Disbarred ex-Bucks County prosecutor wants to practice law again. What the court says

A Pennsylvania Supreme Court disciplinary board has recommended reinstating the law license of a former Bucks County prosecutor who was disbarred a decade ago after pleading guilty to child endangerment in a case that spurred community outrage.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel  supported reinstatement for Anthony C. Cappuccio, 46, who petitioned for the return of his law license earlier this year, his second attempt to return to practicing law since the Court disbarred him in 2012.

The three-member hearing panel concluded that 14 years of disbarment is “sufficient time to dissipate the detrimental impact” of Cappuccio’s professional misconduct.

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“The misconduct for which (Cappuccio) was disbarred is not so egregious as to preclude consideration of his petition for reinstatement,” the panel added, according to its report issued in July.

The state Supreme Court ultimately will decide if Cappuccio is allowed to resume practicing law.

Here is what we know about the history of this case.

Who was Anthony Cappuccio and why was he disbarred?

Cappuccio was the chief deputy district attorney when he resigned from the office in September 2008, after Richland Police found him and a 17-year-old boy partially clothed in a car.

A subsequent investigation found that while serving as a youth group leader at a Perkasie church Cappuccio took three minors to rock concerts and gave them alcohol and smoked marijuana with them. Cappuccio also admitted to an ongoing consensual sexual relationship with one of the teens.

In 2009 he pleaded guilty to three felony counts of endangering the welfare of children; he was sentenced to six  to 23 months in jail and his Pennsylvania law license suspended.

After his conviction, the court’s discipline board recommended suspending Cappuccio’s law license for five year retroactive to 2009, but the state’s high court disagreed.

Then-Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille wrote  in the decision that "any sanction short of disbarment in these circumstances threatens the integrity of the legal system, undermines our very serious duty to protect the public, and fails to give appropriate weight to (Cappuccio's) status as a public official."

How can a disbarred attorney be reinstated in Pennsylvania?

An attorney can file for reinstatement with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s discipline board after five years from the retroactive date of disbarment.

The discipline boards will empanel a review committee, hold a hearing and take testimony before issuing a recommendation, which is forwarded to the Court for its decision.

Over the last decade, the Supreme Court has denied 22 reinstatement petitions and it has granted 124 reinstatement petitions from discipline, according to the discipline board.

What is Anthony Cappuccio doing today?

After serving less than a year at Northampton Council Correctional Center, Cappuccio was paroled and he completed his five years of probation in 2018.

Since 2019 he has worked as a paralegal at an Easton law firm, which is representing him before the disciplinary board. If he regains his law license he would continue to work for the law firm, according to the discipline hearing report.

Cappuccio has taken “significant steps” toward recovery and rehabilitation, according to the committee’s report, which included witness testimony. He has completed four years of forensic treatment. He is not required to register as a sex offender under the state’s Megan’s Law.

Among the evidence the panel considered was a November 2022 letter from the Bucks County District Attorney’s office.

The report does not describe the contents of the letter, but it stated that Cappuccio provided evidence that “substantially assisted” the District Attorney’s Office with the investigation and prosecution of former Warminster Police Officer James Carey.

Carey, 54, was sentenced earlier this year  to  24 1/2 to 55 years in state prison, for sexually abusing five boys.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Ex-Bucks County prosecutor disbarred in 2012 wants law license back