OAG Settles in Agents' Retaliation Case Against Ex-AG Kane
Former Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Sept. 23, 2015, in Harrisburg. Photo: Lizzy McLellan/ALM.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General has agreed to settle a case brought by two agents who had alleged that former AG Kathleen Kane retaliated against them and tried to damage their reputations after they testified before a grand jury about an OAG investigation Kane shut down.
The OAG agreed to pay $75,000 to Michael Carlson, who is still an agent for the office, and Michael Cranga, a former OAG agent. A spokesman for the OAG confirmed the settlement, but declined to comment further on the case. The parties filed a stipulation of dismissal Nov. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Theirs was one of several cases that OAG employees or former employees brought against Kane while she was still in office. Also named as a defendant was her chief of staff, Jonathan Duecker, who was fired from the office soon after Kane's conviction.
Kane was convicted of perjury and related charges in August 2016, and was sentenced to 10 to 23 months in jail and eight years of probation. She appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which affirmed her conviction earlier this year, but she has been released on $75,000 bail through the rest of the appeals process. She filed a petition for allowance of appeal with the state Supreme Court in June.
Carlson and Cranga brought their complaint against Kane and Duecker in December 2015, a few months after Kane was charged by Montgomery County prosecutors.
It centers largely around the agents’ involvement in an investigation of five black Philadelphia politicians. The complaint contended that Carlson and Cranga’s reputations were damaged when Kane announced that she declined to prosecute the case because the investigation was racially motivated.
According to the complaint in Carlson v. Kane, Carlson and Cranga were “instrumental” in investigating the Philadelphia politicians, who were caught on tape taking bribes. The probe became known as the “Ali investigation” for the name of the confidential informant, Tyron Ali. After Kane came into office in 2013, she decided not to prosecute the five Philadelphia Democrats. When a news article reported on her decision, she said that, among other things, the investigation was racially motivated.
After that announcement, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office took the case. Carlson and Cranga testified before a Philadelphia grand jury about their investigation of the politicians. The grand jury ultimately brought charges against the politicians, who were all Democrats.
Carlson and Cranga alleged that Kane and Duecker retaliated against them for their testimony by denying them promotions and selectively releasing emails in the so-called Porngate scandal. Meanwhile, they alleged, Kane and Duecker protected other OAG employees, such as Kane’s sister, from public scrutiny over Porngate.
The last of the Ali investigation defendants, state Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, was found guilty on all counts by a Harrisburg jury last month, for taking $4,000 in bribes. The other five defendants pleaded guilty or no contest.
James Kutz of Post & Schell, who represented Carlson and Cranga, did not return a call seeking comment Thursday. Richard Harris of Littler Mendelson, who represented the defendants, also did not return a call seeking comment.
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OAG Agents' Claims of Grand Jury Retaliation Survive
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