Thursday, March 06, 2008

Steve Corbett of WILK in the news again

Love him or hate him, WILK talk-show host and former Times Leader columnist does manage to stir things up. Corbett's Feb. 20 interview with Joseph Sica, the Catholic priest and DeNaples associate charged with perjury, may turn into additional ammunition for prosecutors. Sica told Corbett on WILK that he met with mobster Russell Bufalino in 1982, news to prosecutors and potentially a damning admission in a case that hinges on when the two men met. Citizens' Voice reporter Dave Janoski has the story.

Alert readers will recall that this is not the first time a Corbett interview with a defendant has ended up being news; Corbett's interview with killer Glenn Wolsieffer in 1989 briefly landed the columnist in jail on conspiracy charges (the phone interview was taped without Wolsieffer's knowledge) before the charges were tossed.

Read Corbett's WILK blog post on his Sica interview

11 comments:

Tom Carten said...

AFAIK, the phone taping was done in Virginia, a state where at least one of the parties must consent to the recording. One of them did: Corbett.

Anonymous said...

not true.
The taping was done in Wilkes-Barre while Wolsieffer was living in Virginia.
The legal question at the time was over the interstate access and who had jurisdiction. The only reason the charges were tossed was because the TL won the PR war.

Anonymous said...

Corbett's the man, he really is.

Anonymous said...

Can someone explain that picture? It looks to me like Corbett pimping some little handicapped kid out to Michael Jackson.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it's Michael Jackson pimping Corbett out to the handicapped kid. Easy to be confused.

Anonymous said...

Not to pour salt but doesn't this NOW redeem Carten?

We were pretty savage when he mentioned this phone fiasco a while back.

Fair's fair:
You were rrr-rrr-rrr-RIGHT, Tom.

(geez, that really didn't hurt - that much.)

Anonymous said...

Federal jurisdiction covered Corbett's call. One party consent.
No expectation of privacy because Corbett told the killer the interview was on the record. Corbett and defendants received huge national service to the First Amendment award. Corbett was never in jail. His lawyer back then is now Louis DeNaples' lawyer.

Anonymous said...

According to The New York Times, Corbett (and Walzer and the others) were indeed arrested:

December 13, 1991
4 at Newspaper Charged After Publishing Recorded Remarks
By MICHAEL DECOURCY HINDS,

The publisher, two top editors and a columnist from a local newspaper here were charged today with publishing the contents of an illegally taped telephone conversation. The columnist was also charged with violating a state law that prohibits the taping of a phone conversation without the consent of both parties.

Pennsylvania is one of 10 states with such a law. An unusual aspect of the Pennsylvania law prohibits publishing material gathered through such taping.

[...]

In addition to Mr. Corbett and Mr. Duncan, the managing editor, Cliff Schechtman, and the editor, Allison Walzer, were arrested today. The newspaper is owned by Capital Cities/ ABC, which also owns the television network. The charges, third-degree felonies, carry a maximum penalty of seven years in jail and a $15,000 fine.

After being told that arrest warrants had been issued, the newspaper executives and the columnist presented themselves at police headquarters downtown here, where the police booked and fingerprinted them. They were released without bail pending a preliminary hearing on Dec. 23.

Anonymous said...

Interesting little bit about Mr. Corbett...

Anonymous said...

Matted-hair-muckracker Corbett made a great guest appearance on Conan O'Brian at the Michael Jackson trial.
"Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog" tried to ask him a question and Steve-O ran like his ass was on fire and his bushy head were soaked in gasoline.

Anonymous said...

This guy does alot of drugs