Carlisle Arrested... uh, Detained... uh, Something

The Tribune-Review is reporting that Pittsburgh City Councilmember Twanda Carlisle will be arraigned this morning in District Court. She is facing charges of theft and criminal conspiracy. At the moment, there are no specific details about the criminal offenses that Ms. Carlisle is alleged to have committed. District Attorney Stephen Zappala is not commenting, but his office has been investigating Ms. Carlisle for some time now, ever since last year's referral to his office from the city's Law Department. According to the Tribune-Review, the investigation has broadened considerably since this referral was made, a grand jury has been looking into the matter, and charges against other individuals remain possible.

The timing of these events, coming just one month prior to the Democratic primary, must really suck for Ms. Carlisle. Of course, she -- and everybody else -- knew that things would get to this stage at some point prior to the primary. But she must have been hoping that her perp walk would take place earlier in the year, to give her campaign some time to recover from this blow.

Time will tell whether these events will have any impact on the election. Obviously, they hurt Ms. Carlisle's chances. But she still faces an enormous number of challengers (seven at last count) for her seat on City Council. Depending on how far the anti-Carlisle vote is split among these many faces, she could still pull this one out. To his credit, the endorsed Democrat in the race, Rev. Ricky Burgess -- pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Homewood -- is not making Ms. Carlisle's legal problems a central issue in his campaign. Indeed, all he has had to say on this matter is that he is "... praying for her and her family in this difficult time". Maybe a healthy dose of Christian charity is precisely what Pittsburgh politics needs at the moment.

Those who enjoy semantic gymnastics, the bending of legal definitions, and the twisting of logic into unrecognizable new forms will probably be treated to quite a show later on today. I can only imagine that Ms. Carlisle -- much like Interim Mayor Luke Ravenstahl did when his Heinz Field handcuffing became public -- will attempt to claim that these events do not constitute an arrest. Despite the fact that she has been formally charged with a criminal offense in a court of law, she will probably note that she surrendered voluntarily and was never handcuffed, and thus she was never "arrested".

One councilmember is forcibly detained by police and handcuffed, but that's not an arrest, at least as he tells it, because he was never charged with a crime. Another is charged with a crime, but without the drama of being forcibly detained and put into handcuffs. That probably won't be an arrest, either. Ain't Pittsburgh politics fun?

UPDATE: The Post-Gazette has posted some details regarding the specifics of the charges, including this fascinating tidbit:

An affidavit filed by Det. William Miller of the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office indicates that on 50 occasions, Ms. Carlisle made cash deposits into her personal bank account at Dollar Bank within one day of one of the consultants cashing a city check. On 13 other occasions, she made cash deposits within two days of one of the consultants cashing a city check.

She could have at least been a bit more subtle about the whole thing, and waited more than a day or two to deposit the kickbacks into her personal bank account.