LaGrotta sentenced to house arrest

The judge added community service to LaGrotta’s sentence.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former Pennsylvania lawmaker was sentenced to six months of house arrest after admitting he placed his sister and niece in state jobs that reaped them thousands of dollars for little or no work.

Frank LaGrotta, 49, of Ellwood City, also was sentenced to probation and community service Monday, and he was ordered to pay a fine and restitution after pleading guilty to two felony conflict-of-interest charges.

LaGrotta served 10 terms in the House, representing portions of Lawrence, Beaver and Butler counties, before losing the 2006 Democratic primary to Jaret Gibbons, who now holds the seat.

LaGrotta will be on electronic monitoring during his period of house arrest, and Judge Richard A. Lewis of Dauphin County Common Pleas Court said he would be allowed out only for work, church, medical appointments and similar matters as worked out with his probation officer.

He has two weeks to set up the electronic monitoring and to fully pay the restitution. LaGrotta told the judge he is currently unemployed.

The judge also placed LaGrotta on 30 months’ probation, ordered him to pay a $5,000 fine and $27,000 in restitution, and to perform 500 hours of community service.

His sister Ann Bartolomeo and Bartolomeo’s daughter, Alissa Lemmon, pleaded no contest to lying to a grand jury and received probation and fines.

“At best, any work they did was exaggerated,” said Senior Deputy Attorney General Anthony J. Krastek.

In court, LaGrotta referred to record-keeping problems. He apologized to his family, former constituents and state residents “for the trauma that this has caused.”

“You are in a position to know better,” Judge Lewis told LaGrotta. “You should have known better.”

Krastek said the charges and sentence were lightened by the fact that LaGrotta is cooperating with investigators. He called it “a work in progress,” but declined to elaborate.

Bartolomeo, a 46-year-old Ellwood City elementary school teacher, told the grand jury she worked on archival files, although storage facility records indicated she never did business there. Krastek also said records were forged to show that files were delivered to Bartolomeo.

She received 12 months’ probation and a $3,000 fine.

Lemmon, 24, was accused of collecting state paychecks as a legislative assistant after leaving to take a job in January 2006 as an administrative assistant for the Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Lemmon also returned to the state payroll for about a month in September 2006, getting paid for archival work that prosecutors said she never performed. She received 18 months’ probation and was fined $3,000.