The political corruption in Northampton County and its seat Easton runs deep but is now rising to the surface, not of its own accord, but through the trolling of the BillyBytes newsletter and website. It’s hauling in such denizens of the deep as Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and County Executive Glenn Reibman.

BillyBytes is pulling these bottom feeders from the muck so fast they’re getting the bends, the political equivalent of caisson disease that afflicts deep-sea divers when they rise too rapidly from the water’s depth. Indeed, these freaks resemble underwater divers more than they resemble fish. Fish breathe naturally through their gills. The freaks derive their life-sustaining oxygen from graft, bribery, campaign contributions, and other chicanery such as nepotism, political patronage, and cronyism.

Diving helmets encase their hydrocephalic heads. The water volume inside these big heads equalizes the outside water’s crush. It is this equalization of pressure that protects the naturally impaired brain, cushioned in its cranial cavity, from any further damage. The freaks would not need a helmet if not for their need to breathe.

Nick Sabatine joined the school of council members only last November. Yet Nick, hardly wet behind the ears, already wants to leave this smaller pool of bottom feeders to swallow the biggest fish in the larger political pond of the newly formed 18^th Senate district, Lisa Boscola.

Meanwhile, Sabatine continues to flirt with Morganelli, County Council President Dowd, and Council Solicitor Brian Monahan in suppressing Quo Warranto, which would nullify the $111 million megabond, the General Purpose Authority (GPA), and the Tredinnick report, which bears witness to corruption in Northampton County’s prison.

A victim of this prison corruption is former inmate Henry Rodriquez, the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Northampton County. The suit, now in Federal court, alleges that the city of Easton police framed Rodriguez. This alleged abuse of authority stems from a fatal automobile accident involving Rodriguez while he was on work release from prison.

A professional Bucks County accident reconstructionist absolved Rodriguez of liability in the fatality. However, Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Thomas prevented this evidence that would have exonerated Rodriguez from going to trial. Instead, Rodriguez was busted on trumped-up drug and alcohol charges and sentenced to two more years in prison. Though Rodriguez was a model prisoner during the subsequent two years, Northampton courts denied him work release.

Rodriguez’s case is scheduled for trial this spring in the Eastern District Federal Court in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Rodriguez is scheduled to meet with Pennsylvania prison reform activist Ernie Preate, a former attorney general of the Commonwealth. Rodriguez reportedly has enlisted Preate’s aid to spotlight abuses at the Northampton County Prison.

Caught also in BillyBytes’ net is the Easton Hospital Authority (EHA). It, like the GPA, is illegal. Both authorities share members, such as Greg Zebrowski and Marilyn Lieberman. And both authorities share as their chairman Glenn Reibman, an arrangement that flouts the legal requirement that authorities must be independent of the county’s executive. Reibman is Northampton County’s self-anointed dictator.

The arrangement also mocks the separation of power between the authorities on the one hand and county council on the other. Greg Zebrowski and Marilyn Lieberman were once simultaneous members of all three bodies – council, GPA, and EHA. Because both the GPA and the EHA are illegally constituted, the actions emanating from them are likewise illegal.

The GPA’s illegal actions include the $111 million megabond, of course, and a $1 million low-interest loan to downtown Easton’s Weller Center with no time limit for repayment.