Release of porn e-mails prompts review by Philly DA

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office is reviewing pornographic and inappropriate e-mails exchanged by at least two of its current employees. The e-mails were part of a document dump by the state Supreme Court Wednesday. They were released along with other court filings in the case involving Attorney General Kathleen Kane. The e-mails show that two former state prosecutors, Frank Fina and Marc Costanzo, sent or received pornographic and otherwise obscene e-mails while working in the state’s Office of Attorney General. Kane has singled out Fina and Costanzo as her fiercest critics, according to findings by the grand jury that investigated and recommended charges against her. Fina and Costanzo now work for Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams. In a statement Wednesday afternoon, the office pledged to review the e-mails and other court filings for any conduct that violates office policies.According to one filing released today, Kane argued last November that Fina and Costanzo should be “investigated and possibly prosecuted” for participating in the smutty email exchange on state computers. But the emails released today show many other participants remain on the payroll at Kane’s office. OAG spokesman Chuck Ardo said current employees caught up in the e-mails have agreed to stop exchanging inappropriate messages. “There were any number of people who were sanctioned by the office in a variety of ways,” Ardo said Wednesday. “The people who continued to either send or receive banned e-mails were the ones that were let go.”Kane faces criminal charges for allegedly leaking secret investigative material and lying about it. Montgomery County prosecutors say Kane slipped the information to the press to embarrass Fina and Costanzo, in particular. Kane has said she plans to fight the charges, and claims they stem from her efforts to expose the lewd e-mails. She has not explained how the presence of an effort by Fina and Costanzo to suppress the e-mails could exonerate her.