A federal judge has set rules for Schuylkill County Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr.’s defense counsel to get contents of Clerk of Courts Maria T. Casey’s county-owned electronic devices as a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Halcovage progresses.

United States Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson on May 12 filed the rules, which he wrote balance the need for information with the privacy of the public.

The rules limit the time and scope of the data on the office hard drives and cellphone.

First, the digital information to be searched will include only that stored on the Clerk of Courts’ county-owned devices after the date Casey took office in 2016.

Second, only digital information, together with metadata, referencing any of the four plaintiffs or George Halcovage shall be produced.

Third, in order to ensure that the search is conducted in a neutral and detached manner, the parties may choose to have the search conducted by either the county’s IT Department or an IT consultant agreed upon by the parties and Intervenor.

Fourth, in order to protect and preserve any claims of privilege that may exist, once potentially relevant records are identified through this search, Casey and her counsel may review the potentially responsive and relevant information before production and, to the extent she concludes the relevant information contains privileged information, Casey may redact it and provide all parties with a privilege log.

Finally, in order to allow for a dispassionate assessment of any privilege claims if upon review of the privilege log there is any dispute relating to redacted information, the parties may submit the redacted information to the court for a private review.

Casey, who is not involved in the lawsuit filed March 16, 2021, by four women who work in the courthouse, has contended she is being targeted because she has been a vocal supporter of the women.

She asked the court to intervene, and on April 18, Carlson agreed. He asked the two sides to concur on search protocols, but they couldn’t agree, but submitted competing proposals to the court.

Carlson noted that employees are not entitled to any rights of privacy regarding county owned electronics. However, he needed to balance that policy with the rights of the people whose cases are handled by the Clerk of Courts office.

Background

An investigation by the county Human Resources Department in June 2020 determined Halcovage violated the sexual harassment, conduct and disciplinary action, and the physical and verbal abuse policies.

The four women, all courthouse employees, filed the federal lawsuit on March 16, 2021, alleging sexual harassment and sexual assault beginning in 2012, the year Halcovage was first elected.

Although all four are identified only as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, Jane Doe 3, and Jane Doe 4, two of them, through a series of public comments made by citizens and Commissioner Gary J. Hess have been revealed as Tax Claim Director Angela Toomey and Assistant Director Denise McGinley-Gerchak.

Halcovage, along with County Administrator Gary R. Bender, and assistant county solicitor Glenn T. Roth Jr., interim Human Resources Director Doreen Kutzler and current Human Resources Director Heidi Zula were named as defendants.

Halcovage has denied the accusations.

The suit was amended on Oct. 29, 2021, alleging the defendants took employment actions against some of the women that were unlawful discrimination, created a hostile work environment, and were intimidation and retaliation for filing the suit.

In September, Toomey and Gerchak were accused by commissioners of conducting improper searches on the county’s sophisticated database, LexisNexis. Those accusations led to a monthslong investigation, the result of which have not been made public.

It also led to commissioners on March 9 spending $277,894 to send notifications to the 9,146 people whose sensitive information they say may have been compromised in the searched, plus a year of free credit monitoring to each one.

Toomey and Gerchak were suspended without pay in September, but have since won unemployment benefits.

A motion, also on March 9, to fire the women failed when Commissioner Gary J. Hess opposed the move, Halcovage abstained, and Commissioners Chairman Barron L. Hetherington voted in favor.

Last week, Judge Carlson granted a request by the U.S. Department of Justice to join the sexual harassment suit against Halcovage.

In January, state Sen. David G. Argall launched a move to impeach Halcovage. That process is moving through the state Legislature.