She's a big donor to Republican politicians, but it's news to her

The single largest donor to Allegheny County candidates this year is a 90-year-old Upper St. Clair widow who hasn't voted for seven years and says she never agreed to give $10,000 each to four Republican candidates, including one for Superior Court and three for Allegheny County Council.

Shirley H. Jordan, whose late husband, attorney Fred Jordan, pioneered workers' compensation law and invested widely, is on record with contributions of $10,000 each to Cheryl Allen, who is seeking the GOP nomination for Superior Court, and County Council candidates Vince Gastgeb, Jan Rea and Susan Caldwell. The checks were drawn from the Shirley Jordan Trust, housed at Northwest Savings Bank, and signed by a bank trustee.

In an interview this week, Mrs. Jordan insisted she never approved any political donations and only learned of one when she received a telephone call thanking her for her support. She said she had no idea the donation had been given and expressed shock when a reporter told her the amount.

She blamed the donation on her attorney, Charles McCullough, himself a candidate for County Council. Mr. McCullough took control of Mrs. Jordan's affairs following a court dispute that began after she was taken in 2005 to St. Clair Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed her with moderate dementia. A Common Pleas Court judge later declared her incapacitated.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07103/777686-181.stm

if true, this poor woman needs, at the very least, a new attorney.

it sounds like she would never have approved of these donations. "She volunteered some opinions about the current president -- she does not like George W. Bush, she said -- and complained bitterly about donations she said she is certain she neither approved nor was aware of."

Just the opposite. I hope her lawyer gets what's coming to him. Right out of the repuke playbook: pretend to be someone's savior and then rob them of everything. :puke:

crooks.

older ladies near here several years ago..yes they are crooks. what`s amazing is that people actually think they are legit

Just when you don't think they could possibly sink any lower they prove you wrong...my god what's next.

K&R, people need to hear this.

and that's a HUGE "if" -- they'll give the money back to the lady with their deepest apologies for the "misunderstanding".

but smarts is not what's at issue here. If they thought for a minute that they could keep that money without suffering political repercussions, they'd do it in a New York minute.

That lawyer should be disbarred and sent to jail after paying full restitution from his own pocket in addition to their reimbursements IMHO.

Right before a social worker was about to petition the courts to be appointed as this woman's guardian, Mr. McCullough appears on the scene, and has Mrs. Jordan sign a document giving him power of attorney. He invites all of his Republican buddies to sit on the board of the Jordan's charitable trust, and the money just starts flowing into the hands of Republican politicians. According to records, Mrs. Jordan had never contributed a single dime to any politician's campaign until Mr. McCullough took over her affairs.


What a nice guy, huh?

Why does this story not surprise me?

Man that guy looks creepy and sleazy.
If those candidates have an ounce of decency, the money will be returned. I'm not holding my breath though.

Wait, too many to name....:shrug:

innocent little old 90 year old women! These people have really hit bottom. They are such scum.

I hope she got a new attorney.:(

is STILL oblivious to the crime!

My experience with professional malpractise cases against Pittsburgh lawyers - and he's certainly not the first at a big firm to have been caught embezzling from trust accounts of wealthy, elderly or mentally retarded individuals - is that the big firms pay off to settle things quietly and no punitive action is taken by the local or state bar associations, or by the state Supreme Court, which controls attorney licensing. It is only the solo practitioner or very small firm lawyers who lose their licenses or are publicly censured. Why? The old boys' network plus the fact that the large (deep pocket) law firms themselves are guilty of negligence in not monitoring their lawyers, particularly those with control of trust funds for the elderly/vulnerable. And they couldn't take the heat of being publicly named and prosecuted. They may force the individual lawyer out, but they protect his license and pay off his victims, because if anyone sued the individual lawyer, he would immediately name his employer/law firm as a third party defendant.

When I read this whole article, I was surprised to see it did not name the law firm (a big one, with national offices, but based in Pittsburgh). This woman's legal fees are paid to the firm, not to the individual lawyer who mishandled her representation.

This is the same firm which just hired Rick Santorum to lobby for them in DC.

How ironic that Rick Santorum's name would be connected to this firm. If McCullough hadn't been caught, maybe his elderly client would have been "contributing" to Ricky's next campaign for public office.

Believe me, this sleazoid lawyer is catching grief from all the other GOP hacks/politicos/candidates that he didn't funnel some of that cash their way.

Chances are, of course, Charles McCullough is gonna make both lists.

He is certainly deserving of receiving both "honors".

Three members of Allegheny County Council yesterday said they are returning $10,000 campaign donations written from the trust fund of an elderly Upper St. Clair woman who said she never authorized the donations.

Two of the recipients, Jan Rea and Vince Gastgeb, said they held back several weeks before cashing the checks given to them by Pittsburgh attorney Charles McCullough because they were puzzled by their size and the intentions behind them. A third recipient, County Council Member Susan Caldwell, also will be returning her donation, her campaign treasurer said.

"I think I did say to him, 'Are you sure that she would want me to have this amount of money? He said she had ... eight figures in dollars and she wants to help women," said Ms. Rea, the first of the trio to announce her plan to return the donation.

<snip>

While Ms. Rea and Ms. Caldwell will return the donations outright, Mr. Gastgeb said he plans to send back the money, but also request a meeting with Mrs. Jordan to determine whether she had, in fact, intended to contribute to him.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07104/778048-181.stm

probably actually thinks pugs help women.

It is not uncommon for election workers to get the elderly to sign a request for an absentee ballot and then "help" them fill it out.

Judge Allen and Mr. Gastgeb both sit on the board of the Frank J. and Shirley H. Jordan Charitable Foundation, a charity set up last year by Mr. McCullough, who said he was fulfilling an 11-year-old estate plan by the Jordans. The Foundation board has met once, with members paid $1,000 each for their attendance, but none of the board members has met Mrs. Jordan.
One board member, former Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey, abruptly resigned from the board Tuesday after hearing about the campaign donations.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07104/778048-181.stm

I always kind of wondered if maybe they just use people's names as donors to give a source for the contribution.

Grab ten names from the phone book and suddenly that huge influx of campaign money has a "legitimate" source. It isn't like anybody really checks this stuff, ya know... As long as your money wasn't actually involved would YOU know if some Republican listed you as a contributor?

Can you imagine Earl, Elad and Skinner listed as contributors to the Committee to Elect Fred Phelps? Can you envision Will Pitt listed among the campaign contributors for Newt? I'm not saying they are--but I'm trying to illustrate my point. None of us have probably ever thought to even check anything like that. Hell, you could say Gandhi contributed to the Elect Dubya fund and unless anybody ever checked that list of contributors it would go under the radar.

Maybe this old lady's lawyer ripped her off. I hope not, but it sure sounds like it could happen. I also wonder just how much anyone checks these contributor lists to see if the people listed actually parted with that cash...

Regards!

Laura

:grr: :mad: :argh: