Tom Marino on the air

Congressman Tom Marino has his first spot of the 2012 election up. It says he's tough guy that took on scam artist and drug dealers.





Challenger Phil Scollo responds:

Marino So Concerned That His new TV Ad Attempts to Re-Write His Own History

Dingman, PA – Marino’s new TV ad says he prosecuted scam artists who prey on seniors but the truth is he helped get a lighter sentence for a convicted felon, Sean Healy, who defrauded Pennsylvania seniors and families in a Bernie Madoff/Ponzi scheme.

“Pennsylvania seniors and families depend on their hard earned retirement savings and on Medicare, but seniors can’t depend on Tom Marino,” said Phil Scollo. “Everyone knows Mr. Marino has the money and the Washington connections to run TV ads that distort his record but hardworking people deserve the truth from Tom Marino and they deserve to hear it straight from his mouth. He voted twice to end the Medicare guarantee and he should have the courage to stand up in a debate on Medicare and explain why. He is refusing debates and trying to re-write history on TV. It’s disgusting.”

Sean Healy was indicted on 51 counts of fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice involving investors of $20 million. Healy was accused of defrauding more than 50 investors throughout the country, including about 40 investors from the Chambersburg and Harrisburg areas. (Patriot-News, 10/17/09)

As Healy’s attorney, Marino pulled strings and negotiated–with his old U.S. Attorney’s office on the other side of the table–a lighter sentence. Marino signed the plea agreement as the counsel for the defendant. (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, USA v. Healy, 1:09cr00319, 10/09/09)

According to the indictment, Healy promised investors he would use their money to purchase stocks and commodities on their behalf. The indictment accused Healy of spending the money to fund a lavish lifestyle, which included the purchase of a $2.4 million waterfront mansion furnished with more than $2 million of home improvements, $1.5 million in men’s and women’s jewelry and numerous exotic vehicles worth more than $2.3 million. (Patriot-News, 10/17/09)



Why stop there. Citizens Voice reporter Michael Sisak did some digging in 2010 and came up with another questionable relationship that Tom Marino has with a convicted criminal. He interceded on behalf of a  guy served time in prison on weapon's charges and has a history of bizzare behavior plus  Marino tried to get his record cleared of a cocaine dealing charge.

The friends of Tom Marino 

  A prominent central Pennsylvania car dealer once described as a “friend” by former U.S. Attorney Tom Marino has racked up an extensive rap sheet since leaning on Marino to have a cocaine dealing conviction cleared from his record more than a decade ago, court documents obtained by The Citizens’ Voice show.

Jay W. Kilheeney, an admitted drug addict and alcoholic, has been busted three times since Marino clumsily and unsuccessfully interceded in the drug case, in June 1998, and has been accused in protection from abuse petitions of leading a violent, vagabond home life.

Kilheeney, 46, of Williamsport, spent 33 months in federal prison on a 2002 illegal weapons possession charge, paid hundreds of dollars in fines to settle disorderly conduct and harassment charges in 2002 and 2009 and, following the weapons conviction, was barred by a state board from selling cars for five years.

At home, Kilheeney abused drugs, his family and the law — smoking marijuana daily, providing alcohol to his minor son, choking his girlfriend and running into the street naked — according to protection from abuse petitions filed in June and October 2008.


Marino, whose relationship with Kilheeney triggered concerns among colleagues as he transitioned into the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2002, has remained silent about the status of his relationship with Kilheeney and Kilheeney’s continued criminal behavior.

A spokesman for Marino, the Republican challenger in the 10th Congressional District, said he could not comment on “anything related” to Marino’s time as a prosecutor and would not confirm whether he and Kilheeney were still friends.

Marino’s involvement in the Kilheeney case, while the district attorney of Lycoming County, appeared to bookend his controversial role, while U.S. Attorney, as a personal reference on DeNaples’ December 2005 application for a license to operate the Mount Airy Casino in Monroe County.


Carney campaign spokesman Josh Drobnyk said Friday that Marino’s involvement with DeNaples and Kilheeney were “absolutely” relevant to the campaign and to gauging the “integrity and honesty” of Marino’s tenure as a district attorney and U.S. Attorney.

“(Marino) touts being tough on criminals when the truth is he was seeking to help clear the criminal record of a close friend who was a drug trafficker and has since been charged with multiple crimes,” Drobnyk said. “Tom Marino has refused to address basic questions about his record and continues to insult all of us by refusing to tell the truth.”

Marino’s drive to clear Kilheeney’s February 1992 conviction for delivering two grams of cocaine led him into the nebulous, unethical world of judge shopping, according to court records.

According to court records, Marino hand delivered an expungement motion to a judge relatively unfamiliar with criminal procedure, Dudley N. Anderson, a month after the judge who presided over the case, Kenneth D. Brown, refused.

Anderson approved the expungement in July 1998, but reversed himself when he learned of Brown’s previous decision to deny the request.

Anderson ordered all copies of his expungement order returned, but Kilheeney kept a copy and included it with personal letters of reference from Marino and a Lycoming County detective to obtain authorization from the Ford Motor Co. to open a dealership in Lock Haven, according to a report in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Had the expungement stood, Kilheeney would never have faced the felony weapons charge — possession of a firearm by a convicted felon — that landed him in federal prison for 33 months.

Shortly before he reported to prison, in November 2002, Kilheeney pleaded guilty to summary harassment and disorderly conduct charges for forcing his way into the office of a business associate, grabbing him and threatening to kill him.

In August, Kilheeney pleaded guilty to a summary disorderly conduct charge more than a year after a traffic stop in which police said he dropped his pants to his ankles, exposing his genitals and buttocks.

“You can strip search me right here,” Kilheeney said, according to police.