2008 Nomination Speech
Republican State Committee Meeting
Saturday, February 9, 2008
When I stood before you four years ago and accepted your endorsement for Attorney General, I told you of my plan to protect Pennsylvania families and build on the progress that my predecessors had made.
During the 2004 campaign I made four promises to the people of Pennsylvania:
- to more effectively investigate gangs and drug organizations
- to create a Child Predator Unit
- to create an Elder Abuse Unit and
- to create a Public corruption Unit
While we know that politicians make promises all the time, I'm proud to say that in just three years not only have we kept each of these promises, we have accomplished much, much more.
I want to take a few minutes today to outline for you just a few of the accomplishments that the Attorney General's Office has made in the past three years.
I have assembled a staff of the finest prosecutors and agents who work diligently day-in and day-out to make our state a better and safer place to live, work and raise our families.
Drug Enforcement
On the drug enforcement front we have investigated and prosecuted large scale drug organizations and gangs in every corner of the state. Our agents have arrested more than 2,000 drug dealers in less than three years.
As a former federal drug prosecutor myself, I know that drug gangs destroy communities and destroy the quality of life for people who live in these communities. Drug dealers not only destroy the lives of the people that take drugs but they also bring a rash of other crimes such as murders, robberies, and burglaries.
I can tell you first hand that these large scale drug investigations are difficult and dangerous. They take thousands of man hours and the narcotics agents in our office risk their lives to get these drug dealers off the streets. Let me briefly paint a picture for you describing just a small sample of some of the drug organizations and gangs that we have put out of business.
In Southeastern Pennsylvania we have dismantled two of the largest meth organizations to ever operate in the Philadelphia area and suburbs. These organizations were operated by the violent outlaw motorcycle gangs the Warlocks and the Breed. Not only did we put their leaders behind bars for lengthy prison sentences, but we also seized many of their assets, sold them at a public auction and are using that money to educate our children on the dangers of drug abuse.
In Northeastern Pennsylvania we launched Operation Smackdown; a multi-million dollar heroin ring run by members of the New York City streetgang, the Bloods.
In Wilkes-Barre, through Operation Main Street, we shut down a multi-million dollar cocaine ring operating in the downtown business section of Wilkes-Barre disrupting business and economic development.
This past fall working with the Hazleton Police we initiated Operation Boomerang and broke up a 31-million dollar cocaine ring operating in the small city of Hazleton. In this case, gang members from New York City known as the Latin Kings moved into Hazelton and cornered the drug market.
In Northwestern Pennsylvania we developed a task force with district attorneys and local police to specifically deal with the problem of meth. I am happy to report that this task force is working very well and we have arrested 76 meth dealers and shut down 60 meth labs.
In the small city of New Castle in Lawrence County, gang members from Detroit established a foot hold selling crack cocaine and were terrorizing the citizens of New Castle before we shut them down and put them behind bars.
In the Pittsburgh area, through Operation Byrdcage, we dismantled a cocaine organization that distributed multiple-kilo quantities at a time. During this same investigation we arrested 35 suspects - 10 of whom were illegal aliens from Mexico - who were bringing the drugs to Pittsburgh from Chicago and Atlanta.
Here in Central Pennsylvania we have dismantled major cocaine and heroin rings in York, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Adams, up through State College and Lycoming County.
Child Predator Unit
Four years ago, I also told you we would create a Child Predator Unit. I wasted little time and created the Child Predator Unit within the first week of taking office.
Over the past three years we have expanded the unit to six agents and two full-time prosecutors. As of this past Wednesday…we have arrested 123 child predators.
That’s 123 child predators that were trying to steal the innocence of our children. I’m proud to tell you that to date our Child Predator Unit has a 100 percent conviction rate. Unfortunately, the unit is very busy. Last year we averaged more than one arrest per week.
Let me tell you about just one of the child predators who we arrested:
His name is David Mayberry and he was from Montgomery County. We arrested him in Bucks County when he showed up to have sex with what he thought was a 13-year old boy. The 13 year old boy was actually an undercover agent from our Unit.
After our agents arrested Mayberry we found out that he was an Assistant Boy Scout Master. Our agents later learned that one week prior to arresting Mayberry he had met a 14-year old boy on the Internet and had sex with him. Our agents later learned that Mayberry was HIV positive.
