Pennsylvania porn scandal ensnares state Supreme Court justices

Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices from top left: Seamus P. McCaffery, Max Baer, Debra McCloskey Todd, Joan Orie Melvin. From lower left: Thomas G. Saylor, Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, and J. Michael Eakin.

(AP File Photo)

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice exposed as having sent and received pornographic emails, and who is accused of then trying to coerce a fellow justice, is temporarily barred from "any further judicial or administrative action whatsoever" in the court.



The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announced the decision Monday night against Justice Seamus McCaffery.



McCaffery will continue to be paid during the suspension, the order says. That could change in the event formal misconduct charges are filed by the state Judicial Conduct Board following a review slated to take 30 days.



The state Supreme Court Western District entered the order under its King's Bench power.

Messages left seeking comment from McCaffery and his lawyer were not immediately returned.

Chief Justice Ronald Castille entered a concurring statement, though he disagrees with referring the matter to the Judicial Conduct Board.

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, 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."



Neither McCaffery nor Justice J. Michael Eakin participated in the matter, according to Monday's order.



Eakin on Friday said McCaffery tried to coerce him into taking his side against Castille, saying he "was not going down alone."



Eakin reported the matter to the Judicial Conduct Board the day after Castille disclosed his investigation into pornographic emails sent to or from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office revealed McCaffery had used a private email address to send or receive 234 emails with sexually explicit material.



Eakin further said McCaffery had threatened to leak "inappropriate" emails Eakin had received at a private email account if he did not take up McCaffery's stance against Castille.



Eakin said he had not viewed the material. McCaffery on Thursday apologized for "a lapse in judgment" regarding the emails but described "a vindictive pattern of attacks" against him by Castille.

Castille, in his statement, admits attempting to remove McCaffery from the court.



"In my two decades of experience on this court, no other justice, including Justice Joan Orie Melvin, has done as much to bring the Supreme Court into disrepute," he wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.