Tidd Suddenly Resigns as Magisterial District Judge

At this time last year, David Tidd was announcing his bid for re-election as Magisterial District Judge in Hellertown and Lower Saucon Township. It was a position he had held since 2009, and despite facing two formidable opponents, he emerged as the sole nominee of both parties in the May primary, assuring his election in November. But on Friday, he suddenly resigned his position.

Though most magisterial district judges have no outside employment, this is a part-time job that pays $88,290 per year, and is automatically adjusted by the cost of living index. There's full medical benefits and the pension is vested after ten years. So, absent some illness or legal miscues, it's rare to see a magisterial district judge just step away.

Yet that's exactly what Judge Tidd did. "Refereeing the game is not what I want to do," he said. "I want to be in the game."

Tidd maintains a private law practice in Hellertown, and has been a lawyer for 16 years.

Tidd denies that his resignation is related in any way to ethical complaints filed against him during his re-election campaign.

David Repyneck, one of Tidd's primary opponents, told me during that campaign that "your boy TIdd is currently under investigation for Judicial Misconduct. Did you know that ??????"

When I pressed Repyneck, he was at first evasive, calling it "word on the street." Then it was anonymous sources that he was unable to reveal. He finally acknowledged that he filed one complaint and his wife another.

Repyneck filed a complaint against Tidd because he did not like the way Tidd spoke to his wife when she was circulating a petition on her husband's behalf. That's obviously frivolous on its face.

A second complaint against Tidd, filed during the primary, concerns Tidd's representation of Repyneck's wife in December 2012. She was being sued in a collection matter, and Tidd was recommended as a good bankruptcy lawyer. Neither he nor she was aware that he was the judge in the collections matter. Once he became aware, the matter was transferred to another magisterial district judge.

Tidd has never heard a word from the Judicial Conduct Board about either complaint. But Tidd added that what Repyneck "put me through really took a toll."

He also explained that, a judge in a small jurisdiction is going to make people unhappy. And these are people he knows and sees every day. He added that, contrary to what people think, magisterial district judges have two bosses - the County President Judge and the state.

He lamented that, while he received lots of phone calls from police officers and regulars to thank him, he heard nothing from Easton.

Tidd can rescind his decision, but must do so by March 1.