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.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNARD V. O'HARE III, PART 3
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.
THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNARD V. O'HARE III, PART 3
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."
And very much so. In fact, O'Hare's popular blog, Lehigh Valley Ramblings, currently entertains an average of over 600 loyal visitors every 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.
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.