Angela Bertugli aka Miss Rain Day
Posted on 07/11/2008 11:03:30 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
A SORDID TANGLE of corruption, cash and sex rocked the Statehouse yesterday in a political scandal that left one current and one former legislator and 10 current and former staff members facing criminal charges.
Among the accusations leveled by two state grand juries: Former top legislative staffer Mike Manzo got his lover, a twenty-something former rural beauty queen, a $29,000 job and $7,000 bonus mostly for doing her schoolwork.
State Attorney General Tom Corbett announced the charges against the 12, all Democrats, in a news conference in Harrisburg.
"It's a very sad day in Pennsylvania," Corbett said.
The long-running investigation began with a Harrisburg Patriot-News story about secret bonuses to legislative employees. The 12 are accused of using public funds to finance political activities, a vacation, meals for friends and Manzo's no-show job for his girlfriend.
The charges could harm Democrats in legislative battles this fall, and some have accused Republican Corbett of a partisan focus in the investigation.
Corbett said yesterday he'll probe Republicans and Democrats and that he had focused first on House Democrats because investigators discovered they were beginning to destroy documents relevant to the case.
"We are investigating all four caucuses of the general assembly," Corbett said.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Power corrupts. News at 11
Good for PA—clean out that rats’ nest!
This should be breaking news! Not because of the story, but because the word “democrat” appeared in the headline!
I’m shocked that so many good Democrats could be involved in corruption.
Nancy Pelosi said that the culture of corruption was a Republican thing.
But Dems. hearts are in the right place. As the stereotype goes, Republicans are the party of big business and intolerance and all that’s bad. Democrats are the party of the people and social programs and education and all that’s good.
Just lovely!....run ‘em out of town on a rail!...
PA, not surprising, Democrats, even less surprising.
How did I miss Slick Willy moving to Pa? -Wb
And how come I never got paid for doing MY homework? (I suspect my mom and dad musta adopted me...)
Miss Rain Day....well, that is better than being Miss Carriage...or voted Most Congenital.
Thank goodness it's Mike and the former beauty queen. I don't think I could have borne up under the weight of yet another queer democrat scandal. Good ol' Mike should be forgiven of his sin if only for having the good sense and common decency to be straight.
It's a normal day in Pennsylvania.
Gee, just 12? It’s a start.
Amen to that! I’ll be watching ‘local’ news coverage to see if the word Democrat appears at all. It ought to be fun.
In Pennsylvania? Yeah right…
Posted on Fri, Jul. 11, 2008
Court documents detail alleged Pa. job-for-sex deal
By Angela Couloumbis and Mario F. Cattabiani
Inquirer Staff Writers
HARRISBURG - They met in a bar in 2004.
He was the top aide to the top Democrat in the House. She was a 21-year-old graduate student with dreams of becoming a lawyer. They had a few drinks. They went to his car for a quick tryst.
A year later, according to a Pennsylvania grand jury, Angela Bertugli had a state job, which was arranged by Michael Manzo, 39, the man with whom she allegedly was having a fling and who was then chief of staff to House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D., Greene).
“Bertugli concluded, with certainty, that Manzo hired her because she was having sex with him,” a grand jury presentment released yesterday said.
(snip)
“The percentages of school work/idleness and campaign work remained constant until she left the Pittsburgh office in July 2007,” court documents filed yesterday read. “Bertugli’s sexual encounters with Manzo when he was in Pittsburgh continued as well.”
With Manzo’s help, Bertugli got into law school in Harrisburg - and her job was transferred to the Capitol.
Manzo’s attorney, James Eisenhower, yesterday disputed that Bertugli’s employment amounted to a “ghost job.” He said he believed his client would be vindicated. “It was a real job, and she was qualified for it,” he said.
Manzo and his wife, Rachel, were married in 2006. Rachel Manzo, also an aide to House Democrats, also was charged in the indictment.
Michael Manzo was among seven top Democratic aides forced from their jobs by DeWeese in November. About the same time, the Bertugli-Manzo relationship ended.
Hey dimocraps... whoever told you life was fair... they LIED.
Now be a man (or a woman) about it and take your punishment should you be found guilty.
The Penn Statehouse? Maybe they should call it the State Penn.
“The charges could harm Democrats in legislative battles this fall, and some have accused Republican Corbett of a partisan focus in the investigation.”
Haha! Those wild and wacky PA Democrats. This whole article gave me a huge laugh. And OF COURSE there is a partisan focus on the investigation; what else could the culprits come up with for their mantra?
Watched WBRE & WYOU and BOTH mentioned (under their breath) Democrats.
Pictures?
It would be easier to put up a 20 ft. electric fence with no gate around the place while they're in session, then investigate and see if anyone was unjustly imprisoned.
From Waynesburg as in Rain Day?
scu&bag democrats.
Angela Bertugli aka Miss Rain Day
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