LAWRENCE COUNTY Board isn't happy with sale probe

County commissioners want to meet with state police to discuss the findings.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County commissioners are looking into filing their own criminal charges against the former buyers of the county nursing home.
"I'm not satisfied that this is over and that the civil suit is enough," Commissioner Steve Craig said. "I really feel there need to be criminal charges with or without the state police, with or without the attorney general and with or without our district attorney."
County officials learned last week through the media that Pennsylvania State Police and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office completed their investigation into Hill View Manor and found no criminal intent on behalf of buyers Sylvan Heights Realty Partners.
Officials' contention
County officials contend the buyers transferred $500,000 from private pay patient accounts into their own bank account before the sale was completed. All but about $150,000 has been returned to the county.
Sylvan Heights Realty Partners had entered into an agreement last year to buy the county nursing home, on Pa. Route 65. The sale was halted in August 2003 by the Pennsylvania Department of Health at the request of state Rep. Frank LaGrotta of Ellwood City, D-10th.
The home was eventually closed because of a dwindling patient population that resulted from the failed sale and bad publicity.
Pennsylvania State Police and the attorney general were asked to investigate and informed District Attorney Matthew Mangino and LaGrotta in a meeting two weeks ago that they found no criminal intent on behalf of Sylvan Heights Realty Partners. They do intend to monitor upcoming civil lawsuits to see if any new information surfaces, according to Paul von Geis, senior deputy attorney general.
But Lawrence County commissioners say they are unhappy with the results and unhappy that they learned about it through the media.
"I'm still baffled and troubled by the lack of communication. Just by professional courtesy, we should have been told. I think they do owe us more detail," Commissioner Dan Vogler said. Vogler said he intends to request a meeting with state police to get more information.
Commissioner Ed Fosnaught said he does not agree with the decision not to prosecute.
"Hill View Manor is now closed, and what happened out there is disgraceful. The fact that nobody is going to jail is disgraceful," he said. Fosnaught added that commissioners should have been invited to a the meeting with LaGrotta and Mangino to discuss the findings.
Residents' opinions
Visitors at Tuesday's commissioners' meeting also noted their disgust.
"I have lost all faith in the state police. I don't believe they should have investigated in the first place," said Mary Ellen Jessell of New Castle.
"To me that's a lack of respect for people in this county," Mildred Gabbert of New Castle said.
LaGrotta said he was invited to the meeting with the state police and attorney general's office Aug. 25 because he has contacted the police weekly to determine how the investigation was proceeding.
"Their investigation turned up a tremendous amount of bad decisions and incompetence on the part of the former board of commissioners. However, to reach the threshold of criminal activity, it is necessary to be able to prove, in a court of law, criminal intent," he said.
LaGrotta added that because enough information was given to the state police that the transfer of money to Sylvan's account may have been known or authorized by the former commissioners, it would be difficult to meet that threshold of criminal intent.
Fosnaught, who was on the past board of commissioners, contends no formal permission was given to Sylvan to take the money.
Former Commissioner Roger DeCarbo has said that Hill View's business manager had called his office to ask if money could be transferred to a new account, but he believed it was going to a lockbox account set up in the sales agreement. Money in the lockbox account was to be used to pay the county's remaining nursing home bills after the sale.
In other business, commissioners agreed to get proposals from real estate professionals to market Hill View Manor. The 36-acre parcel is mostly wooded and contains the former nursing home building.