Felony Friday: Pennsylvania Judge Facing Drug and Theft Charges
A former Southwestern Pennsylvania Judge is facing a slew of drug and theft charges, according to a Grand Jury Presentment. The charges stem from a Grand Jury investigation that began as a result of repeated requests by Judge Paul Pozonsky to have drug evidence brought to him and left in his chambers. In some instances the drugs were never returned and even when drug evidence was returned seals were broken, drugs were missing, and some drug baggies had been filled with baking soda.The former Common Pleas Judge repeatedly made the peculiar request of seeing drug evidence during pretrial hearings, an unprecedented demand. He order large amounts of drug evidence destroyed, but it is not clear if or how the evidence was destroyed. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on this bizarre case below.
When Mr. Pozonsky, 57, departed from the bench, he left behind a storied career that spanned 14 years. During his tenure, he oversaw many high-profile criminal cases and started the Drug Treatment Court and was well known in the tight-knit legal community there.But his final months in office were rocky. In the summer or fall of 2011, then-District Attorney Steven M. Toprani, notified the state attorney general's office after state police raised concerns about Mr. Pozonsky's unusual handling of drug evidence. District Attorney Gene Vittone, who took office at the start of 2012, also notified the AG's office."It was brought to my attention that inappropriate requests were being made by Judge Pozonsky to possess drug evidence for pretrial hearings for pretrial matters," he said.The nine-page presentment describes nine cases where Mr. Pozonsky requested or demanded evidence be produced for his courtroom, even for pretrial hearings when neither the defense attorney or prosecutor felt it was necessary. On one occasion, he requested all evidence for a particular case but then returned items that were not drugs -- including cash and a sword. In a 10th case, from 2004, drug evidence was signed out of a Washington Police Department evidence locker by an assistant district attorney and delivered to Mr. Pozonsky at his request.Typically, drug evidence is handled and maintained by police or the district attorney's office, and judges rarely, if ever, request it for pretrial hearings. But a former law clerk testified that Mr. Pozonsky told him it "was the rule."Police officers testified before the grand jury that Mr. Pozonsky often held onto drug evidence after he requested it for pretrial hearings. Over the years, he would have amassed hundreds of grams of cocaine in addition to marijuana and tablets of Suboxone, a narcotic used to treat opioid addiction, in a filing cabinet in his chambers on the first floor of the Washington County Courthouse.
Pozonsky is facing eight counts of theft, four counts of possession, one count of misapplication of entrusted property and one count of obstructing administration of law, all misdemeanors. The Judge qualified for our Felony Friday feature because he is also charged with felony conflict of interest, which is a violation of state ethics law.It takes a soulless scumbag to make a career out of ruining people’s lives, by sending non violent drug users to prison, then mocking their misfortune by ingesting the banned substance that was held up as a reason to lock them in a cage. The recipients of his sentencing and the families of those locked up probably did not even enter Judge Polozony’s mind as he sat at the desk in his chamber, leaned forward, and buried his nose in a pile of cocaine that would make Eric Clapton blush.The drug war has not and will not reduce drug addiction or drug trafficking. In fact, common sense tells us that the value of a substance on the underground market increases when a substance is prohibited. Laws or regulations intended to limit or prohibited the supply of a product or service increase the risk of a transaction involving the good, which in turn increases the reward for individuals willing to accept the risk.This judge thought that he was above the law. It is a testament to the corruption in the United State legal system that former Judge Polozony was able to pull the wool over the eyes of law enforcement for such a long period of time. The entire State system of politicians, judges, and law enforcement are full of corrupt individuals. Each sector enjoys monopoly control in their segment of the market. When the potential for competition is removed, the market mechanism for curtailing corruption has been disarmed.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
