MIDDLEBURG — Four people are vying for a chance to serve as district attorney in Snyder County through the end of the year.

Interviews will be held today with the candidates who have applied to fill the vacancy created when former District Attorney Michael Sholley was elected in November to a decade-long term as judge in the 17th Judicial District, which comprises Snyder and Union counties.

Sholley and President Judge Harold F. Woelfel Jr. will interview each candidate. They are expected to announce their selection by the end of January, and the successful candidate will serve as district attorney until a November election determines who will complete the term through 2012.

The candidates include Matthew Slivinski, a Selinsgrove attorney, John Reed, Snyder County's chief public defender, and Michael Piecuch, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association.

A fourth applicant has asked not to be named publicly, Woelfel said.

Several court watchers have speculated that the fourth candidate is Frank Fina, chief deputy attorney in the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, who is overseeing the corruption probe of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

A resident of Selinsgrove, Fina served as a Union County assistant district attorney in the early 1990s.

In an interview last month, Fina denied he's thrown his name into the candidate pool. Although he expressed interest in the job, he said the timing isn't right because the prosecution of several high-ranking state lawmakers is set to begin soon.

The search for a qualified candidate was launched because First Assistant District Attorney Michael Hudock, who lives in Union County, doesn't meet the residency portion of the county code requiring that an appointee live in Snyder County for at least a year.

Here are the named candidates:



Matthew Slivinski

A 1999 Selinsgrove Area High School graduate, Slivinski is the youngest child of Selinsgrove attorney Robert Slivinski and his wife, Ali.

He's been practicing law in Selinsgrove for about a year and already had his eye on the 2012 district attorney race before Sholley was elected judge.

When the district attorney position opened up, Slivinski decided it was time to seize the opportunity and sent his resume to the judges.

"I think I'm just as qualified as anyone," he said.

At 29, Slivinski expects his age will be an issue, but said he views it as an asset.

"Being young, I have a lot more energy and time to devote to the job," he said.

Slivinski is a 2003 graduate of Albright College in Reading, with a bachelor's degree in environmental science and environmental policy.

He graduated from Widener University School of Law, Harrisburg, in 2008 and was admitted to the state bar that same year.

He's a drug court advocate and would like to be involved in programs that help turn lives around.

"For me, it's the challenge of being involved in different areas, such as prison board and drug court," he said of the position. "You do make a difference in people's lives."



Michael Piecuch

Piecuch, who lives in Selinsgrove with his wife and three children, describes himself as a career prosecutor who is interested in criminal law and public service.

"Being district attorney would be a culmination of that," he told The Daily Item last month.

A 1993 graduate of Albany Law School, he serves as executive director of the state association that handles public policy, advocacy and outreach priorities of the state's 67 district attorneys.

Piecuch is also director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Institute and its legal resource prosecutor.

He has been an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia and a Pennsylvania deputy attorney general, as well as chief of staff for House Speaker Dennis O'Brien, majority chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee and counsel to the leader of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

His background includes a teaching stint at Widener Law School, where he was an adjunct professor.



John Reed

He sought the job before, losing to Sholley by 791 votes in the 2007 election.

A graduate of Syracuse University and Villanova Law School, Reed has worked both sides of the courtroom in his 34-year career.

Prior to joining the public defender's office in 2003, he worked for many years as a federal and state prosecutor.

He served as a senior deputy attorney general for the special prosecutions section of the attorney general's office from 1982 to 1987 and was an assistant U.S. attorney from 1987 to 1991.

After that, he worked as counsel for the Geisinger Health System in Danville before serving as director of the Pennsylvania Medical Professional Liability Catastrophe Loss Fund from 1995 until 2002.

He views the primary responsibility of the district attorney as punishing the guilty and protecting the innocent.

Chairman of the Snyder County Republican Committee, Reed lives in Monroe Township with his wife, Barbara, a former Snyder County district attorney.

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