County native who worked for Perzel charged in probe

A Lancaster County native who once worked as a top aide to Rep. John Perzel is among 10 people charged in the wide-ranging probe of corruption at the state Legislature.
John R. Zimmerman, a 1965 Garden Spot High School graduate is accused of obstructing agents from the Attorney General's office as they sought evidence from a Capitol storage room in February 2008.
Attorney General Tom Corbett, speaking at a news conference Thursday, expressed frustration that Perzel aides allegedly tried to cover up an illegal scheme in which more than $10 million in taxpayer money was spent to help win political campaigns.
"You're interfering with justice; you're interfering with people finding out what truly happened," Corbett said.
Zimmerman, 61, formerly of New Holland, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Hummelstown resident did not return an e-mail message or telephone messages at his home or office Friday.
Zimmerman now works as the open records officer for the House Republican Caucus. Corbett said the obstruction charges against him stem from subpoenas issues by a grand jury investigating the alleged misuse of public resources and employees for campaign purposes.
The subpoenas, served on the House Republican Caucus on Feb. 26, 2008, sought "any and all evidence of campaign work" and listed a number of employees who may have performed the campaign work.
Two days later, a legislative employee told investigators that boxes containing campaign materials were being removed from a basement assigned to Perzel in the Capitol complex.
The next day, the grand jury issued a subpoena ordering the immediate production of any and all documents or materials removed from the storage room on Feb. 26 or during the prior 60 days. It also ordered the disclosure of any and all materials removed from the room.
On the evening of Feb. 29, an agent and a prosecutor from the attorney general's Public Corruption Unit went to the Capitol complex to inspect numerous boxes that reportedly had been removed from the storage room.
They were escorted by Capitol security officers, attorneys for the Republican Caucus and Perzel staffers Zimmerman and Paul Towhey.
When questions that evening, Zimmerman and Towhey denied any knowledge of boxes containing campaign material being removed from the storage room, Corbett said.
A subsequent investigation found that the boxes containing evidence of campaign work performed by public employees had in fact been removed from the storage room on or before Feb. 26, Corbett said Thursday.
Testimony of caucus messengers corroborated by Capitol security video footage confirmed that two cartloads of boxes were transferred from the storage room to Perzel's office suite in the main Capitol building, he said.
Corbett said the grand jury found that prior to Feb. 29 Perzel's secretary had twice gone to the storage room and examined the materials and told Towhey, who was then Perzel's chief of staff, of the existence of campaign materials.
Towhey, Corbett said, ordered her to have the materials transferred to Perzel's office suite and then to move the campaign materials and evidence of campaign work out of Perzel's suite to the House Republican Campaign Committee offices, located across the street from the Capitol complex.
The grand jury examined Towhey's phone records for the week of Feb. 25 during the times pertinent to the alleged hiding of the campaign materials. Corbett said they indicated that he was in frequent telephone contact with Perzel and Zimmerman during that time.
According to newspaper records, Zimmerman is a retired captain with the U.S. Marine Band who helped plan presidential inaugurals for Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and supervised inauguration ceremonies for former Gov. Tom Ridge.
Zimmerman is charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution and obstructing administration of law or other governmental function.