Inquirer Editorial: A friend in need can be a friend indeed

Is a Facebook friendship the same thing as a real friendship? Well, of course not. You can't expect your Facebook friends to take you to the airport, comfort you when you're down, or throw out your DUI charges.

On the other hand, if your Facebook friend does throw out your DUI charges - and it has absolutely nothing to do with your electronic relationship or, for that matter, your seat in the state legislature - what's the big deal?

That seems to be State Rep. Cherelle L. Parker's position on the issue of her Facebook friendship with Municipal Court Judge Charles Hayden. In November, Hayden was friendly enough to suppress all the evidence in a drunken-driving case against the Northwest Philadelphia Democrat, effectively acquitting her.

Prosecutors deservedly won an appeal of the ruling when a higher court reinstated the charges.

Parker is, of course, innocent until proven otherwise (or "unfriended"). Let's not get distracted by reports that she drove her state Jeep the wrong direction on a one-way street, wobbled on her feet, looked a tad glassy in the eyes, could not produce her license and registration, smelled of alcohol, had consumed one or more chocolate martinis (only the quantity is in dispute), and blew a Breathalyzer score of 0.16, twice the legal limit.

Judge Hayden certainly didn't get caught up in all that. Rather, he questioned the testimony of the officers who pulled Parker over on such pertinent matters as the number of cars on the street. And he found them less persuasive than the representative's protestations that she wasn't even on that street and didn't dream of drinking more than one chocolate martini.

Was the prosecutor surprised? No. "I've lived here all my life," he told the Daily News, with palpable Philly-weariness, after the evidence was thrown out. "I understand how things go around here." This sure was starting to sound like a depressingly unsurprising Philadelphia story. But it turns out to be a pleasantly surprising one in a few ways, too.

First of all, city District Attorney Seth Williams, who counts himself an actual and Facebook friend of Parker's, had the decency to refer the case to the state Attorney General's Office, which has appropriately prosecuted it right up to its appeal of the dubious Municipal Court result.

It's also encouraging that Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick, in ruling on the appeal, found that Hayden had "abused his discretion" by throwing out the evidence and that, based on his (at least) virtual relationship with Parker, he should have recused himself from the case.

As for the lawmaker-defendant, her lawyer regretted that the poor lower-court judge had been put "on trial in front of the media." Precisely: Where did we get the crazy idea that the courts are any of the public's business? It's that attitude that allows judges to blithely ignore basic precepts of ethics, fairness, and impartiality.