Legal News

Muni Court Judge Agrees to Settle Ethics Dispute Over Defunct PAC

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

The Philadelphia Board of Ethics, a Philadelphia judge and the treasurer of political action committee started by the late political power broker Carol Campbell have settled a case that could have turned into a test of daily penalties assessed under the city's Ethics Code.

Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Thomas Nocella, whose interim appointment expires at the end of the year, along with a second person have agreed to pay $16,440 of a $39,000 judgment entered against a political action committee they both worked for in order to settle a Sept. 9 court order finding Nocella and Ernesto DeNofa were in contempt of two prior court orders by Common Pleas Judge Gary F. DiVito, the Philadelphia Board of Ethics announced Wednesday.

Nocella, pro bono counsel to the Appreciation Fund political action committee, and Ernesto DeNofa, treasurer of the Appreciation Fund political action committee, agreed to make the payments to extinguish DiVito's order, which concerned a campaign finance filing report violation.

The PAC failed to file an electronic version of its annual report of its receipts and expenditures with the board on Jan. 31, 2007, according to the settlement release.

The PAC had $16,440 in its bank account before Nocella and DeNofa began making payments from the fund, despite a June 1, 2007, court order directing the fund to pay a $39,000 fine for not filing its annual campaign finance report, according to court papers. The payments included a $10,000 donation to the "Friends of Carol Ann Campbell" PAC, a $13,550 payment to a catering company owed a bill by the "Bob Brady for Mayor" PAC and a $2,500 payment to Nocella.
Samuel C. Stretton, Nocella's attorney, and Daniel A. Rendine, the attorney for the PAC and DeNofa, said the statute could have provided a test of the court finding that a $1,500 fine could be levied for every day that a campaign finance violation of Philadelphia's ethics statute persists.

Stretton said the state law on penalties for late campaign finance filings might pre-empt Philadelphia's ethics statute.

Rendine argues that the Board of Ethics had no legal authority to ask for a per diem fine. Rendine argued in a motion for reconsideration of DiVito's Sept. 9 order that "the framers of the ethics rules chose not to impose per diem fines. The only reasonable and sensible conclusion is that there is no authority anywhere to permit a court to impose a daily late fee."

However, Stretton said the objection to daily penalties might have been waived because Nocella and DeNofa had not appeared at some hearings.

Stretton framed the case as a clash between the regulatory power of the Board of Ethics and "those old days when political chairman told people to pay money, they did it." 

It was in Nocella's interest to settle the case because he hopes to be reappointed as an interim judge and run for a full term as judge in the future, Stretton said. Nocella was appointed to serve an interim term on the court late last year but did not secure nomination in the primary this spring.

The Board of Ethics noted in a press release that $22,560 of the $39,000 judgment against the PAC is still owed.

Both Rendine and Stretton said the PAC is being disbanded and the rest of the judgment probably won't be paid.

A call to J. Shane Creamer Jr., executive director of the Board of Ethics was not returned Thursday.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on November 23, 2009 (boomark / email).