Former lawmaker to make case against prison sentence
HARRISBURG – Former state Rep. Thomas W. Druce will go before the state’s highest court next month in his bid to overturn his prison sentence in a 1999 fatal hit-and-run accident. At the May 15 hearing, the state Supreme Court will consider only whether Dauphin County Common Pleas Judge Joseph H. Kleinfelter should have disqualified himself from sentencing Druce because of comments the judge made about the case to a reporter.
Even if Druce loses this case, he could still end up avoiding a return to prison.
The Bucks County Republican was serving his fourth term in the House when the vehicle he was driving on a dark street near the Capitol on July 27, 1999, struck and killed 42-year-old Kenneth Cains of Harrisburg, prosecutors said. Druce then drove away from the scene, they said.
Druce had the damage to his leased sport-utility truck repaired and then lied to his insurance company about the accident, prosecutors said. Police did not question Druce until January 2000, after they received an anonymous tip.
Druce is free on bail, pending the appeal. He served two months of his two- to four-year prison sentence when friends and family posted $600,000 bail in December 2000. If the Supreme Court sides with Druce, he will be sentenced by a judge in a different county.
Druce’s lawyers have been trying unsuccessfully for almost two years to appeal the sentence. After a three-judge panel of the Superior Court unanimously upheld the sentence last March, Druce’s lawyers appealed again. The court decided not to reverse that decision. But last October, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Druce’s appeal.
Both sides have filed briefs with the court. At the hearing, each side will be given about 15 minutes to present its case, and justices will likely ask questions afterwards. A ruling probably won’t come for a couple months, according to lawyers from both sides.
Druce pleaded guilty in September 2000 to leaving the scene of a fatal accident, tampering with physical evidence and insurance fraud. He resigned his House seat shortly thereafter.
But before sentencing him in October 2000, Kleinfelter told an Associated Press reporter he was puzzled by Druce’s insistence that he had hit a traffic sign and not a person. The jurist said he believed the claims were inconsistent with his guilty plea to leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
Druce’s lawyers argue that this violated judicial conduct rules. “Mr. Druce clearly was treated more harshly in Dauphin County, because he was a state legislator at the time and local community organizations such as the Harrisburg Chapter of the NAACP held several public rallies ‘demanding justice,'” Druce’s lawyers Matthew Gover and William Lamb wrote in the appeal. (Lamb has since been appointed to the Supreme Court.)
But Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico contends the sentence should stand. “Our argument is based on existing law, the court did not have to recuse itself and did not show any bias or prejudice towards Mr. Druce,” he said.
If Druce loses, his lawyers could file a motion to have the time Druce spent at home, waiting for his appeal, count as jail time. A recent ruling in another case may provide a relevant precedent. Druce’s lawyers could also appeal his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, although Marsico said it would be “unusual” for them to hear the case.
“We hope it’s over and done with,” after next month’s hearing, Marsico said.
Since being released from prison, Druce has been working as a consultant in the private sector. He is required to wear an electronic monitoring device and report regularly to probation officials.