State prosecutor from here part of new “Public Corruption Unit.” Attorney general concerned about introduction of slot machines.
Corbett
Reeder
By Tom Murse
Published Mar 01, 2006 13:03
“The two women got together to create a court order, got a judge to sign it, and sent the paperwork down to the Pennsylvania State Police Records Division,” Reeder recalled.
It is the type of case — involving the misdeeds of government workers or elected officials — that the Lancaster Township attorney will be handling from now on.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett on Tuesday appointed Reeder and six other prosecutors to a newly created “Public Corruption Unit,” a move that also served as a warning to the gambling industry.
At a news conference in Harrisburg, Corbett said he is “putting a spotlight on investigating and prosecuting public corruption cases at a crucial time in our state’s history — when slot machines and casino gaming is about to become reality.”
The seasoned prosecutors will probe serious allegations of public corruption among county and municipal officials, including police, referred to them by district attorneys. They will also handle alleged election-law violations and complaints referred to them by the State Ethics Commission.
Reeder, 55, has been a prosecutor in the attorney general’s office since August. He previously worked as an assistant district attorney in York County.
How Reeder ended up as an attorney, though, is a story in and of itself. His work as a prosecutor began after not one, but two, dramatic career changes.
“I graduated from Penn State with a degree in geography and urban planning and there weren’t many jobs in that area,” Reeder recalled.
He initially went into banking, but sought a new challenge.
“I decided that the classical guitar was the most difficult thing anyone could do,” he said. “I took a couple years off to do that, and thought if I could do that I can do anything.”
Reeder studied a decade under internationally renowned guitar virtuoso Julian Gray. He then taught classical guitar privately before deciding on his second major career change.
“I looked at the front page of the newspaper, and said, ‘There’s a lawyer involved in that story, and that one and that one,’” Reeder recalled. “There appeared to be a lot of work for lawyers.”
He graduated in 1995 from Widener University’s School of Law in Harrisburg.
Reeder and Jonelle Harter Eshbach, both deputy attorney generals, will be based in the Public Corruption Unit’s Harrisburg office and will handle cases in central and northern parts of the state. A chief deputy, Frank Fina, will also work from that office.
Four other prosecutors will work out of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Corbett called for the creation of a special public-corruption unit in his 2004 campaign and said it would enable his agency to prosecute such cases more efficiently.
He said Tuesday the unit would not cost any additional money because it is using current agency lawyers, many of whom already handle public-corruption cases.
“With the attorneys that we have ... we have the ability at this point in time to cover the cases that we have,” Corbett said.
Corbett said he established a similar unit during a previous stint as attorney general. He was appointed to the office in 1995 by then-Gov. Tom Ridge to serve the last 15 months of the term of Ernest Preate Jr. after Preate was sent to prison for mail fraud.
The gambling expansion law was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ed Rendell in July 2004. It allows 61,000 slot machines at 14 venues, including five freestanding slots parlors. No licenses have yet been awarded.
A license application for a slots parlor in downtown Lancaster was rejected by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Feb. 2.
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