The Berks Barrister Summer 2017 - 13

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reporters from the Daily News invoked the Press Privilege under
the Pennsylvania Shield Law 42 Pa. C.S. A. §5942 (a), thereby
preventing Kane from seeking the disclosure of her accusers,
but allowing the story to fuel the ongoing investigation and
subsequent criminal charges against Kane.
But we get ahead of ourselves. Yet another subplot arose
following the disclosure of Kane's payment of attorney fees from
campaign contributions. Kane's political coffers gave her access
to hundreds of thousands of dollars, originally intended for her
future political races. Instead, Kane pulled from those funds to
pay her privately retained attorneys, an arrangement arguably
permitted under the Campaign Finance Law §1621(b). (Section
1621 refers to the Pennsylvania Election Code, which may be
found at 25 P.S. § 3241).
These contentious subplots reveal a third characteristic of the
Shakespearean tragic hero which requires the reversal of fortune
as a result of a tragic flaw. Kane's flaw was, of course, hubris,
the death knell of most tragic heroes. Excessive pride routinely
brought down the rulers in Shakespeare's day. In more recent
times, we've watched hubris ruin Richard Nixon, Tiger Woods,
and most recently Bill Cosby. The idea that one is above the law
continues to persist among the strong and powerful. However,
in Kane's case, the law proved to be the more Divine when it
succeeded in suspending her law license.
Despite the ongoing criminal investigations against her
and increasing political pressure for her to resign from office,
Kane held steadfast in her role as the state's chief prosecutor and
argued her right to remain in office. Her defense had legitimate
underpinnings. Pursuant to the Pennsylvania Constitution, the
removal of an elected official from office requires an official's
conviction of an infamous crime or the common law crime of
misbehavior in office, or removal by the Governor for reasonable
cause on the address of two thirds of the Senate. In September
2015, Kane had not been convicted of any crime, be it statutory
or common law (innocent until proven guilty right?), and no
attempt to remove her by the Senate had been initiated. Thus,
she continued in the lawful exercise of her elected appointment.
Nonetheless, the Disciplinary Board suspended her license based
on Pennsylvania Rule of Disciplinary Enforcement 208(f )(1),
which provides, in relevant part, that a license may be suspended
upon a finding "that the continued practice of law by a person
subject to these rules is causing immediate and substantial public
or private harm because of the misappropriation of funds by
such person to his or her own use, or because of other egregious
conduct..." The decision was later affirmed on February 5, 2016,
by the state's Supreme Court, two days before the state's Senate
voted 29 to 19 to keep Kane in office pending the outcome of the
impending criminal trial.
Why do such convoluted circumstances suggest the
machinations of other rising stars vying for political recognition?
Why does Frank Underwood come to mind? Or is it possible
that Kane's fate was orchestrated by the same witches and ghosts
who haunted Elizabethan castles? In any event, the story ends
tragically, as it must, when the hero dies. The promising, rising
political star of 2014 met her end, figuratively speaking, at her
sentencing in October 2016. No formal sword fights to decide the
victors anymore. Kane's story lends reaffirmation to Shakespeare's
intuitive depiction of man's corruptibility and the tragic fall of
those in power. For although pride, in and of itself, can be the

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root of healthy and virtuous attributes, excessive pride can breed
an arrogance that leads inexorably to one's downfall.
Indeed, one fears that we need not look far to find a
rising star amongst us who would do well to heed the Bard's
forewarning of such hubris: "He that is proud eats up himself:
pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle." Troilus
and Cressida 2.3.152-4.
Pamela A. DeMartino, Esquire, is a public school teacher,
having previously served as an assistant district attorney
in Allegheny County and a family court master in Berks
County.
Summer 2017 | 13
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The Berks Barrister Summer 2017

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