Deputy sheriff scandal can't end too soon

Published: September 4, 2010

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Northumberland County Commissioner Vinny Clausi said back in January when he touched off the sheriff department porn scandal that he felt compelled to act because the issue - as is too often the practice in local government - was being brushed under the rug.

Well, it's certainly been out in the open since then, and it's just as dirty as the underside of that rug.

Some have debated which is worse: fired deputies sheriffs fighting for unemployment compensation while their boss, who once defended but later fired them - directly contradicts their testimony, or the "cash for kids" scandal in Luzerne County. No matter the winner of this no-win contest, both get the same label: "disgusting."

The county, pushed by Clausi, has done what it believes is necessary to root out the truth, and that, it seems, is going to take a lot of time and a lot of money, and it's going to cause a lot of embarrassment. Consider Thursday's hearing before the unemployment compensation referee when evidence was distributed showing content from the website allegedly visited by the deputies while on the clock in their taxpayer-funded jobs. That's the kind of thing Northumberland County residents have to look forward to in the coming months - that, and whether or not the unemployment rate remains below 10 percent.

No matter how the ruling of the unemployment referee, or the judge and jury that will preside over the lawsuits the deputies and Clausi have filed against one another, the county, until all this is settled, will remain red-faced. We believe in the county's pursuit of justice, and wish Sheriff Reiner and others would have done what they should have done immediately when the porn use was discovered. Since that's not the case, all we can hope for is that this ordeal ends as soon as possible.

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