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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, March 09, 2020

The Mini-Judges v. The President Judge

PJ Michael J Koury, Jr.
If you ever wondered why so many people run for magisterial district judge, it's a pretty good gig. The salary is $93,338 this year, and it goes up every year with a cost-of living adjustment.  There's also a great benefits and pension package. You can even work another job. The only down side is that, from time-to-time, you pull a week of night duty. But that's not too bad. Cops must still let our mini-judges sleep between 11 pm and 7 am, unless there's a murder or some other horrific crime. Moreover, the County supplies our front-line jurists with free internet and a fax machine so they can arraign defendants from the comfort of their own home. But it appears that a majority of them now believe that since they are addressed as "Your Honor" and wear black robes, they must be hot stuff. So hot that they can ignore the President Judge. They just found out differently. Let me tell you the story.

Sometime last year, the press complained to President Judge Michael Koury Jr that it was having difficulty getting access to records on nights and weekends. Because the state constitution requires that all courts must be open, Judge Koury contracted with an answering service to field calls from members of the press or public. A telephone operator would note the name of the person seeking access, the records requested and fax number and email address. This information would in turn be relayed to the mini-judge, who could then respond. Each magisterial district judge was requested to provide his or her cell phone number, which would be provided to the answering service.

Magistrates responded, not with their cell numbers, but a refusal letter from Northampton County's Magisterial District Judges' Ass'n.  Alan Mege, President of this exclusive club, argued the press could wait for regular business hours. He added there's no reason to give the press "differential and preferential treatment."

This letter was not enough. In addition, three magisterial district judges complained to a court administrator.

Magisterial District Judge Jackie Taschner was at least professionally defiant: "With all due respect, I will not provide you with this information. I cannot imagine that the President Judge can require me to provide personal contact information to an unknown entity over which I have no control."

It's a frickin' answering service, Jackie, not me.  If that were the case, you'd have a point.

Magisterial District Judge Doug Schlegel, who has spent most of his time in office on sick leave, also said No. "1. My cell phone is a private number.  2. I don't want to be bothered when on Night Duty (which is tough enough) by the press. 3. The press can access during office hours."

Doug, how the hell would you know how tough night duty is when you're always calling off sick?

Magisterial District Judge Rick Yetter gets the prize as biggest idiot in his response. He treats the request to supply his cell phone number as a motion from some poor litigant and enters a sarcastic court order. "Denied. I will not be woken up by the press during hours I can be sleeping. I was the  MDJ Assoc. President when our association and myself [sic] worked diligently with law enforcement, central booking, and then [sic] President Judge Baratta to firm up this night time [sic] schedule. You do not have my permission to share my cell phone number."

Instead of sharing his cell phone, Yetter should have been asked to lend his car. That went on a badass demolition derby on Superbowl Sunday.

Here's a point that apparently has eluded our corps of mini-judges. The President Judge is the boss, not them. It's his job to supervise the little fiefdoms run by our squires to ensure they comply with the statewide Rules of Criminal Procedure, statutes and little things like the Pennsylvania Constitution.

So guess what has happened?

President Judge Koury last week entered an Administrative Order providing as follows:

1) The night duty judge is going to be handed a cell phone to be used exclusively for calls related to night duty. When his time is up, he has to make sure the next judge up gets it.

2) Any member of the public (not just the press) can call a judge on night duty to request records that happen to be in his possession, and they must be supplied within three hours.

In addition, he has advised that "[a]ny defiance of the order will result in an immediate referral to the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board and/or the Pennsylvania Supreme Court."

At one time, President Judge Koury was himself a Magisterial District Judge. There was no free Internet, no fax machine and no arraignments from the comfort of your home. Police could contact him at any time, even between 11 pm and 7 am. On one day, he was required to leave home and report to his office 14 times over 24 hours.

The mini-judges picked a fight with the wrong person.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Entitled assholes.

Anonymous said...

Koury is 100 percent right on

Anonymous said...

"avert your eyes"

Anonymous said...

They are entitled snots. When the pay was low the lawyers wouldn't touch these jobs. Now that it is one of the highest paid part-time jobs in the world the lawyers are like shit on stink for these DM jobs. Especially the shity lawyers who can't make a go of it in private practice. Good for the President Judge taking them down a notch.

Not surprised by Tashner, she has always had a high opinion of herself.

How bout you cut the pay in half, get the lawyers out and let regular people be DM's like it always was in the past.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Bernie. As usual, you offered more information and insight than other sources. And your Yetter comment had me giggling before I was even fully awake. #TeamKoury

Anonymous said...

$93,000.00 a year for a part time job? That is ridiculous. They should be paid for the hours they work and not because of a title. When you add in their benefits and their pensions they are nothing more than a drain on our legal system.

Bernie O'Hare said...

In fairness, many of them do not work other jobs. But I agree the salaries are ridiculously high, and I disagree with the practice of supplying free internet and fax machine. If a magistrate wants to be able to arraign someone from his or her own home, let him pay for his own Internet and fax. His choice.

Anonymous said...

These clowned robes forget they are electorally appointed and NOT ANOINTED.
Judge Koury- toss this riff raft in the slammer if they do not comply. what a bunch of pompous low life bums

Anonymous said...

Some of the President Judge's past decisions and actions, however well intended, have been reversed by higher authority. It'll be interesting to see how far the Magistrate Justices take this.

Bernie O'Hare said...

There is no need for anonymous and vulgar personal attacks.

Anonymous said...

Stuff in Express Times is usually 48 hrs later than any event ,what’s the diff?j

Anonymous said...

Smart move providing a single phone for the judge on duty. Gets rid of the argument of providing phone #s of personal devices. They'd want the county to pay for their personal phones.

They might have had a legal argument about personal phone #s being protected by law, but there isn't one if all that's left is, "I don't like being awakened at night."

Anonymous said...

What if a previous user of the cellphone fails to perform software updates and compromises and/or destroys it? I smell a new position called County Director of MDJ Cell Phone Updating and Hand-Offs. Salaried position with full benefits.

Anonymous said...

No, they are no all pompous ass wipes, most of them, but all of them.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
No, they are no all pompous ass wipes, most of them, but all of them.
March 9, 2020 at 12:40 PM


Know each and every one, do you?

Anonymous said...

Good for him- Koury is a decent man, and an incredible Judge. 90% of the Magistrates are arrogant, over-paid snobs. On top of that, us the taxpayers, pay their office rent- which is MUCH HIGHER than the market rate!

Anonymous said...

Judge Kory holds no one to a standard he wouldn’t follow. There’s An MDJ that has A grave health issue. While I’m sympathetic, as A taxpayer I find it noteworthy that this situation has been ongoing since they were elected in 2015 and is ongoing. It has resulted in numerous judges local and out of the area to cover their office. When they are in and hearing matters the defendant isn’t even out the front door when they’re out the back. They let one of their office staff essentially serve as self appointed office manager. As I stated while sympathetic to serious health issues as A taxpayer they’re not providing the service they should. Court administration is not managing the MDJ offices making sure things are handled consistently among the offices and efficiently. Typical political inequalities.