Castor Suing Centre County

Attorney Bruce Castor has initiated a lawsuit against Centre County over payment for his work defending District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller during local and state grand jury investigations into whether she forged a judge’s signature.

Castor is a Montgomery County attorney who has been Parks Miller’s personal lawyer and a special assistant DA in Centre County. Attorney Jonathan Young filed the praecipe of summons in Montgomery County Court on behalf of Castor’s firm of Rogers Castor seeking damages of more than $50,000 in a civil action for debt collection.

Centre County Commissioner Steve Dershem said at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting that the county was served the papers on Friday. He and fellow commissioners Michael Pipe and Mark Higgins each said the county has never entered into or authorized a contract or any other relationship with Castor.

Dershem said the commissioners have a legal responsibility to enter contracts on behalf of the county.

‘If they don’t come through this office the responsibility of any obligation of those contracts does not lie in Centre County is my position,’ Dershem said. ‘I find this quizzical at best, but just bizarre at most and quite frankly disappointing.’

In July 2016, Castor sent an invoice to County Solicitor Elizabeth Dupuis seeking $126,175, which he offered to reduce by 20 percent if the county paid by July 29, 2016. DuPuis responded that the county is not responsible for paying for Parks Miller’s defense in the case.

Castor’s letter and Dupuis response were uncovered through an open records request by Simon Campbell of Yardley, Pa.

Castor began representing Parks Miller in January 2015, after an allegation first arose that the DA forged Judge Pamela Ruest’s signature on a fake bail order as part of a sting operation in the investigation of a jailhouse murder plot against former Assistant District Attorney Nathan Boob. Parks Miller referred the case to the Office of the Attorney General, and the county commissioners at the time — Dershem, Pipe and Chris Exarchos — prompted a Bellefonte Police investigation.

A grand jury ultimately concluded last year that there was no evidence to charge Parks Miller and that Ruest, who said she couldn’t remember if she’d signed the bail order, had signed it. 

In April 2015, Parks Miller appointed Castor as a special assistant DA, initially to work with cases where defense attorneys were attempting to disqualify Parks Miller from prosecuting. He has continued to do ADA work at times over the past two years, and appeared with Parks Miller at a press conference announcing charges related to the death of Penn State student and fraternity pledge Timothy Piazza.

Castor also has represented Parks Miller in several lawsuits, including one against the county and defense attorneys over the release of her phone records following a 2015 Right to Know request; her own lawsuit against the county, the paralegal who brought forward the forward the forgery allegation, several defense attorneys, county commissioners, administrators and Ruest; and a lawsuit against her by Michelle Shutt, the former paralegal, who sued Parks Miller for defamation.

He said last year that he was not seeking compensation from the county for the special ADA duties or the civil cases, but for the work defending Parks Miller against the forgery accusation.

Castor wrote to the county at the time that the investigation of Parks Miller ‘arose in the performance of her duties as the County’s chief law enforcement officer,’ and that government agencies must pay for the defense of officials under investigation. He also said Parks Miller had no choice but to hire outside counsel because the county government advanced an investigation while the OAG was already conducting one.

Dupuis said the law Castor cited requiring government payment of officials’ defense didn’t apply to the grand jury investigation of Parks Miller, saying it only applies in instances where an action is brought due to damages resulting from injury to a person or property. 

Dupuis also said that Parks Miller was required by law to make a written request if she wished for the county to provide for her defense. A January 2015 letter Castor cited — which told the County Commissioners that since the OAG had taken over the case, they had no authority to appoint a special investigator — did not constitute a request for the county to provide for her defense.

On Tuesday, the commissioners said neither they nor the county’s salary board had taken done anything to enter an agreement with Castor. Dershem added that he felt the board should take action to prevent Castor from making any further claims.

‘I think there needs to be a cease and desist order from this board saying we don’t want any further exposure in this regard,’ he said.

Dershem later added, ‘If you brought a snow plow into our parking lot and cleared our parking lot on a snowy day and then sent me a bill I would ask that you not do that in the future just to eliminate your angst and ours. That’s the analogy here.’

While serving as Parks Miller’s attorney and special ADA, Castor has had a few other roles as well. In March 2016, then-Attorney General Kathleen Kane, whose office investigated the 2015 forgery claim against Parks Miller, appointed him as Solicitor General. In July he was named first deputy Attorney General and when Kane resigned after being convicted of perjury and obstruction charges he briefly became Acting Attorney General.