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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Monday that the state government can refuse to provide defense lawyers and decline to pay the cost of financial judgments against prison guards who engage in criminal or malicious conduct. The 4-3 ruling overturned an arbitration panel's January 2006 award to the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association and restored the discretion of the state Corrections and Public Welfare departments over when to represent workers accused of wrongdoing. The Commonwealth Court majority opinion by Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said the arbitrators had put the state in a position where it had to defend employees for anything they did at the workplace, including murder. The union, which represents about 9,400 workers in state prisons and mental hospitals, said that more than 1,500 lawsuits were filed against its members in 2002 alone. The Corrections Department said only in rare cases has it not paid to represent workers in lawsuits or indemnify them against civil judgments. In recent years, attorneys' fees were denied to one prison guard allegedly caught on videotape kneeing an inmate in the face during a strip search, and to a second whose legal fees were deemed excessive. Guards who believe they are unfairly denied state-paid legal representation or indemnification can appeal to an administrative hearing body, then to Commonwealth Court and the state Supreme Court. The dissent, written by Judge Dan Pellegrini, said the majority decision conflicts with state law that all matters related to employment are subject to collective bargaining. "The inescapable outcome of the majority reasoning is that for all intents and purposes, public employment collective bargaining would cease to exist as we know it because there are statutes vesting 'exclusive jurisdiction' in department heads, city councils, mayors and supervisors to set salaries and determine other terms and conditions of employment," Pellegrini wrote. He said the majority decision subjects prison guards and state troopers -- who also have legal representation and indemnification rights -- to potential "financial ruin for meritless charges brought by criminals." The Corrections Department and prison guards' union had no immediate comment on the ruling.
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