Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Pa. Supreme Court meltdown over e-mails worsens

A skirmish between two rival Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices over pornographic e-mails erupted Friday into a full-court brawl, with a third justice stopping just short of lobbing blackmail accusations, and other colleagues fretting that the fighting had begun to erode the public's confidence in the bench.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices J. Michael Eakin (left) and Seamus McCaffery (right). (Jessica Griffin and Tom Gralish / Staff Photographers)
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices J. Michael Eakin (left) and Seamus McCaffery (right). (Jessica Griffin and Tom Gralish / Staff Photographers)Read more

A skirmish between two rival Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices over pornographic e-mails erupted Friday into a full-court brawl, with a third justice stopping just short of lobbing blackmail accusations, and other colleagues fretting that the fighting had begun to erode the public's confidence in the bench.

Responding to reports that he had received racist and pornographic content on a private e-mail account, Justice J. Michael Eakin said he never viewed those messages and accused another colleague caught up in the scandal, Justice Seamus P. McCaffery, of threatening to leak them to the media.

McCaffery denied the allegations.

By day's end, the barrage of conflicting accounts had given way to chatter about judicial suspensions, special investigations, and calls for resignations.

"It's definitely a distraction," Justice Correale F. Stevens, the court's newest member, said. "It's distracting from the work of the Supreme Court in the public's perception."

One name missing from the conversation for the first time in weeks was Kathleen G. Kane, who as attorney general ignited the furor last month by naming eight current and former prosecutors, law enforcement personnel, and government appointees who traded sexually explicit e-mails over state government servers between 2008 and 2012.

McCaffery has since been linked to that traffic, having sent or received more than 230 graphic messages from a private account. Citing those e-mails, his longtime rival, Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, asked his colleagues to suspend McCaffery for conduct he said "undermines our moral authority."

But as Eakin told it, in a letter he wrote to the state Judicial Conduct Board and released publicly Friday, McCaffery vowed he "was not going down alone."

Just hours after the chief justice on Wednesday released details on the McCaffery e-mails, Eakin said, he received a phone call from the embattled justice.

"Justice McCaffery told me that I had to cause the chief justice to retract his media statements," he wrote to the board. "I told him I would not attempt to do so even if it were possible. He repeated that I had to, and that he needed 'an answer' by noon to prevent the release of e-mails involving my account."

The messages - first reported by the Philadelphia Daily News - include at least three e-mails sent in 2010 to a Yahoo.com account Eakin had opened under the alias "John Smith."

As the newspaper described them, two depicted topless centerfolds. A third, with the subject line "Prom Night at Camden High School!!", contained photos of black teens accompanied by captions mocking their clothes and appearance.

Eakin, a Republican from Mechanicsburg who is designated as the court's liaison to the Philadelphia court system, said Friday that he never asked for or opened those messages.

"But insofar as receiving such [material] may be seen as violative of the rules of conduct, I have referred the matter to the Judicial Conduct Board," he said.

In other words, he filed a complaint about himself.

For his part, McCaffery, a Philadelphia Democrat, said unequivocally that he did not leak Eakin's private correspondence and never threatened his colleague. He has apologized for his own sexually explicit e-mail traffic but has accused Castille, a Philadelphia Republican, of peddling a "cooked-up controversy."

"What I did do," McCaffery said in a statement, "was try to help [Eakin] prepare himself for the same kind of media onslaught that I have endured, and urged him to talk to his close personal friend, Ronald Castille, to stop the mudslinging that has so tarnished our court."

Before day's end, Eakin shot back, calling McCaffery's explanation "self-victimizing," "incomplete," and "inaccurate."

"I stand completely behind my statements about the call, every word," he said.

Their exchange left other justices shaking their heads in disbelief as they wrestle with the choice Castille put before them: suspend McCaffery outright over his e-mail traffic, refer the matter to the Judicial Conduct Board for investigation, or do nothing.

The board is already investigating a complaint from Harrisburg activist Gene Stilp over McCaffery's e-mail traffic. Stilp submitted another complaint Friday targeting Eakin and called on both justices to resign.

"I'm going to await further guidance from the chief justice," Stevens said. "At some point, there's a public right to know ... that has to be addressed. The Judicial Conduct Board needs to get on this."

Castille did not return calls for comment Friday.

Outsiders hardly knew what to make of the messy display from a court that has become uncomfortably used to public airing of its private business. It was only last year when Joan Orie Melvin was convicted and booted from the bench for using legislative and judicial staff to work on her Supreme Court campaign.

"I have to teach my students respect for the institution of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. They make it difficult," said Bruce Ledewitz, a law professor at Duquesne University. "The people of Pennsylvania are very likely to look at this, throw up their hands, and say, 'It's not fixable.' "

Ledewitz compared the court's current public feuding to the early '90s fight that erupted when Justice Rolf M. Larsen was publicly reprimanded by his colleagues for improper communications with a trial judge. Larsen later filed court documents accusing two colleagues of similar behavior, misconduct, and bias, before he was convicted of federal conspiracy charges and impeached.

Asked Friday about the falling-out among McCaffery, Castille, and Eakin, Ledewitz's first response was: "Looks like McCaffery pulled a Larsen."

William P. Fedullo, chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, called for a special master to investigate McCaffery's conduct. "Conduct of this nature, at a minimum, causes the appearance of impropriety and potentially questions Justice McCaffery's impartiality having to do with any number of cases," he said in a statement.

But it was the impression the current fighting might leave on parties with business before the justices that concerned Lynn Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

"What could they possibly think?" she said. "They want to be sure that their cases are heard by qualified, fair, impartial, even-tempered judges with maturity and good judgment. The public sniping and attempts to undermine each other's moral authority throws the entire justice system under a cloud."