pn_20090522125703-2.jpg

James Ellison, a Harrisburg attorney

(Dan Gleiter, The Patriot-News, 2009)

A Chester County school district has released investigative reports with ties to Harrisburg lawyer James Ellison, his former law firm and The Harrisburg Authority.

The reports were completed months ago -- well before the December release of the Chester County grand jury report into Coatesville Area School District, where Ellison previously served as solicitor.

Back in December, Chester County First Assistant District Attorney Mike Noone said Ellison was the target of an ongoing investigation by the district attorney's office for alleged impropriety while he worked as the district's solicitor.

Among its multiple issues, the 111-page grand jury report questioned Ellison's billing practices and said the "millions of dollars in legal fees billed" by Ellison presented "the largest potential for criminal charges" in the investigation.

Matthew Haverstick, a lawyer with the Philadelphia-based law firm Conrad O'Brien who wrote the investigative reports, said he viewed the grand jury report and those from his firm as "complementary documents," which covered much of the same issues, at times.

Haverstick said his firm's reports, unlike the grand jury report, isn't intended to accuse "anyone of criminal activity" and was more focused on "operational issues and good governance within the school district."

In connection with Ellison -- and, at times, his former law firm Rhoads & Sinon in Harrisburg -- the 183-page investigative report includes sections on:

"alleged overbilling;"

"suspect billing practices;"

the district's "excessive reliance" on Ellison;

the district's funding of Ellison's cellphone and iPad;

the solicitor turning over "wiped phones and iPad" to the district attorney's office;

the solicitor delaying the "production of documents to the DA's office" and seeking to "intervene in the grand jury proceedings and quash subpoenas;"

and the district attorney expanding the "scope of its criminal investigation into the solicitor."

That investigative report also brings up The Harrisburg Authority, now known as Capital Region Water, Rhoads & Sinon, and Ellison in a section discussing the district's "inexplicable sale of tax liens to fill budget holes." Ellison, a former partner at Rhoads & Sinon, also had previously represented Harrisburg and Central Dauphin school districts.

Daniel Brier, Ellison's attorney and a partner at Myers Brier & Kelly, LLP in Scranton, said Monday evening that he would be "studying the report in detail."

"Mr. Ellison very effectively represented Coatesville Area School District in many complex legal matters for more than a decade. In one case alone, involving a charter school, his work led to the recovery of millions of dollars for Coatesville Area School District," Brier said. "The report does not accurately describe his professional services."

In a letter announcing the release of the reports, Cathy Taschner, the district's superintendent and former Susquehanna Township School District administrator, said the report painted "a picture of a school district" that, while now moving forward, had "for years existed in a culture of corruption, deception and mismanagement."

The school board agreed to publicly release the "district-wide investigative" reports from Conrad O'Brien following the grand jury report release, Taschner said in her letter.

Taschner's letter also states that the board hired Conrad O'Brien in 2013 after district's "the racial text messaging scandal," which involved the district's former Superintendent Richard Como and former Director of Athletics and Activities Jim Donato.

Como and Donato have been charged with felonies as a result of the Chester County District Attorney Office's investigation.