Angela Couloumbis, Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau
Last updated: Friday, October 3, 2014, 11:21 PM
Posted: Friday, October 3, 2014, 6:11 PM
HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett on Friday sought the resignation of a third state official - his appointee to the state Parole Board - amid disclosures that the man had participated in the exchange of pornography over state computers.
But Randy Feathers said he would not step down from the $116,000-a-year job.
In an interview, Feathers said he sent a letter to Corbett explaining his stance and a second to Attorney General Kathleen Kane asking for an independent forensic expert to review the sexually explicit messages that she says he received or forwarded.
Feathers asserted that Kane was motivated by politics when she identified him and seven other former employees of her office as having exchanged pornography over state accounts between 2008 and 2012 - and then shared some of those e-mails with reporters.
"This attorney general doesn't have the best credibility with me," Feathers said, adding that he initiated none of the e-mails Kane has released. "I'm not going to resign from a position because she says I did something. This is politics, and I'm caught in the middle of it."
His comments came a day after the resignations of two others named in the scandal: Department of Environmental Protection Secretary E. Christopher Abruzzo and a top lawyer in that office, Glenn Parno.
Like Feathers, each had worked in the Attorney General's Office under Corbett. Feathers, an Altoona-area resident, was the lead agent in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse investigation.
In an interview, Feathers noted Kane's past inquiry and criticism of how he and others handled the Sandusky case, a review he said was also politically motivated. "If this is the cost of putting Jerry Sandusky away for life, I'm willing to go through this," he said. "I'm a cop. That's what I do. I'm not a politician."
Asked whether he received or sent pornographic e-mails on his state account, Feathers said only that he received a lot of e-mail, including jokes and other messages, many of which he just deleted. In a statement he released last week, he had said the images Kane's office released "are not a reflection of my professional behavior, and I don't condone this activity."
Feathers wrote in his letter to Corbett that "if it is determined that I did not uphold my professional responsibilities, I will consider resigning from my position as a Board Member of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole."
The governor's office would not comment. Corbett's spokesman, Jay Pagni, said only that the governor "is calling on Randy Feathers to resign."
Corbett cannot unilaterally remove Feathers because Feathers' appointment was approved by the Senate. But he could ask the Senate to remove him, a step that would require approval from two-thirds of its members.
Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware), said Friday that if Corbett requests such a vote, the Senate's leaders "will strongly recommend that the governor's request be immediately honored. We would anticipate strong bipartisan support if a vote is needed."The standoff came shortly after Kane released another batch of e-mails late Friday afternoon, including those received or forwarded by Feathers. Her office has said Feathers received more than 400 such messages.
Many of the e-mails, which are heavily redacted, have sexually suggestive subject lines and contain everything from jokes to pictures of naked women to graphic depictions of sexual intercourse.
Corbett has said he had seen no evidence that another of his cabinet appointees named by Kane - State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan - had opened or viewed any of the sexually explicit material forwarded to him when he worked in the Attorney General's Office.
The other officials in the e-mail exchange whom Kane identified include Kevin Harley, Corbett's top spokesman when Corbett was attorney general and after he became governor; former ranking prosecutor Patrick Blessington, who now works with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office; Chris Carusone, Corbett's former liaison to the legislature; and Richard A. Sheetz, former executive deputy attorney general in the office's Criminal Law division.
Kane has released the information after several news organizations, including The Inquirer, filed public records requests under the state's Right-to-Know law.
acouloumbis@phillynews.com
717-787-5934
@AngelasInk
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