Judicial board to review McCaffery e-mails complaint

Seamus P. McCaffery

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania's Judicial Conduct Board will investigate a complaint that Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery may have violated ethics rules if he sent sexually explicit e-mails from his personal account to a state employee, according to a letter from the board.

In the Tuesday letter, the board agreed to "conduct an inquiry into the matters" raised in a complaint filed last week by Harrisburg activist Gene Stilp.

In his Oct. 2 complaint, Stilp cited news accounts that McCaffery in 2008 and 2009 sent e-mails containing pornographic content to an agent in the state Attorney General's Office.

McCaffery has declined to discuss the claims.

Stilp asked the board to investigate whether sending such e-mails violated judicial ethics rules "related to behavior that reflects poorly on the integrity of the Supreme Court," according to a copy of his complaint. Stilp also noted that the Attorney General's Office has cases that land before the high court, and that private communications between the prosecutor's office and justices may compromise cases.

"When you are a Supreme Court justice, you have a higher duty," Stilp said Thursday. "Anything that reflects negatively on you as a person reflects on the court in a negative way - and that undermines people's confidence in the court.

"Without confidence in the court," Stilp added, "we don't have a stable judiciary."

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Judicial board to review McCaffery e-mails complaint 

See Also:
Porn Email Claims Could Trigger Discipline For Pa. Justice