In case-fixing scandal, Philly judge guilty of violating judicial rules

In the latest finding of misconduct among Philadelphia judges, a state disciplinary panel has ruled that Municipal Court Judge Dawn A. Segal violated judicial ethics through her role in a case-fixing scandal.

The Court of Judicial Discipline, in a ruling Thursday, found Segal guilty of seven violations, including bringing the courts into disrepute.

The panel is expected to rule shortly on Segal's punishment. It could order her removed from the bench. Segal, 56, has not been charged with any crime and remains on unpaid suspension.

The judicial charges against Segal are a spin-off of the FBI's investigation of ousted Municipal Court Judge Joseph C. Waters Jr., who is serving a two-year prison sentence for fraud.

The Segal case cited a series of recorded conversations in which Waters asked Segal to help friends and associates appearing before her.

"I got something in front of you at 1 o'clock today," Waters told Segal in a 2011 phone conversation in which he asked for favorable treatment of a politically connected defendant appearing before her in a suit.

"Oh, OK. OK," Segal said, according to the disciplinary panel, as the FBI secretly recorded the call.

In other wiretaps, the FBI captured her calling Waters and indicating that she helped him with her rulings.

One of the most serious judicial charges involves a felony gun count she reduced to a misdemeanor after receiving a call from Waters. Segal had contended that her ruling was not an effort to fix the case but, rather, a legal error she made because she had little experience in criminal law.

The felony gun case was part of an elaborate FBI sting operation that targeted Waters. It was a phony arrest, and the defendant was an FBI plant.

After the ruling, Segal called Waters to tell him she had arranged "your friend's thing."

Segal, first elected in 2009, insisted that although she made seemingly problematic statements in her calls to Waters, she was not swayed by his requests.

Segal's lawyer, Stuart L. Haimowitz, has said Segal pretended to go along with Waters' requests but then acted solely on legal considerations.

Haimowitz could not be reached for comment Monday.

Segal is one of a long list of judges swept up in the FBI's investigation of judicial corruption in Philadelphia.

Common Pleas Court Judge Angeles Roca faces a Sept. 8 judicial trial on charges that she sought favorable treatment for her son when he appeared before Segal after the city sued him for failing to pay $5,000 in back taxes. Segal ruled in a way that helped the son. That ruling was also part of the disciplinary court's case against Segal.

In May, another suspended Municipal Court judge, Joseph O'Neill, pleaded guilty to felony charges of making false statements to FBI agents about his conversations with Waters. O'Neill's sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 7.

mfazlollah@phillynews.com

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