As witness alleges bullying, ACLU adds heat on Tom Corbett

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http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/05/commentary_as_witness_alleges.html

Attorney General Tom Corbett could not get Twitter, the social network giant, in front of a grand jury to disclose the identity of an anonymous account associated with a blog that was critical of him.

The sister-in-law of Bonusgate defendant Brett Cott wasn’t as lucky.

In what the American Civil Liberties Union calls an “abuse of the grand jury process by the Pennsylvania Attorney General,” Angela Stalnecker was subpoenaed on May 6 and told to keep the appearance a secret.

On May 10, Stalnecker appeared before a grand jury, where she was grilled by prosecutors she said were looking to “make an example of Brett.”

“They wanted pillow talk, saying, ‘You’re his sister-in-law. You mean to say he never admitted anything?’ They asked very personal questions and it was obvious they were very angry they only got convictions on three charges,” Stalnecker said.

Stalnecker works for state House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, the Luzerne County Democrat.

Prosecutors contend that Cott is associated with the Twitter account and the blog called CasaBlanca Pa. The blog contains numerous posts detailing what it alleges are apparent conflict-of-interest incidents on the part of Corbett and examples of alleged selective prosecution in the Bonusgate probe.

Stalnecker accused prosecutors of “bullying me and trying to intimidate me to tell them how Brett feels. You could tell their absolute hatred for Brett. They spent an awful lot of energy and taxpayer resources trying to get information on someone that was already convicted.”

The forced testimony by Stalnecker on top of the Twitter subpoena has brought new criticism against Corbett.

The ACLU said it had not been following the Bonusgate proceedings, but was brought in last week to handle free-speech violation complaints associated with the Twitter subpoena.

I agree with one commenter on this article, that if Corbett becomes gov he will violate every constitutional right except guns, and because he leaves guns alone, many Pennsylvanians just won't care.

But hopefully we can stop the "Corbett becomes gov" part of that.