Penn. Supreme Court Justice Suspended With Pay For Sending Employees Pornographic E-Mails
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery was suspended with pay by the Supreme Court for sending unwanted sexually explicit e-mails and pornographic images to employees at the Attorney General's office, and then trying to coerce another justice into backing him, saying he wasn't "going down alone."
The court didn't suspend McCaffery without pay because the Judicial Conduct Board hasn't filed formal charges, a reason cited in the dissent. The Express Times reports:
Entering a dissenting opinion, Justice Debra McCloskey Todd said, in part: "No independent investigative body has made any findings regarding merits or credibility, and, unlike the suspension of Justice Joan Orie Melvin, no criminal proceedings have been instituted." Orie Melvin and her sister, Janine Orie, were found guilty last year of using court and legislative staffers to help Orie Melvin get elected, a violation of campaign laws.
The conduct board lacks the resources and manpower for the "enormous effort" of the investigation ordered into McCaffery's conduct, [Chief Justice Ronald] Castille wrote.
"The most recent misconduct of Justice McCaffery — forwarding sexually explicit pornographic emails to employees of the Attorney General's Office (and, in one instance, an email depicting a naked 100-year-old woman as the target of a sexually explicit joke and a video of a woman in sexual congress with a snake that is clearly obscene and may violate the Crimes Code Section on Obscenity) — has caused the Supreme Court to be held up to public ridicule," Castille wrote. "This conduct deserves the immediate action as implemented by this court today."
Among the images sent by McCaffery, according to The Times, one of the images showed a woman having sex with a snake that could be illegal.
h/t Irish