Disbarred for Computergate

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has disbarred the former Chief of Staff to State Representative John Perzel, who served as Majority Leader and later Speaker of the state House of Representatives.

Justice Wecht in his opinion noted that

During his tenure as a public servant, [the attorney] conspired to misappropriate millions of dollars in public resources for his own personal and political gain…For six years, in his capacity as a state official and in collusion with Perzel and others, [he] used public funds to develop sophisticated data collection and processing software for partisan political campaigns. That conspiracy, which the media dubbed “computergate,” had three discrete components.

The conspiracy began in November 2000 after the narrow re-election win of Perzel.

The court (in an unusual full opinion) found the offenses “no less reprehensible”  than theft of client funds. (Mike Frisch)