Ex-attorney general sentenced to jail, then cuffed in court
Former
state Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaves court in handcuffs after
her sentencing at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa.,
Monday, Oct. 24, 2016. Kane is sentenced to 10-to-23 months in county
prison and 8 years probation. In August, Kane was found guilty of felony
perjury and an assortment of misdemeanors related to a leak of secret
grand jury materials. (Dan Gleiter/PennLive.com via AP, Pool)
NORRISTOWN,
Pa. (AP) — Former state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, once a rising
star in state politics, left a courtroom in handcuffs on Monday after
getting a 10- to 23-month sentence for a retaliation scheme a judge
linked to her all-consuming ego.
Kane,
50, also was sentenced to eight years of probation by a Montgomery
County judge, who said Kane's need for revenge led her to break the law
and then lie to a grand jury. Kane, who was accused of leaking secret
investigative files to embarrass a rival prosecutor, was convicted of
perjury and obstruction.
Judge
Wendy Demchick-Alloy said Kane assumed an "off with your heads"
mentality as she ran the state's top law enforcement agency. The judge
called Kane a political "neophyte" who failed to make the transition
from politician to public servant when she took office in 2013.
Kane,
the first woman and first Democrat elected as the state's top
prosecutor, was released Monday after posting $75,000 cash bail. She can
remain free while her legal team appeals her conviction.
"I
really don't care what happens to me," Kane told the judge. "There is
no more torture in the world than to watch your children suffer and know
you had something to do with it."
Kane
had been a stay-at-home mother in the Scranton area and a former
assistant prosecutor in Lackawanna County before using $2 million of her
husband's trucking fortune to run for statewide office in 2012.
The
judge told her: "Your children are the ultimate ... collateral damage.
They are casualties of your actions. But you did that, not this court."
Kane
didn't testify at her trial. She was convicted in August of two felony
counts of perjury and seven misdemeanor charges, and she resigned the
next day.
Earlier
Monday, Kane's 15-year-old son, Chris Kane, pleaded for leniency while
her former deputies described an office demoralized by her leadership
and terrorized by "Nixonian espionage."
Kane
argued that the loss of her career, law license and reputation was
punishment enough. She had asked the judge to sentence her to probation
or house arrest so she could be home to raise her sons. She and her
husband are now estranged and share custody of the teenage boys.
The
one-term attorney general said her younger son, 14-year-old Zachary
Kane, did not attend Monday's sentencing because "he couldn't even bear
it."
Prosecutors
called her crimes "egregious" and pushed for jail time after the
defense sought probation or house arrest. They said a paranoid Kane
ruined morale in the 800-person office and the wider law enforcement
community, burning bridges among state, local and federal agencies.
"Through
a pattern of systemic firings and Nixonian espionage, she created a
terror zone in this office," said Erik Olsen, a career prosecutor who's
now the chief deputy attorney general.
Kane
enjoyed mostly good press early on as she supported gay marriage,
ramped up a child predator unit run by her twin sister and questioned
her predecessor's handling of the Penn State child sex assault case.
Kane's feud with one of the prosecutors, Frank Fina, who had helped run
the Penn State probe and other sensitive investigations, led to the
leak.
Kane,
taking aim at Fina, had a campaign consultant pass confidential files
to a reporter about a corruption case he had declined to charge before
he left the office, authorities said. She then tried to frame someone
else for the leak, aides testified.
Aside
from the conviction, Kane's political career will be remembered for her
investigation of pornography that she said was being traded on state
computers by judges, lawyers and other public employees. Two state
Supreme Court justices resigned amid the fallout.
District Attorney Kevin Steele, also a Democrat, said the jail term was a long time coming.
"She said, 'This was war,' and truth became a casualty," he said, quoting from a Kane email about her rivals.
___
Associated Press writer Megan Trimble contributed to this report.