NEW CASTLE Found guilty on 2 charges

The defense attorney told jurors his client was a scapegoat.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A former New Castle Parking Authority employee was convicted on charges of receiving stolen property and conspiracy to commit theft but acquitted on a theft charge.
John Paul Cubbal Jr., 51, of East Friendship Street, will be sentenced in late November.
The verdict came after a weeklong jury trial in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court in front of President Judge Ralph Pratt.
Cubbal was arrested in April 2001 along with former parking authority director Donald Pallerino and his son, John, both now of Florida, after a one-year investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police.
Donald Pallerino pleaded guilty to one count of theft last year. He was sentenced to two years' probation and paid $20,000 in restitution to the city in exchange for prosecutors' dropping charges against his son. He was also required in his plea agreement to testify against Cubbal, his cousin.
His defense
Cubbal, who worked as a ticket enforcement officer, has maintained he was not involved in the theft and was unaware of it when it was ongoing.
Joseph Kearney, his court-appointed attorney, portrayed Cubbal as a "scapegoat" in his closing argument and said police pursued charges against him because he wasn't talkative during interviews.
"He said 'yes' and 'no.' He's not a person who would sit down to tea and talk. He's a hunter. He's a fisherman. He's a man. He told the truth," Kearney said to the jury.
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Bashara II told jurors it was a simple case and reminded them that there was testimony from another parking authority employee, Louis Baumgartner, who said he saw Cubbal put a parking authority money bag in his trunk and drive it to a bar owned by the Pallerinos.
cioffi@vindy.com