Jul 22, 2008 7:42 pm US/Eastern
Legislative Whistleblower Speaks Out
(KDKA)
Terry Shaffer, formerly of Ellwood City, is an unlikely legislative whistle-blower.
For 15 years, he worked for State Rep. Frank LaGrotta as his district office manager.
A high school buddy of the former State Representative Frank LaGrotta and his top district office staff person, it was Shaffer who went to Assistant Attorney General Tony Krastek in March of 2007.
That call ultimately led to the charges filed by Attorney General Tom Corbett against 12 former and present legislators and staff members.
"I had agonized over this because I did not want to implicate Frank in any way, but it finally dawned on me that I could not explain to them what I thought I knew without telling them what I knew for certain about what was going on in our office," Shaffer told Political Editor Jon Delano in an exclusive television interview.
What Shaffer knew was that LaGrotta, with funds approved by House leaders in Harrisburg, had hired two ghost employees -- his sister and niece.
Shaffer says he discovered it through an e-mail system that listed all district employees.
"That's when we became -- myself and others in the office -- became aware that we had people on our staff that we did not believe were working with us," said Shaffer.
Months before going to the Attorney General, Shaffer says he warned LaGrotta, "I even went to Frank at one point, being a good soldier, and told him that there are ways people can find out this information, and you should be aware of that with the hope that he would follow up and do something about it himself, if he realized it could be public information. That didn't happen."
Shaffer admits he waited until LaGrotta was out of office before blowing the whistle.
"I was at the point of accusing my friend of 40 years of felony offenses and that was a very difficult decision to make. I regret that I didn't make it sooner," said Shaffer.
But once he spent hours before the grand jury, "To be honest with you, Jon, it was kind of cathartic. It felt good to get all of that off my chest and to finally know I was doing the right thing.
And he hoped LaGrotta, once charged, would go after bigger fish.
"I hoped that whenever that time came and he was charged, that he would give them the information they needed to prosecute the people in the leadership ranks," said Shaffer.
Shaffer says he knew there would be a consequence to being a whistle blower.
"A lot of negative things that are going to happen to you when you come forward like this, and you have to be prepared to accept that. I was unable to find a job in politics and I sort of understood, after I went forward, that it would be very unlikely that I would find one," said Shaffer.
Still unemployed, Shaffer says he told the grand jury 15 months ago that the scandals included many more than LaGrotta.
"It involves systemic abuses within the Democratic Caucus which were occurring on a pretty regular basis and went way beyond the one year payment of bonuses to staff for doing political work," said Shaffer.
Shaffer says campaign work was common in many legislative offices.
"I think it's a common practice among most house offices, at least it was before the prosecution of Representative Habay," said Shaffer.
And he remembers when former State Representative Mike Veon vetoed LaGrotta's effort to hire certain staff people because they had not campaigned enough.
"We had attempted to hire people from former Rep. Guy Travaglio's office, and Frank had forwarded to me an e-mail from Representative Veon saying that he would not allow any of these people to be hired because they had not worked hard enough on the campaign to save that seat, to keep it Democratic after Rep. Travaglio retired."
Shaffer says he told the grand jury about hiring practices he saw and that he has little doubt that more charges are likely in the weeks ahead.
"I believe that there has been a pattern of abuse of the leadership accounts over the course of years involving staffing in the district offices. I don't know that i can say anything more than that or what specifically was going on," said Shaffer.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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