for BigTrial.net
If you're a Penn State trustee, and you're going to talk to Mark Dambly about his impending election tomorrow as chairman of the board, should you pat him down first?
Yes, say two former investigators.
"My first question [for Dambly] would be, 'Hey, you still wearing a wire?' " said John Snedden, a former NCIS and FIS special agent who's a Penn State alum.
"Once a snitch, always a snitch," said another former investigator who worked the infamous "Dr. Snow" cocaine ring of the 1980s and said that Dambly wore a wire to get himself out of trouble with the feds.
With Dambly currently the subject of a federal subpoena in the Allentown pay-to-play corruption case, Snedden said, there are only two remaining possibilities left in the investigation where nine people have already copped pleas.
"At this stage of the investigation it is very likely that he is either THE subject or he is cooperating with the investigation," as in wearing a wire, Snedden said.
"Penn State needs to determine his specific involvement in all his alleged criminal endeavors so they can specifically identify the LOSS EXPOSURE he brings to Penn State," Snedden said.
Dambly has not responded to requests for comment about his alleged involvement in the Dr. Snow cocaine ring, and the five days in jail he spend back in 1979 as a Penn State student after he got nailed for disorderly conduct.
But Dambly is all ready for his impending coronation tomorrow as the new chairman of the Penn State board of trustees.
Meanwhile, a new arrest involving Dambly has surfaced. Dambly was arrested on May 27, 1987 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving at an unsafe speed, failure to keep right, and possession of marijuana. He was released on $500 bail.
The 1987 arrest, as well as his earlier 1979 arrest, have been expunged.
The other mystery in this latest Penn State scandal -- besides the insanity of why Penn State would want somebody with as much baggage as Dambly as the face of the franchise -- would be why The Philadelphia Inquirer is sitting on this story.
Every scrap of information your Big Trial correspondent published on Monday about Mark Dambly was in the possession of a couple of reporters at the Inquirer, but they haven't written a word. Maybe they're waiting for an editor to give them permission to write about Dambly.
After he becomes chairman of the board.
Or, maybe when the newspaper called the feds, they said, Hey, lay off our boy Mark. He's working for us again.
Doesn't Ira Lubert own the Philly Inquirer?
ReplyDeleteAnon,
DeleteNo, but he owns many people that work there.
Wasn't Dambly originally appointed to the BOT by "Fast Eddy" Rendell? ER has no sway at Inky, right? Seems that Dambly has also been a cash cow to the Dems. Pay to play indeed. Classic Pennsylvania patronage politics. I think PA has defined and refined what patronage is.
ReplyDeleteThis is good stuff Ralph, and I also listened to you on the Jeff Byers radio show yesterday. You came off very well in that interview. It's refreshing to listen to a real investigative journalist actually posing real questions.
ReplyDeleteSo if Mark Dambly is again wearing a wire, as Snedden implies is possible, who would the Feds actually be closing in on? I personally hope it's many corrupt individuals that have helped to give illegal access to Penn State's money.
The whole thing reeks of the Jewish and Italian Mafia getting their foot in the door to PSU's cash. The theft seems to begin with Tom Corbett and end, hopefully, with Josh Shapiro being major players for the Mob.
If the Inky is not printing it it's because the feds do not want them to print it.
ReplyDeleteI doubt if we'll ever see one word on the subject, the can't, it would open up a can of worms for them, showcasing all that they neglected to share with the public.
We will never see one word about the Monsignor Lynn case or any other case that makes shows the prosecution in a less than favorable light.
When does it cross the line for safeguarding the public's well being and trust,denying the truth hurts everyone, when will the Inky get tired of taking orders from the feds.
Are they so estranged from the truth that they do not recognize it even when it's presented to them.
Scumbag rat ...
ReplyDeleteTotal scumbag rat. Hope he gets what he deserves!!!
DeleteRalph - you may be interested in a new task force appointed today by Chief Justice Saylor to review the use and abuse of investigating grand juries.
ReplyDeleteNo but Lance Is !!!
ReplyDeleteJuly 20,2017
ReplyDeletePA Supreme Court Forms Task Force To Review Investigating Grand Juries
The PA Supreme Court Thursday announced it has formed a task force to perform a comprehensive review of investigating grand juries.
“Recent high profile trials have focused attention on investigating grand juries and the important role they play in the justice system,” said Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Thomas G. Saylor. “It is good policy to periodically evaluate operations and make updates and improvements where warranted. As a comprehensive review of Pennsylvania’s investigating grand juries has not taken place in recent memory, the Supreme Court has formed this task force to prepare a public report detailing current operations of grand juries and advancing proposals for possible improvement.”
An investigating grand jury is a group of citizens, usually numbering 23, which investigates suspected criminal activities and decides whether enough evidence exists to recommend that authorities file criminal charges.
Grand jury proceedings are not open to the public, and they do not decide guilt or innocence.
Grand jury jurors generally serve for 18 months. Prosecutors seriously evaluate jurors’ recommendations, but are not required to follow them. Grand juries are different than trial juries, which usually consist of fewer citizens and decide the facts of a case in a formal trial.
Among the matters the task force will be asked to assess are the scope and nature of grand jury secrecy as well as the roles of the supervising judge and the Commonwealth’s attorney. Issues such as training for supervising judges, gag orders and swearing attorneys to secrecy are likely to be areas of study.
To ensure a variety of perspectives, the task force is comprised of attorneys experienced as defense counsel or prosecutors, judges and a law school professor.
Task force members are:
-- Judge Anthony M. Mariani (chair), Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas
-- President Judge George N. Zanic, Huntingdon County Court of Common Pleas
-- Sal Cognetti Jr., Esq., The Law Firm of Cognetti & Cimini, Scranton
-- Linda Dale Hoffa, Esq., Dilworth Paxson LLP, Philadelphia
-- Ronald Eisenberg, Esq., Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, Philadelphia
-- Thomas J. Farrell, Esq., Farrell & Reisinger, LLC, Pittsburgh
-- Professor Wesley M. Oliver, Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh
Posted by PA Capitol Digest at 11:26 AM