THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNARD V. O'HARE III, PART 3

How much is a lost life worth? I don't know the answer to that.

But I do know that all the money in the world isn't enough to buy back my only daughter, Sheena Villa. Sheena's dead, and gone forever, because of the outrageous negligence of the drunk driver who killed her, and the negligence of those who ignored the obvious warning signs of a catastrophic crash that was all too predictable, and preventable, in retrospect.

On May 21, 1982, Gerald White was operating a crane in downtown Scranton, filling in the abandoned Pinebrook coal mine. White's employer was working on contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior. While demolishing a concrete wall above the mine, suddenly, the 35-ton crane Gerald White was operating crashed through the roof of the mine shaft and plummeted 45 feet into the nearly 300-foot deep pit. Other crew members were able to escape falling into the gaping mine shaft, but 33-year-old Gerald White was trapped in a massive slide of dirt and sand that sucked him and his crane increasingly farther down and down under the earth.

All Gerald White's wife Lucille and their 3 children, ages 12, 9, and 3 at the time could do over the next several days was wait ... as surveillance devices failed to detect any sign of Gerald White's life.

On May 27, part of the concrete wall collapsed on rescuers as they searched for White; the next day, rescuers couldn't find the mine's entrance; three days later, the cable of a rescue crane got tangled up with a piece of concrete stuck in the mine shaft; the following day, the rescue crane burst into flames.

A month and a day after catastrophe had struck, Lucille White decided she wanted to have funeral ceremonies for her husband Gerald at what she probably assumed would be his "grave," alongside the open mine shaft. On July 3, fifty-eight days after the tragedy, Gerald White's body was recovered, 165 feet down in the mine shaft.

Four years later, in February 1986, Lucille White learned that a multi-million dollar settlement resulting from her wrongful death litigation against the U.S. Government had been denied.

Bernard V. O'Hare III, a then disbarred former Bethlehem attorney who had been an assistant U.S. attorney in Scranton at the time of Lucille White's litigation had "failed to clear the settlement with officials in Washington," according to U.S. District Judge William J. Nealon.

According to Lucille White's attorney, Joseph A. Quinn, all through negotiations between the plaintiff Lucille White, and the U.S. Government (represented, sadly, by Bernard V. O'Hare III ) ...

"O'Hare feigned contact with supervisors and approval of the settlement from his superiors in Washington. There were assurances made to me and to the court and calls were made to Washington." -The Morning Call "newspaper," Feb. 3, 1986

Readers ...

did Bernie O'Hare III unilaterally decide that Lucille White's case "had no merit," like he had "concluded" in the George Usry Civil Rights case?

Sure looks that way, doesn't it?

Especially since O'Hare III "handled" Lucille White's case in chillingly familiar fashion to how he had "handled" George Usry's case ... and that is ...

O'Hare ("feigned") LIED to the court, and to the grieving widow plaintiff, Lucille White, as he also MISREPRESENTED his client, the United States Government.

Just like O'Hare was never really "negotiating" w/ Bethlehem Steel (for two years) on behalf of his client George Usry as O'Hare had misled Usry to believe ...

O'Hare was never really "negotiating" (for four years?) w/ Lucille White's attorney on behalf of his client the U.S. Government-- as O'Hare misled U.S. District Court Judge William J. Nealon, plaintiff's attorney Joseph A. Quinn, Lucille White, and her three fatherless children to believe.

Readers: doesn't this feel eerily and creepily similar to how O'Hare III was (wink wink) pondering a series of increasing offers from Bethlehem Steel for George Usry?

Only this time, O'Hare was pondering how much money the U.S. Government (i.e., him, hot-shot U.S. Attorney/Negotiator O'Hare) was willing to bestow upon Lucille White ... but not really ... because, you see, the U.S. government, figuratively, "stopped payment on the check" ...

because O'Hare never got the U.S. Government's approval on what he was (wink wink) "negotiating."

The common thread in both cases is that prosecutor O'Hare III took it upon himself to persecute good guys-- already wronged, suffering families ... w/ evil intent.

