{"id":6402,"date":"2013-03-15T12:50:40","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T16:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=6402"},"modified":"2013-03-15T16:52:53","modified_gmt":"2013-03-15T20:52:53","slug":"indicted-judges-sues-to-get-pay-reinstated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=6402","title":{"rendered":"Indicted judges sues to get pay reinstated"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Chester magisterial district judge says high court violated his rights<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Updated at 4:50 to add quotes from Samuel C. Stretton<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"West<\/a>

West Chester Magisterial Judge Mark A. Bruno alleges in a federal lawsuit that he was improperly suspended from his job.<\/p><\/div>\n

A suspended Chester County magisterial district judge implicated in the alleged Philadelphia Traffic Court ticket-fixing case wants his paycheck returned.<\/p>\n

West Chester Magisterial District Judge Mark A. \u00a0Bruno filed a federal lawsuit Thursday, accusing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of violating his constitutional rights by suspending him without pay on Feb. 1, a day after he was indicted by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The suit, filed by West Chester attorney Samuel C. Stretton, said the high court\u2019s action occurred with no opportunity for Bruno, whose term expires in January 2018, \u00a0\u201cto respond or have an adjudicatory hearing.\u201c The suit seeks an injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Anita Brody to declare the suspension illegal and reinstate Bruno\u2019s pay, pending the outcome of the criminal case.<\/p>\n

Twelve defendants,\u00a0including Bruno and eight other judges, were indicted Jan. 31, accused of participating in a scheme in which Philadelphia ward leaders, local politicians, and associates of the Democratic City Committee regularly contacted them seeking preferential treatment on specific traffic tickets.\u00a0 These defendants accepted these requests and either gave the preferential treatment directly or communicated the request to another judge to whom the case was assigned, the indictment said.<\/p>\n

The indictment said Bruno, 50, who could receive up to 60 years in prison, requested assistance from former Senior Traffic Court Judge Fortunato N. Perri Sr. to fix a ticket for \u201cJ.M\u201d in January 2011. During a Jan. 14, 2011, phone call, Perri, one of three judges who have pleaded guilty in the case, took credit for \u201cputting\u201d Bruno in Traffic Court, the indictment said. Bruno\u2019s suit said he worked four or five days a year in Traffic Court while other judges were away on training.<\/p>\n

The suit called Bruno \u201cwell respected by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,\u201d having been appointed the chair of its Minor Court Rules Committee, where he served for six years. The high court\u2019s action has deprived Bruno\u00a0 \u201cof his ability to support his family,\u201d the suit said. Calling Bruno\u2019s caseload \u201cthe highest volume\u201d of any magisterial district judge in Chester County, the suit said \u00a0\u201cthere were never any complaints about his judicial conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stretton said “it’s a sad day” when the high court doesn’t follow the law. \u00a0“There’s never been a hearing finding him guilty of anything,” said Stretton of his client. “In the meantime, he’s presumed innocent. It’s pretty clear to me they [the court] acted wrongly.”<\/p>\n

Attorney Vincent P. DiFabio, who is representing Bruno in the criminal case, has said he planned to \u201cvigorously defend\u201d Bruno against the charges.<\/p>\n

Even if Bruno prevails in getting his suspension reversed, it is unlikely that he would resume working since Chester County President Judge James P. MacElree II stripped him of his duties after the indictment was filed – an action that \u00a0represents the extent of MacElree’s authority.<\/p>\n

In February 2012, MacElree issued a similar order to Magisterial District Judge Rita A. Arnold, who was accused of improperly handling a 2010 citation issued to her son, Forrest \u201dForrie\u201d C. Solomon Jr.\u00a0In June, the state Court of Judicial Discipline concluded that Arnold violated the rules of professional conduct; a \u00a0month later, an eight-member panel of the court, citing Arnold\u2019s remorse, suspended her for a month without pay followed by two years\u2019 probation. Arnold, who was paid during her time out of the office, returned to the bench on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Chester magisterial district judge says high court violated his rights Updated at 4:50 to add quotes from Samuel C. Stretton By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times A suspended Chester County magisterial district judge implicated in the alleged Philadelphia Traffic Court ticket-fixing case wants his paycheck returned. West Chester Magisterial District Judge Mark A. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,698],"tags":[2062,1771,2063,870,1833],"class_list":["post-6402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-region","tag-samuel-c-stretton","tag-senior-traffic-court-judge-fortunato-n-perri-sr","tag-supreme-court-of-pennsylvania","tag-vincent-p-difabio","tag-west-chester-magisterial-district-judge-mark-a-bruno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}