Zimmerlink attorney asks authority again to stop commenting about client
A Pittsburgh attorney representing Fayette County Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink has again asked the county housing authority to refrain from publicly criticizing his client.
“Please accept this as a second and final request to (the housing authority) to cease and desist in either directly or indirectly defaming my client in relation to an alleged event with which she not only did not have any role or participation, but which, in fact, never happened,” wrote attorney Dennis Moskal in a Sept. 5 letter to the authority board.
According to Moskal, the board has continued an investigation that has yet to produce any results that would link Zimmerlink to any wrongdoing.
In June, the board launched an investigation after a packet containing an authority budget summary, an original IRS document and photographs of authority executive director Thomas Harkless and other items, was brought to the Pittsburgh Street office.
According to authority board Chairman Harry Fike, the packet was reportedly found at Angelina’s restaurant in North Union Township by employees and in the same booth where Zimmerlink, authority board member Beverly Beal and former authority controller/finance director Sonya Over had been having lunch.
The budget summary was distributed only to board members and the original tax document was removed from the authority office, according to board member Harry Joseph.
Joseph, along with board member Robert Onesko, is overseeing an internal investigation being conducted by private detective Leonard Maharowski.
Moskal claimed that a state police investigation has not resulted in any evidence that Zimmerlink was reviewing the documents, nor has the internal investigation.
Moskal said he has been advised in correspondence with state police that no criminal charges will be filed against Zimmerlink.
Fike has said that Zimmerlink was not the person who carried the packet into the restaurant.
“Nonetheless, despite (Fike’s) conciliatory admission that he did not believe Mrs. Zimmerlink took a packet into the restaurant, the investigation continues unimpeded, although it is unclear at this point what is left to investigate after three months,” Moskal stated in the letter, adding that Maharowski has twice presented an incomplete report to the public and press, including a meeting of the county commissioners.
Moskal continued, “The only reason for Maharowski to be at the commissioners’ meeting was to continue the public defamation of (Zimmerlink), and it was obvious that he was acting as a pawn for the (housing authority).”
Moskal chastised Maharowski, stating that it was not until the commissioners’ meeting did he ask to speak with Zimmerlink about the incident.
“One would think a private investigator would have attempted to talk with all the parties before making inconclusive statements,” he said. “(Zimmerlink) has no intention of speaking with your private investigator after the fact. She has nothing to offer the investigator since she has no personal knowledge of anything other than the events of the lunch. She has repeatedly publicly stated that at no time during her lunch with Beal and Over was there any documents that were reviewed.”
Beal also has denied being in possession of the documents or reviewing paperwork while at the restaurant.
The matter was not discussed at a Thursday meeting of the authority board.
Fike, Joseph and Onesko said after Thursday’s meeting, however, that many questions remain unanswered and that the board has not received any information that the state police or the district attorney’s office have concluded the external investigation.
“Mr. Maharowski continues to investigate this matter at the board’s request,” said Fike. “It has been delayed because he has been involved in an accident, but it will be continued as soon as he is back on his feet.”
Fike said that he believes an investigation is warranted because an original tax document was removed from the authority office and put in the packet.
“I would think that Commissioner Zimmerlink and the other commissioners would want to know just how that document found its way into that packet,” he said. “(Zimmerlink) was one of the commissioners that appointed me to this board to do a good job. I would think she would want me to get to the bottom of this.”
Onesko said that it remains unclear if Zimmerlink is responding in her capacity as an elected official or as a private citizen, and, if as a commissioner, is she also conferring with the county legal counsel in the matter?
In both letters, Moskal refers to her as a “commissioner.”
In the first letter, Zimmerlink demanded the board make a public apology to her, refrain from making public comments in the matter and pay her $25,000. The board refused to meet any of the demands.
“If there was no wrongdoing, why don’t they cooperate with the investigation?” Fike said Thursday. “Let’s clear this up.”