As District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller launches a new legal assault against county officials she claims conspired against her, the county’s attorney is accusing Parks Miller of a kind of conspiracy of her own.
“This is clearly an attempt to manipulate the political process in Centre County,” says attorney Mary Lou Maierhofer, who represents the county through its insurance program.
Parks Miller is suing the county commissioners and other county officials for allegedly conspiring to defame her. Maierhofer says “the timing here is critical,” noting that the DA has filed her lawsuit as the November election in which all three county commissioners are seeking reelection is only about two months away.
Though Maierhofer strongly disputes Parks Miller’s allegations against the county, she maintains that the litigation is, at least in part, an attempt to sway the election.
Bruce Castor, an attorney for Parks Miller, calls this idea “nonsense.” He says the lawsuit is aimed at holding those who accused Parks Miller of forgery accountable.
“The county commissioners violated the civil rights of the DA and defamed her,” Castor says in an email. “In or out of office, they should be held to account along with anyone who assisted them. The suit will not go away no matter how the election turns out.”
However, Castor has also told StateCollege.com that he believes a changing of the guard is needed within the county government, and maintains “the voters well within reason might bounce one of the commissioners out.”
Maierhofer maintains that County Commissioners Steve Dershem, Chris Exarchos and Michael Pipe responded appropriately when they were presented with an affidavit alleging Parks Miller had forged a judge’s signature on a court order at a public meeting.
“When you have community members coming to a governmental group saying this kind of problem exists, you can’t be like Penn State, put your head in the sand, and not investigate them,” Maierhofer says.
Castor and Parks Miller have said on many occasions that Parks Miller had already referred the forgery allegations to the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General before they were ever made public. The OAG later determined that there was no evidence with which to charge Parks Miller with forgery.
“The commissioners and solicitor were ready with the obscure statutes at hand when the allegation, not on the agenda, came before the board,” Castor says. “How could they know that issue would arise that day without being part of the conspiracy?”
Maierhofer denies that the commissioners were a part of any alleged conspiracy, and says the laws dictating how they were required to handle the allegations aren’t as clear-cut as Castor and Parks Miller claim.
Maierhofer says she will file preliminary objections to the lawsuit “on behalf of most, if not all” of the county defendants in the coming days. She was unable to speculate as to how much of the county’s legal costs will be covered by its insurance program.
“It is the commissioner’s legal and moral responsibility to defend the citizen’s rights, and that’s what they’re doing,” Maierhofer says. “They’re defending. They haven’t started this. They haven’t filed a suit.”
