When suspended Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Nocella had to face the music two weeks ago -- a hearing on misconduct charges before the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline -- he wasn't alone.
When I looked over the gallery at the courtroom, I recognized more than a dozen ward leaders and Democratic political activists and operatives who were there as character witnesses. They knew Nocella well, because for him and many Philadelphia Philadelphia judges, the route to the bench is through the Democratic City Committee.
Lynn Marks of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts was also in the audience. She spends her life promoting integrity among the judiciary and pushing the idea of merit selection in the Legislature -- a hard way to make a living, you might say.
She was well aware of the disciplinary charges against Nocella, and appalled.
"There was a whole slew of not only unethical but illegal conduct," Marks said, adding later in our conversation that it seemed enough to merit his removal from the bench.
What did Nocella do?
He collected a $60,000 fee on a real estate transaction in which he represented himself as the secretary of a VFW post where he wasn't a member.
When he was the lawyer for a political committee under investigation by the city Board of Ethics, he admitted lying to the board's lawyers and, with the committee's treasurer, draining its assets, in the process giving himself a $2,500 fee. He was held in contempt of court and eventually paid a fine.
Nocella disclosed none of this to the Philadelphia Bar Association when it gave him a "recommended" rating in his 2011 campaign for the Common Pleas bench. That earned the ire of the Bar Association and the state Board of Judicial Conduct, which is pressing the case against him.
Nocella has already been suspended with pay by the state Supreme Court. The Court of Judicial Discipline could impose further sanctions, even remove him from the bench.
Nocella didn't testify in his hearing, and declined comment afterward. His attorney, Samuel Stretton, doesn't dispute the factual allegations against his client, including his pocketing the $60,000 from the VFW transaction.
"That obviously shouldn't have happened, and it would be better if it hadn't," Stretton told me after the hearing. "I'm just looking overall at the experience and what he brings to this. Many of these areas were well known to the voters, and they chose him."
A few voters, anyway.
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t would seem that some misguided individuals think
that Gary & Sara Harvey supporters will simply fade away in time. Perhaps some
will. However, it is an illusion and delusion to suppose we all will. Some of
us don’t like bullies and we don’t like injustice so much so that we don’t let
go of the stench trail once we get hold of it. And, believe me, the stench
trail in the Harvey case is over-powering.
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Judge Gerald Kent Crow has been reprimanded and censured by the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct for investigating cases independently and retaliating against a lawyer who had filed a compliant on him, according to a statement from the JDDC. 
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has imposed a fine and a cease-and-desist order against Lewis J. Hunter for defrauding elderly clients of over $300,000. 
Professor Tarkington from Ind. School of Law got it right when she said the Bar Association's frequently use the standard propounded in New York Times v. Sullivan as a dark aberration of what it is intended to be and that results in decisions very far afield of what New York Times meant the first amendment to be, rendering all or most of the decisions invalid because they infringe too greatly upon the constitutional rights of lawyers.
He collected a $60,000 fee on a real estate transaction in which he represented himself as the secretary of a VFW post where he wasn't a member.
The Oregon House is scheduled to give final approval this morning to legislation expanding the list of people who must report incidents of elder abuse to authorities. 
According to the criminal complaint filed in Le Sueur County, Tiegs is accused of depositing over $1,600 of the victim's money in his own banking account and taking roughly $4,500 of social security benefits over nine months.
Kirk Kerkorian -- the billionaire who once owned United Artists and the MGM Hotel in Vegas -- has fired back against his ex-wife who is gunning to put him under a conservatorship, calling her a serial liar motivated by unbridled greed.
Last week, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Bullock v. BankChampaign, N.A., which addressed the circumstances in which a breach of fiduciary duty judgment can be discharged in bankruptcy proceedings. Specifically, the Court resolved a deeply fractured Circuit split on the scope of the term “defalcation” within Section 523(a)(4) of the Federal Bankruptcy Code. That Section of the Bankruptcy Code provides that an individual cannot obtain bankruptcy discharge “for fraud or defalcation while acting in a fiduciary capacity, embezzlement, or larceny.” For years, the lower courts had struggled with what, exactly, “defalcation” means. Wonder no longer because the Supreme Court has defined it.
So we called the hotline (1-800-551-3191) to see if the phone lines were being manned and they weren't.