Feb 10, 2016 3 min read

Ah, the joys of being an upper-crust defendant in our “justice” system.

Just ask Chuck McCullough, the lawyer and former Allegheny County Council member who is living in his own home nearly a decade after he stole tens of thousands of dollars from an elderly dementia patient, and nearly seven years after he was charged in the case.

One must imagine that had a poor minority person stolen the cash from the old lady, he or she would have been behind bars years ago.

But if a defendant has money …

McCullough, from Upper St. Clair, was arrested way back on Feb. 19, 2009, accused of using his power of attorney to lift more than $50,000 from the accounts of Shirley Jordan. Authorities said he used $40,000 to make donations to Republican candidates for county council, and another $10,000 to make a donation to Catholic Charities, where his wife, Patricia McCullough, was executive director. She’s now a Commonwealth Court judge.

On the surface, it sounds to the layman like a fairly cut-and-dried case that could be adjudicated rather quickly. Au contraire.

McCullough had the wherewithal to hire representation that, according to prosecutors, threw up legal roadblock after legal roadblock to keep the case from coming to trial in a timely fashion.

At a hearing the other day, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, McCullough attorney Adam Cogan said the delays were “a product of intense litigation.”

Prosecutors had a much different view.

“He got a ruling he didn’t like, he took it to Superior Court and it languished,” said Assistant District Attorney John Fitzgerald. “It’s … showing no respect for the court process, for the court system.”

It was, Fitzgerald said, a pattern of “obstructionist conduct.”

So far, it’s worked beautifully for McCullough, who has gotten the kind of legal treatment a person of meager means could only dream of.

Finally, last summer, Allegheny County Judge Lester Nauhaus found McCullough guilty of five felonies and five misdemeanor counts – theft and misapplication of funds – while tossing out 14 other charges.

Said the judge, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “Greed drips all over this case.”

A few more months passed, and in December, Judge David Cashman, who took over the case when Nauhaus fell ill, sentenced McCullough to 2 ½ to 5 years in prison, plus three years of probation. He added a harsh condemnation of McCullough, saying, “Your actions were fueled by ego and self-interest. There is no other explanation for your actions other than you viewed Mrs. Jordan’s assets as your own private bank to fund your political aspirations.”

Yet, after all these years, after the long-delayed guilty verdict, after he was sentenced to prison, after the judge’s words from the bench, McCullough is a free man, because Cashman decided the other day that it was OK for McCullough to remain free while he pursues an appeal. Based on the history of this case, one has to wonder how long McCullough’s attorneys can make that process last. No doubt some who are reading this won’t live to see the conclusion.

If anyone tries to tell you that the scales of justice are even for the rich and poor in this country, just point to this case as a rebuttal.

McCullough’s thievery was every bit as criminal as that of a person who breaks into a house and steals. He was just wearing a suit and tie when he did it.