Ray Musto obit

Ex-state Sen. Raphael Musto, 85, dies not long after being released from prison for medical reasons

 

He was not on the list.

Former State Sen. Raphael Musto has died at the age of 85 at home this morning, his niece, former Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll, has confirmed.

“It’s so, so sad,” a tearful Musto Carroll said.

“He had a lifetime of service. He was a good man. He helped a lot of people in our area,” she said. “I am proud to say he was my uncle.”

Officials with the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office said Musto died of natural causes at his Pittston Township home.

The news comes less than three weeks after a U.S. District judge allowed the cancer-stricken ex-lawmaker to return home from a federal medical center in North Carolina, where he had been committed after being ruled not competent to stand trial on a longstanding federal corruption case.

Musto’s passing also comes the day before developer Robert Mericle, with whom he had been been linked, faces sentencing on unrelated federal corruption charges.

Court case

Musto, a Democrat, had been Luzerne County’s senior elected leader in Harrisburg, where he served eight years in the House of Representatives and 28 years as a state senator, retiring in November 2010.

One week before his scheduled retirement, Musto was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of accepting $25,000 from a construction contractor who developed various properties in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.

Musto allegedly accepted the cash and other items of value from the contractor as part of a scheme designed to secure his continued support of various construction projects, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Musto’s attorneys, John E. Riley and William J. Murray, have previously identified the contractor as Mericle.

The retired lawmaker pleaded not guilty.

Mericle pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges unrelated to Musto’s case, and is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow before U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik in Scranton.

The indictment also alleges Musto accepted thousands of dollars in cash from another unnamed individual affiliated with Northeast Pennsylvania municipal authorities. Musto allegedly accepted those cash payments as a reward for having helped the municipal authorities obtain loans and grants.

Musto sought an indefinite continuance of the trial, contending health issues and mental deterioration made him unable to withstand a trial or participate in his own defense. His attorneys cited an aortic aneurysm and non-alcoholic cirrhosis.

In January, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo ruled Musto was physically able to go to trial but mentally incompetent. Musto was ordered to report to Federal Medical Center at Butner, 12 miles north of Durham, N.C., for evaluation.

Cancer diagnosis

Examination by doctors at the facility revealed Musto had Stage IV lymph cell cancer, and he could have as little as two months to live, Musto’s attorneys wrote in a March 24 release petition.

A letter from a local oncologist submitted by defense attorneys prior to a hearing earlier this month suggested the Pittston Township resident’s prognosis was poor, adding that it wasn’t clear whether treatment was even an option. On the eve of an April 4 release hearing, documents revealed a family doctor felt hospice might be Musto’s ultimate destination.

On March 7, Musto’s attorneys said, a doctor at FMC Butner informed Musto’s granddaughter that a bone marrow biopsy resulted in a diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, or lymph cell cancer, and that it was his belief chemotherapy should be started as soon as possible.

“The physical issues have now overtaken the issue of mental incompetence,” Musto’s lawyers wrote.

Musto participated in the April 4 release hearing via a video link from North Carolina, although he expressed great difficulty hearing the proceedings.

“It’s obvious this is a dire circumstance. There’s not any question in my mind about it,” Caputo said prior to ruling that Musto could return to Luzerne County.

Caputo at one point stopped the proceeding to ask defense attorney John E. Riley, of West Chester, if he wished to proceed under the circumstances, to which the lawyer agreed.

“How did I do, OK?” Musto was heard asking after the hearing concluded. “That means I’m going home?”

Final days

Prosecuting and defense attorneys this week agreed to ask a federal appellate court to put Musto’s appeal of various court rulings in his corruption case on hold for two months, in light of his rapidly deteriorating health.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a “motion to stay briefing schedule” Monday with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of appeals. The motion notes Musto’s attorneys consented to the request.

Riley did not return a telephone message seeking comment this morning.

Amanda L. Endy, secretary to the U.S. Attorney in Harrisburg, said today the office had no information and no comment regarding Musto.

Musto Carroll said her uncle died at home earlier today with his wife at his side. Family members were grateful for the few weeks Musto was able to spend at home with them before he died, she said, including their final Easter celebration together

“Everyone in the family was grateful that he was able to do that,” Musto Carroll said.

Musto was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Pittston Township High School. He served in the United States Army from 1951 to 1953 during the Korean War. He graduated from Kings College in Wilkes-Barre in 197