Delaware County, Deborah Truscello, and the War Board
Editorial: Justice sits on hands, not bench, in Delco
10/07/2004
Anthony Truscello may be out of the manager’s office in Folcroft Borough Hall, but the ethical morass he created survives as his legacy. It now threatens to engulf his daughter, District Justice Deborah Truscello. And it has created a crisis of confidence in the Delaware County judicial system that reaches all the way to the top at the Media Courthouse.
Truscello was, of course, the longtime district justice in Folcroft himself before retiring and seeing his daughter succeed him. Mr. Truscello continued to hear cases, however, as a senior district justice, even while taking on new responsibilities as Folcroft borough’s manager - in apparent conflict with the state Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibits judges from holding other government jobs. This went on even after Truscello’s erstwhile supervisor, county District Justice Administrator Ward Williams, said it should stop.
It was not until Folcroft’s police officers discovered that Truscello had secretly installed electronic surveillance equipment in their department - and hired a private eye to trail them on the job - that anyone in authority took notice. That’s when Delco District Attorney G. Michael Green launched an investigation into the strange goings-on in borough hall, though it was so half-hearted it took his detectives four months before they looked for the records of who paid for the bugging and how it was done.
After the cops and their allies stormed a borough council meeting last month, Anthony Truscello said he’d had it and would quit as borough manager.
That’s when things got sticky for his daughter. The sitting district justice helped her dad draft his bitter letter of resignation, which ripped Folcroft police, and coached him in interviews as he tried to explain how he apparently circumvented public bidding rules to pay for the bugging operation.
Was Deborah Truscello acting as a loyal daughter, a private criminal defense attorney, or the district justice? What did she think she was doing? Couldn’t she have predicted what would happen next?
Folcroft police -- their faith in the D.A.’s office already wavering in light of his sputtering investigation - are now calling for Deborah Truscello to recuse herself from hearing any cases involving their department, citing what they see as her evident bias against them.
She refuses to consider the idea. The cops asked her supervisor to intercede. But court administrator Williams - dubbed "Stonewall" Williams because of his refusal to discuss his public responsibilities with the public - won’t say if any action is being contemplated.
His boss, county President Judge Kenneth Clouse, has given no indication that the cancer in Folcroft is even on his radar screen. That might be understandable, however: Clouse himself is being investigated by the state Attorney General’s office for allegations of tax evasion and ghost voting from his Haverford home.
So the president judge, operating under an ethical cloud, has done nothing. The district justice administrator, operating in the center of an ethical meltdown, will say nothing. The district attorney, peering in at the fringes of this ethical nightmare, is doing nothing fast. The district justice, whose actions are an ethical conundrum, will budge on nothing. And the police, charged with protecting the lives and property of the people of Folcroft, feel like the county courts has nothing to offer as they are systematically undermined.
Justice isn’t just blind in Delaware County. It’s deaf and mute as well.
Does anyone know? More importantly, does anyone care?
©The Daily Times 2004
10/07/2004
Anthony Truscello may be out of the manager’s office in Folcroft Borough Hall, but the ethical morass he created survives as his legacy. It now threatens to engulf his daughter, District Justice Deborah Truscello. And it has created a crisis of confidence in the Delaware County judicial system that reaches all the way to the top at the Media Courthouse.
Truscello was, of course, the longtime district justice in Folcroft himself before retiring and seeing his daughter succeed him. Mr. Truscello continued to hear cases, however, as a senior district justice, even while taking on new responsibilities as Folcroft borough’s manager - in apparent conflict with the state Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibits judges from holding other government jobs. This went on even after Truscello’s erstwhile supervisor, county District Justice Administrator Ward Williams, said it should stop.
It was not until Folcroft’s police officers discovered that Truscello had secretly installed electronic surveillance equipment in their department - and hired a private eye to trail them on the job - that anyone in authority took notice. That’s when Delco District Attorney G. Michael Green launched an investigation into the strange goings-on in borough hall, though it was so half-hearted it took his detectives four months before they looked for the records of who paid for the bugging and how it was done.
After the cops and their allies stormed a borough council meeting last month, Anthony Truscello said he’d had it and would quit as borough manager.
That’s when things got sticky for his daughter. The sitting district justice helped her dad draft his bitter letter of resignation, which ripped Folcroft police, and coached him in interviews as he tried to explain how he apparently circumvented public bidding rules to pay for the bugging operation.
Was Deborah Truscello acting as a loyal daughter, a private criminal defense attorney, or the district justice? What did she think she was doing? Couldn’t she have predicted what would happen next?
Folcroft police -- their faith in the D.A.’s office already wavering in light of his sputtering investigation - are now calling for Deborah Truscello to recuse herself from hearing any cases involving their department, citing what they see as her evident bias against them.
She refuses to consider the idea. The cops asked her supervisor to intercede. But court administrator Williams - dubbed "Stonewall" Williams because of his refusal to discuss his public responsibilities with the public - won’t say if any action is being contemplated.
His boss, county President Judge Kenneth Clouse, has given no indication that the cancer in Folcroft is even on his radar screen. That might be understandable, however: Clouse himself is being investigated by the state Attorney General’s office for allegations of tax evasion and ghost voting from his Haverford home.
So the president judge, operating under an ethical cloud, has done nothing. The district justice administrator, operating in the center of an ethical meltdown, will say nothing. The district attorney, peering in at the fringes of this ethical nightmare, is doing nothing fast. The district justice, whose actions are an ethical conundrum, will budge on nothing. And the police, charged with protecting the lives and property of the people of Folcroft, feel like the county courts has nothing to offer as they are systematically undermined.
Justice isn’t just blind in Delaware County. It’s deaf and mute as well.
Does anyone know? More importantly, does anyone care?
©The Daily Times 2004
posted by Franny Ward at 10/07/2004 05:26:00 AM
6Comments:
Truscello is going to jail, no amount of money will save him. Here's a little known fact about him. He has been involved in the poker machine business here in every bar in folcroft and elsewhere in delco for years, making money while breaking our gambling laws!
Shame on the DA not to look into this further!
Debbie Truscello is a great woman. do not involve her in this fiasco.
i live in Delmar Village on Delview Dr,,i suspect that the house across the street from me has a drug business going on..i see all different cars and people coming and going all times of the day and night..can something be done???...also..i am moving out of the area because of it..i fear for my life and the lives of others in my family...thanks..
Iknew the Truscello`s back in the 70`s, even dated Debbie. THese charges are no suprise to anyone that knows that family.It`s time that crook goes to jail. His daughter is as guilty as he is. It seems nothing has changed in Delco, still the same crooks running the county.
Here is another odd thing about Truscello...the house on Taylor Drive that he lived (with the driveway to the back next to it)..there is a creek in the back and they used to call his land (between the driveway in his back and the creek) chemical hill...if you dig back there, you find all kinds of age old glass chemical bottles...not sure what that is all about. Used to dig them up as a kid...
PLEASE I WONDER Y THE COPS WERE GETTING WATCH THEY R JUST AS DIRTY AS THE TURSCELLO'S R! I HAVE PARTIED W A FEW AND WATCH THEM BUY AND DO DRUGS! AT THAT WHEN THE DO ARREST PEOPLE A FEW HAVE MADE IT KNOWN THAT THEY DO NOT GIVE IN ALL THE STUFF THEY GOT FROM THE SCUM ON THE STREET THEY SHOULD BE IN JAIL W THE REST OF THEM!
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