So many troubled judges, so few column inches. With three Philadelphia jurists having business before the Court of Judicial Discipline this week, you're forgiven if you can't keep the scandals straight.

You had Willie Singletary slapped with a reprimand for hitting up bikers for contributions, telling them if he was elected to Traffic Court they could use his "hook-up. "

The Judicial folks took issue with Common Pleas Court Judge Willis W. Berry, saying he's running his real estate business out of his chambers.

And Municipal Court Judge James A. DeLeon got a three-month suspension after issuing a bogus order on behalf of a social acquaintance.

Enough supporters traveled to Harrisburg to vouch for DeLeon that Amtrak could have added another car to its Keystone Service. Local NAACP head J. Whyatt Mondesire and attorney Allen Rothenberg spoke on the judge's behalf. Michael Coard, a Philadelphia attorney and talk-show host, wrote to the panel, contending that DeLeon "caused no actual harm to anyone. "

Here's where I object. Sitting alone in the courtroom Monday was Lee Corley, owner of a French-language school in Center City. He's half of the neighborhood dispute that wound up getting DeLeon some unpaid vacation from his job.

Cocktails and court orders

Back in August 2005, DeLeon attended a Center City gathering where he met George Sfedu, the honorary Romanian consul. Sfedu had a problem. According to the judicial board's findings, he complained that Corley had had "unwanted verbal contact" with Sfedu's teenage daughter.

DeLeon told Sfedu he'd take care of it. At the judge's suggestion, Sfedu had his wife, an attorney named Susan Satkowski, call chambers to obtain a "stay away" order, which was sent to Corley.

But the judge never recorded the official-looking order on the court docket as required. And he never held a hearing to determine that the order was deserved.

It was only after Corley's attorney threatened to report DeLeon for the bogus order that the judge revoked it - again off the books.

Not only has Corley been unable to tell his side until this week, he also had to sit in court and hear a stranger depict him as a monster. One of DeLeon's character witnesses, Rothenberg, said he didn't know too much about the case, but "what I know is that he [DeLeon] was keeping a pedophile away from a 14-year-old girl. "

Inquirer reporter Amy Worden was there and took down those words as he said them. Yesterday Rothenberg said he thought DeLeon was only trying to help a child in trouble. Rothenberg said he used the word pedophile because that is what he'd gathered from news accounts. "I regret the use of the word," he told me.

Another side of the story

Corley, meanwhile, is battered. He invited me to his office in the French Communication Institute at 21st and Arch. There, with his wife at his side, and his desk stacked with police reports and judicial findings, he detailed a high-powered neighborhood showdown.

Corley's 43, a major in the Army Reserve who served in Afghanistan and Kuwait. He met his Algerian-born wife when he was at Wharton. She teaches French.

The problem, from his vantage, began around 2001, after the summer camp he runs had moved to the Ethical Society building on Rittenhouse Square.

The Sfedu family lives across narrow Manning Street from the society's back entrance, where dozens of cars would come for campers at the end of each weekday. This caused some commotion, Corley said. (Indeed, the city Licenses and Inspections Department has since made the camp move to another location and get needed permits. )

On July 14, 2005, as the cars lined up at day's end, Corley and Sfedu argued. Corley says Sfedu grabbed his arm and spun him around and then Corley pushed him back. Corley called police. A report shows each man told police he'd been pushed.

The next day Corley contacted the State Department and complained to the head of its Romanian desk, who replied by e-mail that he'd reported the matter to the country's U.S. ambassador.

The next week Corley received a letter from Sfedu's wife, contending that on the day of the argument Corley had hovered over her 15-year-old daughter and had asked where she went to school and what she was doing that summer. Corley had watched the girl key in her home's security code, Sfedu's wife contended. That, she wrote, is why he and her husband exchanged words and more.

Corley, meanwhile, says he never has seen the teen, let alone spoken to her. As a father of two girls, and owner of a business that cares for children, he is horrified by the allegation. "It's fabricated," he said.

Sfedu and his wife didn't respond to my request for an interview. Their attorney, George Bochetto, said he wouldn't argue the facts in this space. "It's very unfortunate," he said, "because frankly, Judge DeLeon was simply trying to do the right thing and the helpful thing for everybody involved. "

Maybe not everybody.

Contact Daniel Rubin at 215-854-5917 or dan.rubin@phillynews.com.