Post by bob quarteroni on Feb 25, 2012 11:00:36 GMT -5
Charge This Lawyer With – Something
It was an “oversight,” an “error,” a boo boo.
No, billing county taxpayers for working a 46-hour day is akin to medicare fraud.
In a stunning investigation, Times Leader Staff Writer Terrie Morgan-Besecker reported today that local lawyer Angela Stevens overbilled the county thousands of dollars through some very creative billing practices.
She got away with it because county Judge Tina Polachek Gartley rubber stamped her bills instead of reviewing them. Gartley is “distressed.” Well, that’s too bad, because we’re disgusted.
Gartley’s lame excuse for not reviewing the bills was that she takes attorneys at their word and that it was not feasible to review them, considering all the motions and court orders that land on her desk. Is she for real? It’s a good thing Stevens didn’t slip through a bill for working a 76-hour day.
At $55 an hour, Stevens was paid $144,554 last year for representing parents after Children and Youth Services took away their children. Besecker noted that she would have had to work 50 hours a week for 52 weeks. But not if she was crafty with her bookkeeping, which she was.
For starters, Stevens made one trip to the courthouse on Aug. 17, 2011 to deliver 19 petitions for payment, but she charged the county for 19 separate trips, Besecker discovered. Stevens must have walked because she said it took her 36 minutes to get there from her Pierce Street office, which is a short distance away. Or maybe she stopped for lunch at the Pierce Street Deli on the taxpayers’ time.
Polachek approved paying Stevens $627 for that one trip to the courthouse, taking her at her word, as was her practice, that she delivered those petitions in (19) 36-minute trips, or as Besecker pointed out, was actually payment for a single 11.4 hour trip from Pierce Street to the courthouse to deliver 19 petitions. She could have driven to Myrtle Beach in that amount of time to hand deliver her bills.
But don’t worry, taxpayers, Attorney Stevens said her office “will work with the county to rectify the error.”
In another incident of thumbing her nose at county taxpayers, Stevens turned in a bill for working 46 hours on October 31 to PREPARE 46 bills for payment. An hour each at $55 per hour comes to $2,530. TRICK OR TREAT, taxpayers!
Oh, that! Stevens said of course she didn’t work 46 hours on Halloween. She said her work pertaining to those bills actually covered several days over the month. She said she decided to submit a single charge “for bookkeeping purposes.”
Now, that’s a good one – even for a shady lawyer.
Others involved in paying Stevens were the county’s Chief Public Defender Al Flora Jr. and county Controller Walter Griffith. Flora said his budget was simply the conduit from which such bills were paid. Flora said he did sign payment authorization forms before sending them to Griffith to issue checks.
As for Griffith, he said, “If there is an affidavit from two people, one who is a judge and one who is an attorney who did the work, who am I to question it.” Oh, I don’t know. The county controller?
Stevens apparently outsmarted a judge, a chief public defender and a controller. But, hey, oversights happen.
Her law partner at Pyrah/Stevens, James Pyra said he believes the billing errors were an oversight. Of course, he does. “Based on everything I’ve seen , it appears as if certain routine entries like travel time and fees to report petitions got carried over across files,” he told Besecker. “We are going to undertake a comprehensive review of all these records. We want to get this right.”
Pyrah and Stevens were formerly associated with the law firm of Harry Cardoni, who was at the center of the corruption probe of convicted county judge, Michael Toole. In exchange for helping him win an insurance case, Cardoni allowed Toole to use his beach house.
County President Judge Thomas Burke defended Polachek Gartley, saying she had a lot on her plate last year. This from a president judge who threatened to sue the county if his budget was cut. Also this week, Judge Burke defended another judge, Willliam Amesbury, after his star turn at a Save Meyers High School rally, letting everyone know where he stood on a possible school closing that could end up before the Court of Common Pleas.
Surely Polachek Gartley is embarrassed, and she should be. But she said she takes lawyers at their words because they subject themselves to perjury charges if they submit false information on petitions for fees.
