HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The man who will take over the duties of Pennsylvania’s convicted attorney general on Wednesday is a veteran prosecutor who has handled high-profile cases in suburban Philadelphia, pursued political ambitions and emerged as a central figure in the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby.
Bruce L. Castor Jr. will take the oath Wednesday to become acting attorney general, five months after an embattled Kathleen Kane hired him into the position of “solicitor general” that she specially created for him, including a waiver that allowed him to keep his private law practice. Kane, a Democrat, announced she would resign Wednesday, two days after a jury convicted her of abusing the powers of the state’s top law enforcement office by leaking secret grand jury information to smear a rival and lying under oath to cover it up.
Castor, 54, is a former Republican district attorney from Montgomery County. He entered Kane’s office amid her battles with top aides, spawned, in part, by the unprecedented situation of her law license being suspended by the state Supreme Court. Castor became first deputy attorney general last month.
Castor already has assumed responsibility for big decisions at the attorney general’s office, including declining to appeal a judge’s dismissal of some criminal charges against three former Penn State administrators over their handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Before she announced her resignation Tuesday, Castor advised Kane that it would be “very difficult” for her to continue in her position as attorney general, given her conviction, he told reporters.