Skip to content

Judicial Watch, Inc. is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.

Judicial Watch, Inc. is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.

Because no one
is above the law!

Donate

Corruption Chronicles

Penn. Lawmaker Guilty Of Felonies

A veteran Pennsylvania legislator who initially denied creating fake taxpayer-funded jobs for two relatives has admitted that he did in fact commit the felonies, which also violate the portion of the state Ethics Act that forbids hiring family members.

The longtime Democratic state representative from western Pennsylvania, Frank LaGrotta, pleaded guilty this week to the conflict-of-interest charges for putting his sister and niece on his legislative payroll as ghost employees who did nothing yet collected hefty state salaries.

LaGrotta was sentenced to six months of house arrest, probation and community service and he was ordered to pay nearly $30,000 restitution as well as a $10,000 fine. Although he pleaded guilty to a pair of felonies, he will not have to forfeit his lucrative state pension accrued during two decades of public service.

Last fall a state grand jury investigating public corruption charged LaGrotta with hiring his school teacher sister and her daughter for nonexistent work during his final year in the state House of Representatives. For nearly a year the disgraced lawmaker denied the charges, but finally confessed because prosecutors had concrete evidence and he faced a decade in prison.

After entering a guilty plea in a Dauphin County Courthouse this week, LaGrotta apologized to the people of Pennsylvania and said he took full responsibility. He actually got caught during a broader investigation into the widespread practice of legislators illegally paying their staff taxpayer-funded bonuses to do political work.


Related

VP’s Failed Initiative to Curb Irregular Migration Gets Another $170 Mil as Numbers Surge

Corruption Chronicles | March 28, 2024
As enormous amounts of U.S. taxpayer dollars pour into Central America under Vice President Kamala Harris’s ill-fated initiative to curb illegal immigration, the Biden administrati...

Judicial Watch: Federal Appeals Court Hearing in Lawsuit Challenging Illinois Counting Ballots up to…

Press Releases | March 27, 2024
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that an appellate oral argument is set for Thursday, March 28 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the case fil...

Judicial Watch Sues to Get 911 Call, Arrest Report of Laken Riley’s Murder

In The News | March 27, 2024
From Breitbart: Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton announced a Georgia Open Records Act lawsuit against the University of Georgia (UGA) Police Department to get the 911 call made ...