Today, David Mayberry is serving a 16 to 40 year state prison sentence where he will no longer be able to harm children.
The one thing I have learned in my career as a prosecutor is that it is not enough to investigate and prosecute criminals. We also have to educate the public, especially our children, about how to keep themselves safe from online predators and drugs.
As part of our Child Predator Unit we also created an education component we call "Operation Safe Surf."
We launched Operation Safe Surf in October 2006 and the program is now in more than 900 schools and community groups and has been presented to more than 100,000 students, teachers and parents.
To further protect our children from sexual predators, I have been a national leader among attorneys general in forcing Myspace to make their site safer for teenagers. Sexual predators have repeatedly used Myspace to victimize children. Last spring, the attorneys general pushed Myspace into removing 29,000 registered sex offenders from their site.
Protecting Seniors
In addition to protecting our children, we need to keep our seniors safe and informed about the dangers they face on a daily basis.
For this reason, we created an Elder Abuse Unit to protect our seniors from scam artists who will try to rob them of there life savings.
In McKean County we prosecuted a woman who stole $100,000 of her elderly mother's life savings.
In Fayette County, we prosecuted a lawyer who stole the life savings of two elderly couples that entrusted him with their investments.
Education is not only for the students. Consumer protection agents travel throughout the state holding seminars and classes for seniors, teaching them how to protect their identity and not to become victims of scam artists or those entrusted with their care.
Public Corruption
The fourth promise I made was to create a Public Corruption Unit within the office.
We have taken some of the most experienced prosecutors and agents and placed them into the Unit. The purpose of the unit is to combat corruption through the prosecution of elected officials and government employees.
When the General Assembly created the independently elected Attorney General it specifically gave the Attorney General's Office the role as "watch dog" of state government to prevent official corruption.
We take that role and responsibility seriously and the unit is diligently working to ensure that we have a government that we can have faith in and be proud of.
In addition to the four accomplishments i just discussed, the attorney general's office has also been involved in many other investigations and new inititives.
I believe that in recognition of our performance, the general assembly entrusted us with the responsibility and funding to help fight violence in Philadelphia.
My office created a Philadelphia Gun Violence Task Force - working in conjunction with the Philadelphia District Attorney's office and the Philadelphia Police Department.
We hired 26 attorney general agents, many of whom are former Philadelphia homicide detectives, to attack the problem of straw purchasers. As you may know, a straw purchaser is someone who legally buys a gun, sells or gives the gun to a person convicted of a violent crime who by law is not allowed to possess a firearm.
Our agents have arrested 112 suspects, seized 190 weapons and currently have several hundred open investigations.
In addition to criminal prosecutions, the Attorney General's office has been extremely active in protecting consumers and has been a national leader pursuing companies who defraud Pennsylvanians. When the evidence demonstrates that a business has defrauded the public we aggressively pursue them through the courts.
Our office was a lead state in securing a $325 million agreement with Ameriquest to settle allegations that they engaged in lending practices that harmed consumers.
We reached a $5 million settlement with the maker of the highly addictive pain killer OxyContin for improperly marketing the drug to Pennsylvania consumers.
We are one of the lead states in the nation in a lawsuit against RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company for what we allege is deceptive advertising to teens.
We sued MCI for engaging in a fraudulent royalty scheme to avoid payment of Pennsylvania taxes. MCI settled the case by paying $46.5 million to the state Treasury.
We sued Time Warner and America Online for defrauding our teacher and state pension funds and recovered $23 million for the pension funds.
I'm very proud of the work we have accomplished in the past three years. I believe that we have a record of accomplishment in working for all the people of Pennsylvania.
But our job is not done, there is much more work ahead of us.
As the only statewide elected Republican in Harrisburg, you know that the Democrats have targeted the Attorney General's Office in this election.
I pledge to you today - as I did four years ago - that I will wage an aggressive campaign in every corner of the state and in all 67 counties. Working together I know that we will be successful.
Despite the long hours, tough decisions and highs and lows that go with being the chief law enforcement officer in the state, I am truly blessed to serve you and all the people of our great Commonwealth.
I humbly accept your endorsement and look forward to continuing to serve as your Attorney General.