Suspended Lackawanna County guardian ad litem Danielle M. Ross Pietralczyk pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges of tax evasion and filing false tax returns, with her lawyer declaring she is innocent.
"It's unfortunate that the government chose to bring these charges," Ms. Ross Pietralczyk's lawyer, attorney David J. Solfanelli, said outside the federal courthouse in Scranton after she pleaded not guilty. "We think they're meritless. They stem from a much broader investigation that showed corruption didn't take place. Ms. Ross Pietralczyk is presumed innocent despite the current climate around here to find everybody guilty before anything is done in court. We'll avail ourselves of the courts and the process to show her innocence."
As Mr. Solfanelli spoke, Ms. Ross Pietralczyk nodded her head and said she "absolutely" agrees with his statement. She declined to comment further. Mr. Solfanelli later pointed out the tax charges have nothing to do with Ms. Ross Pietralczyk's performance of her duties.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. Blewitt released Ms. Ross Pietralczyk on her own recognizance, meaning she did not have to post bail. The judge said the case has been assigned to Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo, who set an April 15 trial date at the federal courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.
Ms. Ross Pietralczyk, 36, of Jermyn, was hired in 2008 as guardian ad litem, a job that entails representing the interests of children in sharply disputed custody cases.
Working under a June 2008 contract, she earned a base salary of $38,000 a year, but was allowed to charge $50 an hour to the people involved in the custody cases. If someone could not afford to pay, the county paid her.
The tax charges, handed up by a federal grand jury Tuesday, center on her failure to report the income she earned from the custody case clients on her annual tax returns for 2009 and 2010, according to the grand jury indictment.
On their 2009 return, Ms. Ross Pietralczyk and her husband reported their joint taxable income was $50,985 and they owed $14,324 in taxes, according to the indictment. On their 2010 return, they reported joint taxable income of $27,076 and said they owed $11,420 in taxes. The incomes reported and taxes owed were less than the actual amounts, according to the indictment.
The indictment does not say what she actually earned or how much tax is owed.
In its report on the county's guardian ad litem program last year, the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts estimated Ms. Ross Pietralczyk's pre-tax income at about $111,200 a year since at least 2009 - $71,600 from her base salary and bills the county paid and the rest from parents she billed privately.
Ms. Ross Pietralczyk's husband has not been indicted.
The county court has suspended Ms. Ross Pietralczyk and ordered her to refrain from contacting existing or new clients.
Her arraignment before Judge Blewitt lasted less than five minutes and ended with her release, a development that angered several former clients or their supporters who showed up to watch. They described her as an arrogant woman who was mostly interested in piling up huge fees without fairly dealing with cases. They complained that she was released without bail.
Jane Ward, 50, of Scranton, whose niece was the subject of a case before Ms. Ross Pietralczyk, said the guardian ad litem forced her brother to come up with $1,200 in half an hour to hear his case and she ruled against him.
"I don't see my niece because of her," Ms. Ward said. "We have no idea what it (the money) was for."
Bill Burrell, 44, Honesdale, who is suing Ms. Ross Pietralczyk in federal court over her behavior as guardian ad litem in his custody case, said her "bold and brazen" behavior in filing her tax returns raises questions about her performance of her duties and begs for a review of her cases.
"She's in denial about what she's being accused of. As I've said before and I'll say it again, I have been looking to who's giving her the green light to get away with this type of thing," Mr. Burrell said. "I think that she owes the public an explanation. Obviously, it's her right to remain silent, everybody is innocent until proven guilty, but you know this isn't something that hasn't been talked about in the media.
"In fact, there are many parents deeply affected by this and she represented the children of Lackawanna County. I think that she has an obligation to come out and at least say something to the public."
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com