From The Morning Call "newspaper," February 3, 1986:

"From January (1985) to June we were waiting day to day" for a check, said Mrs. White, who has been supporting her family on Social Security and retirement payments. "O'Hare kept saying he was going to Washington and we would have the checks." But in June, Mrs. White was told payments would be delayed while questions surrounding O'Hare's conduct were investigated. "Now we have to go back and try our original case," said Mrs. White, sadness in her voice.

From The Morning Call "newspaper," July 25, 1987 ...

WIDOW GETS NOTHING IN MINE CASE HANDLED BY EX-AREA ATTORNEY

The mine subsidence case in Scranton that former Bethlehem attorney Bernard V. O'Hare III "settled" two years ago for "$19 million" is finally over.

The plaintiff, the widow of a man buried in the subsidence five years ago, got nothing.

Gerald J. White, 33, a laborer, dropped into a hidden mine shaft in Scranton in 1982 during a mine-flushing job for the U.S. Office of Surface Mining.

At one time, widow Lucille White was led to believe by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney O'Hare that the federal government had accepted blame and would pay a structured settlement totaling the $19 million to her and her two children.

But U.S. District Judge R. Dixon Herman for the Middle District of Pennsylvania threw out the settlement on the ground O'Hare never got it cleared with his superiors in Washington.

Shortly after that, O'Hare lost his job with the U.S. attorney's office in Scranton.

White appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which turned her down this spring.

Now, the 90-day appeal time has lapsed for any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in January 1986 suspended O'Hare for two years for resorting to forgery and lies in the handling of a 1980 civil-rights case for a black Bethlehem Steel worker. O'Hare told client George Usry of Allentown he was working to get the man an $85,000 settlement. But O'Hare had already settled the case with Bethlehem Steel for $60 and forged his client's name to the settlement document, according to the findings of the Disciplinary Board.

At that time, O'Hare was a member of the Bethlehem law firm of O'Hare and Heitczman - the O'Hare being his father, a former Northampton County district attorney.

Tied to the suspension was the recommendation that any reinstatement "be conditioned on a medical report indicating he is emotionally and physically capable of resuming the responsibilities of his profession."

What's our point w/ all this?

We want you to know the ugly truth about Bernard V. O'Hare III ...the Bernie O'Hare who publicly threatened to sabotage Sheena Villa's wrongful death litigation which O'Hare discussed in signed comments at his "Troll Parade" blog w/ his Troll blog co-creator, attorney David Najarian, Lynn Township Supervisor ...

because, as you can see, O'Hare has never been rehabilitated; O'Hare has never changed his ways; and O'Hare's "ways" still involve a course of evil intent activity that is characterized by, in the conclusions of the PA Supreme Court:

dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, unauthorized activity, forgery, cover-up, conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, illegal conduct, and moral turpitude.

The other O'Hare ... the one w/ the "serious emotional problem" ... the disgraced former prosecutor who delights in persecuting good guys ... w/ evil intent ... is still out there. And very much so. In fact, O'Hare's blog, Lehigh Valley Ramblings, currently entertains an average of 600 visits from approximately 150 different readers a day, according to O'Hare's "open" Sitemeter(R) that is located at the very bottom of his blog droppings.

Some of O'Hare's most loyal "regulars" include well-known elected officials in Northampton and Lehigh counties ... Judges even, who, we hear through the grapevine, are actually encouraging Bernard III to become a lawyer again.

I guess nobody cares. Hey. It's Miller time. (Curiously, "booze" isn't mentioned anywhere in the 22 pages Lehigh Valley Somebody obtained recently from the Pittsburgh office of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania [No. 512 Disciplinary Docket No. 2 Disciplinary Board No. 25 DB 84 Attorney Registration 28024], dated January 9, 1986). 

UpDate: Readers, The Morning Call "newspaper" has a new look at its website and some new functions. For example, at the bottom of their online "newspaper" droppings, you can now click on "Other News Sources," including some select local blogs. And guess what? So far, the local blog The Morning Call is linking to the most, by far, is ... Lehigh Valley Ramblings, by Bernard V. O'Hare, III.

The Morning Call just rewarded O'Hare w/ a promotion.

Read: Part 4: Still Duped By O'Hare?