Posted: Friday, 08 May 2009 11:47AM
Character Matters
Steve Corbett Reporting
Friday, May 08, 2009
When it comes to choosing judges, character matters.
Maybe even more than legal intellect, character provides the human barometer from which wisdom and true judgment evolves.
If those words sound heady, it’s because the statement is heady. Without strong character, judges are just lawyers with the right connections. Without the spirit of the law, the letter of the law is as dark as the dirtiest black robe.
Justice in Northeastern Pennsylvania has been cloaked in those filthy garments.
Two gangsters who once served as president judges in Luzerne County have smeared the reputation of judges as badly as the behavior of the worst jurists in American history. News of their crimes has circled the globe and our reputation as a haven for injustice will follow us forever.
Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan are headed to prison.
Their disgraceful behavior both in and out of the courtroom is unparalleled. Yet, some lawyers argue that our choice of judges at the ballot box must be based on their behavior in the courtroom.
That premise is as dangerous as it is foolish.
Character matters.
And that means how judges or prospective judges conduct themselves in every aspect of their lives.
Lackawanna County Judge Terry Nealon raises this issue of character to a very high level.
Nealon, who wants to be retained for another 10-year-term as a judge, is a proud attendee at the annual Lackawanna County Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner, a men-only gathering that each year celebrates the time-honored tradition of discrimination against women.
I worry that any judge who continues to patronize a segregationist society event might have lost track of the liberty and justice for all that supposedly defines American law. I worry that a judge who would never attend an event that openly discriminates against Jews or blacks would attend a diner that discriminates against women.
For that reason and others I will not vote to retain Nealon in November.
The same goes for his colleague, Michael Barrasse, a judge who also showed me his insensitivity on a day long ago when my dad called the then Lackawanna County District Attorney with a suggestion regarding a case.
My father retired from the Pennsylvania State Police as the most highly decorated officer in the history of the job. He was the first trooper to receive a governor’s citation for heroism and was named one of Parade Magazine’s top 10 cops in the country.
My father waited and waited for Barrasse to get back in touch with him about the case. But the DA had better things to do. As a result, he lost input from one of the best detectives in the world about a case that could have used one of the best investigative minds I have ever known.
Now Barrasse wants to be retained as a county judge for another 10 years.
For that and other reasons, I will not vote for Barrasse in November.
Two Lackawanna County Assistant District Attorneys called “Corbett” yesterday to defend Nealon and Barrasse, two judges before whom the prosecutors regularly appear. The lawyers argued that these judges are perfect examples of the finest jurists.
Really, we deserve better.
In November, Lackawanna County voters will decide. And you don’t have to be a lawyer to make a sound choice for judges who will decide life and death issues for the next decade.
All you need is common sense.
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