documents "do not exist in the possession, custody and control" of the district.
Perhaps not, but they certainly exist "in the possession, custody and control" of the district's publicly paid lawyers. As noted by Melissa Melewsky, a media law attorney for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, government agencies "have a legal duty to obtain settlements from law firms or insurance companies."
Damages will be covered primarily by an insurer, which the taxpayers pay for such purposes. The district should stop obfuscating and disclose the settlements.
-- Scranton Times-Tribune