Former elected Democrat and anti-Trumper Mike Marsicano, running as a Republican for the second time against a former Trump official in the Pennsylvania primary for a U.S. House seat, allegedly abused his then-wife in the early 2000s and has a history of fighting and racism according to unearthed records.
In January 2000, records showed the former Democrat “abused” his wife “physically” for four years, which overlapped during his time as mayor — part of the reason why he also threatened her “not to tell anyone” since he “had control of the law” because of his position as mayor, at the time. Lanora Marsicano, his then-wife, reportedly filed documents with the court two days after Marsicano left office as mayor. Lanora said her then-husband had “physically abused her for the past four years and used his relationship with police to keep her quiet.”
In fact, at the time, Lanora also claimed her husband had “at least 30 guns in his home and has threatened to use them out of anger stemming from the couple’s Dec. 8 divorce filing,” in addition to throwing a shoe at her, which busted her lip months prior, and “threw her across the room” in 1996.
Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., the judge assigned to their case, ordered Mike Marsicano to “refrain from hurting, threatening, harassing or stalking his wife and directed him to relinquish his guns immediately to Luzerne County Sheriff Barry Stankus” in addition to “undergo a psychological evaluation.”
Shortly after that, it was reported that an agreement was made with Lanora to allow the former Democrat to keep his gun, but granted a restraining order for “[Mike] Marsicano to have no contact with his wife, including telephone contact, and orders him to refrain from harming, harassing or stalking her” for one year.
His employer at the time, Continental Airlines, also grounded him due to the abuse allegations made. Wilkes-Barre Times Leader reported he would be grounded due to the pending allegations. An airline spokeswoman at the time, Michele Treacy, said, “Given the seriousness of these allegations we felt it appropriate to remove Mr. Marsicano from the flight schedule until this matter is fully investigated.”
Mike Marsicano did not respond to Breitbart News’s request for comment regarding the allegations of abuse from his then-wife in the late 1990s.
Mike Marsicano was also accused of using a racial slur and grabbing an African-American minor by the neck. In 1997, while he was mayor, a “formal complaint” was filed with the NACCP after an African-American 16-year-old city resident, Gyles Simmons, said the mayor tracked down and “called him ‘racial names’ and used excessive force when he took him into custody” when he was allegedly seen “recklessly riding a motorcycle around town.”
Two witnesses supported the 16-year-old Simmons’s claim against the mayor.
“He grabbed me by my neck. He dragged me across the ground. My foot hit a rock. … He called me racial names, but he’ll never admit that,” Simmons said. Simmons reportedly had to use crutches and had his left foot in bandages following the incident. The mayor said he told Simmons, “I’m the mayor, and you’re under arrest.”
Mike Marsicano also did not respond to Breitbart News’s request for comment regarding the use of racial slurs and excessive force toward Simmons in 1997.
The former Democrat mayor ran for Congress before as a Democrat in 2016 and 2018 as a Democrat in Pennsylvania’s Eleventh Congressional District, Breitbart News previously reported.
Then, Mike Marsicano switched political parties from a registered Democrat to a registered Republican in 2019 — which was before he announced his bid for Pennsylvania’s Eighth Congressional District to run against Rep. Matt Cartwright in the 2020 election. In that year’s GOP primary, Mike Marsicano lost the nomination when he only garnered 12.9 percent of the primary vote, less than half of 2020 Republican nominee Jim Bognet’s 28.4 percent.
This year the former Democrat will go head to head against Bognet, who worked in President Donald Trump’s administration to help create manufacturing jobs to rebuild America’s industrial heartland, in next month’s primary.
Bognet openly called his time in the Trump administration one of the “greatest honors” of his life and was proud to attend the president’s 2020 Republican nomination acceptance speech at the White House and had Trump’s endorsement in 2020; Mike Marsicano is far different.
Additionally, during the 2016 presidential election cycle, Mike Marsicano did not want to endorse the former president. He called himself a “conservative Democrat” but still said he would not endorse Trump in the presidential election. Instead, he ran against former Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA), who openly supported the former president and his policies at the time.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
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