· Pennsylvania's former Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane was sentenced to 10 to 23 months in jail for perjury and obstruction of justice that was a …
Kane is currently on probation after being convicted of perjury and other charges in 2016, after she stopped an investigation into Democratic lawmakers who were taking kickbacks from a undercover investigator posing as a lobbyist.
Kane and her husband Chris Kane, an executive and co-owner of his family's transportation and warehouse company, lived in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. The couple has two boys together. On December 26, 2014, she filed for divorce in Lackawant to County, Pennsylvania's Family Court.
On August 6, Kane was charged by Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman with one count of perjury, one count of false swearing, three counts of obstructing administration of law, and four counts of official oppression in connection with the grand jury leaks.
The sister is not identified in the report, but Kane has an identical twin sister who also worked at the state Attorney General's office. The driver of the car Kane hit told police that she had been spraying perfume on herself before officers arrived.
Democratic PartyKathleen Kane / PartyThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It was founded in 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party. Since the 1860s, its main political rival has been the Republican Party. Wikipedia
Josh Shapiro (Democratic Party)Pennsylvania / Attorney generalJoshua David Shapiro is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Pennsylvania Attorney General since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and as chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. Wikipedia
Kane was sentenced to 10 to 23 months in prison, but ended up serving less than the minimum — just over eight months — qualifying for an early release based on credit for good behavior. Under the terms of her sentencing, Kane's probation is for a five-year period following her July 2019 release from prison.
Democratic PartyKathleen Kane / Party
When she began her 2012 run for attorney general, she was considered a long shot, virtually unknown in political circles, but her husband put more than $2 million into her campaign. Ms. Kane emphasized her status as the outsider and the only woman in the race.
Her actions led to a feud with Frank G. Fina, a former top state prosecutor who had overseen the sting operation and the Sandusky case. Seeking to undercut Mr. Fina, Ms. Kane leaked to The Philadelphia Daily News information about a grand jury investigation he had been involved in — a leak that would lead to the criminal investigation of her actions.
Democrat Kathleen Kane, 52, had been free on $75,000 bail while she appealed her 10-to-23-month sentence. The state Supreme Court announced Monday that it had declined to take up her case.
Kane was convicted of two counts of felony perjury and seven misdemeanors, including obstruction and conspiracy.
A judge sentenced former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Monday to 10 to 23 months in prison for committing multiple felonies stemming from a politically motivated act of retribution.
In August 2015, then-Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, a Republican, filed charges against Kane. Ferman accused the then-attorney general of secretly leaking documents “in the hopes of embarrassing and harming former state prosecutors whom she believed, without evidence, had made her look bad.”
Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who chairs the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, is running against state Sen. John Rafferty, a Republican from Montgomery.
Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., speaks during a My Brother's Keeper town hall at the School of the Future in Philadelphia. Fattah, an 11-term Democrat from Philadelphia, was indicted Wednesday, July 29, 2015, on charges that he misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal, charitable and campaign funds. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A jury found Kane guilty of felony counts of perjury and obstruction. She resigned that same week.
After the article, Kane leaked sealed, confidential grand jury documents conducted under Fina that looked into whether J. Wyatt Mondesire, the former leader of the NAACP’s Philadelphia chapter, misused grant money, the complaint said. Fina’s investigation never led to criminal charges against Mondesire, the complaint said.
That’s where the trouble started. The article outlined an investigation launched by Kane’s predecessor, former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank G. Fina, into politicians caught in a sting accepting local bribes. In emails cited in the complaint, an irate Kane vowed to wage “war” with Fina, a criminal complaint later said.
Judge Demchick-Alloy limited discussion of those emails at the request of prosecutors — a point to which Ms. Kane’s lead attorney, Mr. Shargel, seemed to allude after he left the courtroom.
Kane, who faced nine charges, including two felony perjury counts, criminal conspiracy and obstruction, was accused of leaking secret grand jury documents to the news media in an effort to discredit the prosecutor Frank Fina, and then lying to cover it up.
Whyatt Mondesire, a former leader of the N.A.A.C.P., because she wanted residents to know that Mr. Fina had chosen not to prosecute. She then lied about it when a grand jury investigated, Mr. Steele said.
Ms. Kane stared straight ahead as the word “guilty,” uttered decisively by a juror in a flowered dress, echoed nine times around the courtroom. The lawyers immediately went into a private conference with the judge, leaving Ms. Kane, who campaigned on a promise to uncover political interference in Pennsylvania, alone at the defense table.
A jury found Ms. Kane, 50, guilty of nine criminal charges, including perjury and criminal conspiracy, convicting her of leaking grand jury information, and then lying about it, in an effort to discredit a political rival.
Kathleen G. Kane, the attorney general of Pennsylvania, was accused of leaking secret documents to discredit a political rival.
Gerald Shargel, a lawyer for Ms. Kane, said a decision about her job would be made in the coming days.