So what are you going to do here, judge?
It was an “oversight,” an “error,” a boo boo.
No, billing county taxpayers for working a 46-hour day is akin to medicare fraud.
In a stunning investigation, Times Leader Staff Writer Terrie Morgan-Besecker reported today that local lawyer Angela Stevens overbilled the county thousands of dollars through some very creative billing practices.
She got away with it because county Judge Tina Polachek Gartley rubber stamped her bills instead of reviewing them. Gartley is “distressed.” Well, that’s too bad, because we’re disgusted.
Gartley’s lame excuse for not reviewing the bills was that she takes attorneys at their word and that it was not feasible to review them, considering all the motions and court orders that land on her desk. Is she for real? It’s a good thing Stevens didn’t slip through a bill for working a 76-hour day.
At $55 an hour, Stevens was paid $144,554 last year for representing parents after Children and Youth Services took away their children. Besecker noted that she would have had to work 50 hours a week for 52 weeks. But not if she was crafty with her bookkeeping, which she was.
For starters, Stevens made one trip to the courthouse on Aug. 17, 2011 to deliver 19 petitions for payment, but she charged the county for 19 separate trips, Besecker discovered. Stevens must have walked because she said it took her 36 minutes to get there from her Pierce Street office, which is a short distance away. Or maybe she stopped for lunch at the Pierce Street Deli on the taxpayers’ time.
Polachek approved paying Stevens $627 for that one trip to the courthouse, taking her at her word, as was her practice, that she delivered those petitions in (19) 36-minute trips, or as Besecker pointed out, was actually payment for a single 11.4 hour trip from Pierce Street to the courthouse to deliver 19 petitions. She could have driven to Myrtle Beach in that amount of time to hand deliver her bills.
But don’t worry, taxpayers, Attorney Stevens said her office “will work with the county to rectify the error.”
In another incident of thumbing her nose at county taxpayers, Stevens turned in a bill for working 46 hours on October 31 to PREPARE 46 bills for payment. An hour each at $55 per hour comes to $2,530. TRICK OR TREAT, taxpayers!
Oh, that! Stevens said of course she didn’t work 46 hours on Halloween. She said her work pertaining to those bills actually covered several days over the month. She said she decided to submit a single charge “for bookkeeping purposes.”
Now, that’s a good one – even for a shady lawyer.
Others involved in paying Stevens were the county’s Chief Public Defender Al Flora Jr. and county Controller Walter Griffith. Flora said his budget was simply the conduit from which such bills were paid. Flora said he did sign payment authorization forms before sending them to Griffith to issue checks.
As for Griffith, he said, “If there is an affidavit from two people, one who is a judge and one who is an attorney who did the work, who am I to question it.” Oh, I don’t know. The county controller?
Stevens apparently outsmarted a judge, a chief public defender and a controller. But, hey, oversights happen.
Her law partner at Pyrah/Stevens, James Pyra said he believes the billing errors were an oversight. Of course, he does. “Based on everything I’ve seen , it appears as if certain routine entries like travel time and fees to report petitions got carried over across files,” he told Besecker. “We are going to undertake a comprehensive review of all these records. We want to get this right.”
Pyrah and Stevens were formerly associated with the law firm of Harry Cardoni, who was at the center of the corruption probe of convicted county judge, Michael Toole. In exchange for helping him win an insurance case, Cardoni allowed Toole to use his beach house.
County President Judge Thomas Burke defended Polachek Gartley, saying she had a lot on her plate last year. This from a president judge who threatened to sue the county if his budget was cut. Also this week, Judge Burke defended another judge, Willliam Amesbury, after his star turn at a Save Meyers High School rally, letting everyone know where he stood on a possible school closing that could end up before the Court of Common Pleas.
Surely Polachek Gartley is embarrassed, and she should be. But she said she takes lawyers at their words because they subject themselves to perjury charges if they submit false information on petitions for fees.
So what are you going to do here, judge?