Defense attorney, Jeff Conrad, negotiated the withdrawal of 84 charges in exchange for a guilty plea. On Monday, April 27, 2015, Bainbridge man, Albert Gingrich, pleaded guilty to two felony and one misdemeanor sex crimes involving minors.
“This is a very sad situation. We were happy to get something negotiated with the Commonwealth that serves justice and keeps the victims from testifying,” said Conrad after the plea hearing in Crawford County. “Mr. Gingerich is very remorseful and wants to put this terrible chapter of his life behind him.”
In honor of its founder and director, Caleb Walker, A Week Away will hold the grand finale of the Light the Tree Campaign at the Federal Taphouse on Saturday, December 20, 2014.
Caleb Walker died of brain and spinal cancer on December 3, 2014, just days after launching the Light the Tree campaign to raise $20,000 by December 20.
Walker started the non-profit organization to provide a week of vacation for individuals and their families faced with a life-threatening illness. Through six brain surgeries, a few courses of radiation, and almost continual chemotherapy, Walker fought to provide others the rest he had experienced.
After a weekend vacation with his family, Walker said, “I can still remember how that weekend was one of the first times I felt like a normal person since the diagnosis.”
That weekend sparked Walker’s vision: “In starting A Week Away, we hope to give every immediate family member and/or primary caregiver a week of peace in their chaotic world. We believe that by giving families even just one week of peace together they can return home with the hope they need to continue their fight.”
Three years after dropping charges against Timothy Miller, federal prosecutors re-indicted on charges related to parental kidnapping. The New York Times has the story here.
Come tailgate with supporters of Curt Morris on Thursday, October 23, 2014. A showing of Invincible will benefit Morris, who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at age 46.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Dinner, catered by Pork & Wally’s Eatery and Colebrook Bakery, will be served at 6:00 p.m. Attendees will enjoy a private showing of Invincible, the 2006 sports film based on the true story of Vince Papale, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1976-1978. The evening will close with a basket raffle.
Adult tickets are $30 and student tickets are $20. Email nolmer6@pto.net to reserve your seat.
Saturday, October 11, 2014, the Central Pennsylvania Confederation of Clubs will host its 19th Annual Toy Ride. The COC hopes to exceed previous years and raise at least $50,000 to benefit child patients.
Attorney Jeff Conrad of Clymer Musser & Conrad and many other motorcyclists will ride from Lancaster to Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital to donate money and toys for sick children.
Registration is from 9:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. at the AMVETS Post 19, Lancaster, PA. The ride leaves at 12:00 p.m. rain or shine. Registration is $10 per motorcycle or one new unwrapped toy valued at $10.
An all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet will be available from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. for $7 per person.
Wednesday, June 18, Schuylkill County Orphans Court Clerk Theresa Santai-Gaffney filed a Notice of Appeal of Judge John E. Jones III’s same-sex marriage ruling in Whitewood v. Wolf.
Jeff Conrad, one of Santai-Gaffney’s attorneys said, “It would be wrong for anyone to believe the fight is over.”
The appeal was filed after Judge Jones denied Santai-Gaffney’s motion to intervene and motion to stay the allowance of same-sex marriages.
As a the clerk who provides marriage licenses in Schuylkill County, Santai-Gaffney argued that she had a sufficient interest in the case and needed clarification regarding her official duties.
Conrad explained, “The opinion the judge handed down is only applicable to the parties in [Whitewood v. Wolf] — it was not a class action lawsuit. . . Every other individual who issues marriage licenses could totally [ignore Judge Jones’s] decision.”
Attorney Randall Wenger of Pennsylvania Family Institute and Independence Law Center, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Santai-Gaffney’s attorneys Jeff Conrad of Clymer Musser & Conrad and James Smith and David Crossett of Smith Law Group all agree with this position that Judge Jones’s decision does not bind all Pennsylvania officials.
Twenty Republicans legislators signed a letter supporting Santai-Gaffney’s fight for traditional marriage:
“The proponents of same-sex marriage think they can achieve a quick, easy victory by resorting to the federal courts. But they can gain no lasting victory unless rooted in the will of the people in Pennsylvania. The fact that they seek redress in the courts suggests that public support for same-sex marriage is not as overwhelming as its proponents would have the public believe.”
Friday, June 6, Theresa Santai Gaffney, clerk of the Orphans Court of Schuylkill County, filed a Motion to Intervene in Whitewood v. Wolf seeking to protect traditional marriage.
The intervention seeks to have the Third Circuit of Appeals review Judge John E. Jones III decision in May that declared Pennsylvania’s one-man-one-woman marriage law unconstitutional.
Gaffney stated, “The people of Pennsylvania deserve to hear from the Court of Appeals on this important issue because a single judge should not be able to nullify the will of the majority without an appeal.”
Gaffney is represented by Attorney Jeff Conrad of Clymer Musser & Conrad, P.C. and Attorney Jim Smith of Smith Law Group, LLC. Gaffney also filed a motion to stay Judge Jones’s decision pending a ruling on the Motion to Intervene.
In an interview with WGAL, Conrad stated, “[Gaffney] believes very strongly in the institution of marriage, and she believes very strongly that the people should get a chance to be heard not just a singular judge.”
As the chief clerk of the office which provides marriage licenses in Schuylkill County, Gaffney hopes the intervention will provide clarity on her legal duties.
In the interim, Gaffney said, “Due to the uncertainty of the state of the law, I will continue issuing marriage licenses to all couples.”
“Prayer [in town meetings] has a permissible ceremonial purpose. It is not an unconstitutional establishment of religion,” said Justice Anthony Kennedy on May 5, 2014, in the majority opinion of Greece, NY v. Galloway, et al.
Justice Elena Kagan in her dissenting opinion argued that sectarian prayer to a god of a specific religion left some offended and feeling excluded.
Justice Kennedy said constitutionality has nothing to do with citizens taking offense: “Adults often encounter speech they find disagreeable. Legislative bodies do not engage in impermissible coercion merely by exposing constituents to prayer they would rather not hear and in which they need not participate.”
Justice Kagan said that she did not believe prayer should be banned altogether, but that payers should be “inclusive of different faiths, rather than always identified with a single religion.”
Justice Kagan’s dissent stated that the town of Greece’s prayers from the chaplain of the month, who was usually Christian, were not in keeping “with the First Amendment’s promise that every citizen, irrespective of her religion, owns an equal share in her government.”
Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion stated that Justice Kagan’s restrictions would force the government to “act as supervisors and censors of religious speech, a rule that would involve government in religious matters to a far greater degree than is the case under the town’s current practice of neither editing or approving prayers in advance nor criticizing their content after the fact.”
Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion was joined in whole by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and joined in part by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Justice Kagan’s dissent was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor.
Read more about the decision here or read the opinions here.
In May, Clymer Musser & Conrad, P.C.’s Jeff Conrad traveled to Texas to attend the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM) 29th Annual Convention. The yearly NCOM convention brings motorcycle clubs from around the country together to work toward causes that are common to all motorcyclists.
The right to ride free, the right to ride with or without a helmet, the right to ride with custom motorcycle modifications, the right to safe highways, and the right to equal respect on the highway are just a few of the many causes that NCOM and its member clubs fight to protect.
Motorcyclists experience an exhilarating freedom when they take to the open road on a bike that is unique and exclusive to them. The brotherhood among motorcyclists that forms on the highway is legendary, nostalgic, and practical.
Protecting freedoms is important to Clymer Musser & Conrad, P.C. Exercising those freedoms on the steel back of a great American motorcycle is downright thrilling.
