How Long Has It Been??

Hey, you remember former County Councilman Chuck McCullough, right?

You remember that 52-page document that a Grand Jury presented?  Here's how the P-G described it:

A county grand jury today handed up a 52-page presentment that alleges Mr. McCullough, an attorney, and his sister, Kathleen A. McCullough, bilked money from the $14.5 million trust fund of an Upper St. Clair widow, Shirley H. Jordan, 90.

The investigation began after an article appeared in the Post-Gazette in April 2007 in which Mrs. Jordan denied that she donated $10,000 to each of four political candidates the year before, according to an affidavit that accompanied the arrests of Mr. McCullough and his sister.

And so on.  Did you see the date on that?

Chuck McCullough was arrested a little more than 5 years ago.

Has there been a trial yet?

Um, no.  In fact an astute reader emailed a legal document to me a few days ago.  Here's the first paragraph:

Appellant, Charles P. McCullough, appeals from the denial of his pre-trial motions to dismiss criminal charges, pursuant to this Court’s grant of McCullough’s pro se petition for review on May 23, 2012. After careful review, we affirm the trial court’s pre-trial rulings.

If I am reading the rest of it correctly (and as I am not an attorney, that's always a possibility), it says that McCullough's appeal to have the charges dropped were denied.  A point reinforced by my astute reader, who wrote:

Basically the Superior Court dismissed his appeal of the lower court's refusal to dismiss the charges. I assume he will now appeal to Pa. Supreme Court. If he loses there, I would think there is no reason the trial can't finally start, subject, of course, to whatever legal maneuvers he has up his sleeve. To me, the most interesting thing is that he is representing himself.

So how long has it been?

Let's put this in some context.

• Jerry Sandusky was arrested in November 2011 and he was found guilty the following July.
• Richard Poplawski killed three police officers in April 2009 and he was found guilty in June 2011
• Jane Orie was indicted in April 2010 and was convicted March 2012

I am NOT saying that McCullough is guilty.  He has every assumption of innocence until proven guilty that everyone else has.  Nor am I saying that he's been charged with anything as heinous as killing a police officer or raping young boys.

What I AM asking is this: How is it that such high profile cases as Sandusky, Poplawski and Orie can go to trial and our friend Chuck is still filing appeals?

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due. Again.

Don't normally agree with the Trib's Eric Heyl, but he's 100%, absolutely, totally and without any sort of snarky bloggery sarcasm, completely correct with this column.

Here, I'll let Eric frame the argument:

There's due process, then there's overdue process.

Chuck McCullough's criminal case long ago turned into a protracted process whose resolution is ridiculously overdue.

And:

McCullough, 58, an Upper St. Clair attorney, is accused of bilking an elderly client, the late Shirley Jordan, out of more than $200,000. He was arrested in February 2009. That was 56 months ago.[Emphasis added.]

If I may point out something, if you google "Chuck McCullough arrested" you will get, on top of google's search list, this blog post - the date was February 9, 2009.

That was only 20 days after the President Obama's first inauguration.  Think of that for a second.  The Kenyan Socialist President's time in the White House exceeds McCullough's post-arrest-pre-trial time by a skosh under three weeks.  Think of all that's happened in that administration in those 56 weeks.

• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (February 17, 2009)
• Cash for Clunkers (August 6, 2009)
• The Nobel Peace Prize (October 9, 2009)
• The Affordable Health Care Act (March 23, 2010)
• Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act (December 22, 2010)

And so on.

What movies were were released after Chuck McCullough was arrested?

• Avatar (Premiered December, 2009)
• Both Star Trek films (April, 2009 and April, 2013)

So you remember seeing Avatar in the theatre?  However long ago you think that was, Chuck McCullough was arrested before that happened.

And so on.

Eric ends with:

If he hasn't succumbed to old age by the time the trial begins, McCullough might be sorely inconvenienced attempting to attend the proceedings. It wouldn't be the relatively quick commute from his home in Alpha Centauri that would prove irksome.

I'm glad Eric brought this up.  Did you know that Alpha Cenari is 4.37 light years away?  That's about 53 months.

So if they had sensitive enough equipment and if that sensitive enough equipment is pointed our way and if they could understand Pittsburghese, the residents on whatever planets that may be circling around Alpha Centauri are just hearing the news about Chuck McCullough's arrest.

Think about that.