Site last updated: Sunday, April 19, 2026

Log In

Reset Password
MENU
Butler County's great daily newspaper

AG's act of housecleaning is welcome but incomplete

The shameful tenure of former Attorney General Kathleen Kane may be blessedly over, but her replacement, Bruce Beemer, is far from finished with the work of cleaning up the mess she left behind.

On Thursday Beemer took a good swing with the broom when he fired two of Kane’s former aides, Jonathan Durcker, Kane’s former chief of staff, and Patrick Reese, Kane’s former security chief and driver. Both were symbols of Kane’s disgraceful legacy of cronyism and mismanagement.

Duecker was the subject of sexual harassment allegations from two female employees before being promoted by Kane. The matter ultimately cost the AG’s office $150,000 in a settlement after a human resources officer who recommended Duecker be fired claimed that he was himself fired for making the recommendation.

Reese, charged along with Kane for trying to susse out details of the criminal investigation into the former AG, was convicted of contempt and sentenced to three to six months in prison. No problem. Kane let him keep his job, which pays about $100,000, despite department policy stating he should be suspended.

Those actions by Beemer represented targets almost too big to miss. But there’s another he has yet to take aim at.

Beemer needs to make clear that the office will release a full and complete report naming state employees who sent pornographic or inappropriate e-mails in a scandal — Porngate — that has already taken down two state Supreme Court justices.

Currently the document is the subject of wrangling by union officials representing some of the hundreds of state employees deemed to have used government computers to send such e-mails between 2008 and 2015.

The union wants names of narcotics agents from the AG’s office removed from the report, claiming many have already be disciplined and work undercover, so listing their names could pose a risk.

Hopefully AG Beemer sees that argument for what it is — a shameless attempt to shield these employees from public scrutiny. The truth is that no one should escape accountability in this case, least of all employees of an office that has lately exhibited such disregard for the public good.

The only way to put Porngate — and Kane’s self-involved tenure — behind us is for everyone to own up to their actions, pay the price for their behavior, and move forward from there.

More in Our Opinion

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS