Porn firings hit AG office
HARRISBURG — Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Wednesday four of her employees have been fired and 11 suspended without pay for involvement in a pornographic e-mail scandal that also prompted a state Supreme Court justice to step down.
Kane said two other union employees face possible termination after “the exhaustion of their contractually mandated rights.” Two others quit before being disciplined, and several others described as having limited involvement received written reprimands or counseling.
“This behavior violated computer and e-mail policies and on an even more troubling level showed a fundamental disregard and disrespect for people who work in the (agency) and for Pennsylvanians,” Kane wrote.
A Kane spokesman identified the four employees who were terminated and said none of them was a senior manager. She said some of the e-mail exchanges took place earlier this year. The e-mails that Kane has released included pornographic or explicit photos, videos and jokes.
Kane’s office plans training, starting in December, for all employees and will set up a way for staff to report such behavior without facing retaliation.
“I was disappointed to learn that some individuals chose to continue sharing pornography on taxpayer time,” Kane said.
Kane previously had said the e-mails surfaced during an examination of how state prosecutors handled the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case, a review she promised while running for the office in 2012.
She also had disclosed the participation of several former employees of the office, leading at least four to leave government jobs elsewhere, including the state’s environmental protection secretary, a lawyer in that agency, a member of the state parole board and a county prosecutor.
Last month, Justice Seamus McCaffery retired after his fellow justices suspended him amid the disclosure he had he sent or received 234 of the e-mails. McCaffery sent most of the e-mails to a now-retired agent in the attorney general’s office, who then forwarded the e-mails to others in the office, Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille has said.
