Prothonotary’s actions are the focus of whistleblower suit filed against Clearfield County

The actions of Clearfield County Prothonotary Brian Spencer are the focus of a whistleblower lawsuit filed against the county by a former employee.

Longtime Clerk of Courts employee Linda Luce was fired by Spencer in February allegedly after she complained about another employee.

The lawsuit claims that Spencer hired his friend, Stephen Marshall, as the deputy prothonotary and clerk of courts in 2014, but Marshall “performed little or no work.” Luce states in the paperwork that she complained about this to several county employees, including Spencer who then fired her.

Clearfield County judges Fredric J. Ammerman and Paul E. Cherry have accused Spencer of not properly processing court paperwork. Although not named, the firing of Luce is mentioned in their statements as the beginning of the problem.

In that statement issued on July 17, they explain that this “started in February of this year when Spencer, for no legitimate reason, fired the clerk employee who processed a large percentage of the criminal documents.” It goes on to say that Luce had 28 years of experience and had worked for three prior prothonotaries.

They claim that Spencer “did not understand what that employee actually did,” and her replacement had no experience in the criminal system.

In the original statement released July 11, the judges said “without the necessary documents, prisoners are not timely paroled, transfer of prisoners to state prison is delayed and taxpayer’s money is wasted on jail overcrowding and housing of our prisoners in other counties.” They blamed the delay on mismanagement by Spencer.

Spencer’s response was to say this attack is politically motivated because he is campaigning for re-election this year.

On July 25, the judges issued an administrative order listing the various types of paperwork with deadlines for the office to process them. If they are not handled in a timely manner, Spencer can be held in contempt of court. The judges stated this was necessary because Spencer has not responded to their requests for a plan to handle the backlog of court documents.

Spencer claims in his response to the judges that he has an “open door policy” and “we have asked for input from anyone who is willing to make the system better but have always had the door closed on us.”

Luce is asking for loss of her income and benefits, as well as damages for emotional distress totaling more than $20,000.

This story was originally published August 9, 2017 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Prothonotary’s actions are the focus of whistleblower suit filed against Clearfield County."