Oct. 30—Joseph Vadella wants to put part of his past to rest.
Almost 25 years after he pleaded guilty in a Lackawanna County courtroom to a pair of misdemeanors in an election-tampering scheme, the former Carbondale mayor is trying to have his state criminal record wiped clean.
County Judge Michael J. Barrasse is expected to hear arguments in November on a petition by Vadella, 65, to expunge the record of his arrest and conviction under Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate Law.
The hearing was originally scheduled last week but continued at the request of First Assistant District Attorney Judy Price, who asked Barrasse for additional time for the DA’s office to review the petition and prepare a response.
Vadella said in an interview the record has been following him around for years and, while it’s not a major impediment at his age, he thought it would be worth the effort to try to make it go away — especially after enactment of the Clean Slate Law in 2018 made that possible.
“It’s a funny thing. It seems like you just never get finished paying,” Vadella said. “I would love to have this thing behind me. But if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
Vadella was in his second year as Carbondale mayor in 1997 when law enforcement officials charged him and two of his brothers with tampering with absentee ballots in the May primary election race for magisterial district judge in Carbondale. One of the brothers was a candidate for the seat.
Vadella pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of harassing a witness and, as part of his plea agreement, resigned as mayor. He was sentenced on the federal count to four months in prison and four months of house arrest.
At the county level, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of tampering with public records and forgery. He was sentenced to three to nine months in jail, with the term running concurrent with his federal sentence, and fined $1,000.
He ran for mayor again in 1999 as a write-in candidate, losing by just two votes.
In his petition, Vadella maintained he is statutorily entitled to relief under the Clean Slate Law, saying more than 10 years has passed since his conviction and he has paid all fines and costs, served his jail sentence and satisfactorily completed all obligations of his county plea agreement.
If he’s successful, his record won’t completely go away. Police, courts, prosecutors and certain other agencies will still have access to it, but it will be sealed from public view.
Vadella pointed out he will be eligible for full expungement of his record under state law when he turns 70.
But he said he’d rather not wait to close the book on a chapter of his life when it seemed as though everybody was against him and “for some reason I was like public enemy No. 1.”
“In the end, when they realized I hadn’t committed all these big crimes, we got together and we made a deal,” Vadella said. “It was OK, and everybody was happy. But I would like to get the clean slate I deserve. That’s it. That’s all.”
Contact the writer:
dsingleton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9132.
