2nd state justice resigns over raunchy email scandal
HARRISBURG — A second Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice today quit the bench in a widening scandal over raunchy and otherwise offensive emails that he and others exchanged with friends and lawyers.
Justice Michael Eakin’s decision to retire marks the latest fallout since embattled state Attorney General Kathleen Kane began releasing hundreds of emails in 2014 to the media and ethics agencies.
Kane has since been indicted on perjury and other charges that she claims were trumped up because she took on the old boys’ club of the state judiciary and law enforcement.
Eakin’s lawyer, Bill Costopoulos, said at a news conference that an ethics trial on charges related to the emails, which had been scheduled to start in two weeks, would not proceed. He said Eakin would agree to the allegations, leaving “nothing left to try.”
“This is the only process I know of in America where you can be charged with sending emails to friends that were inappropriate and face the death penalty,” Costopoulos said. “I just don’t think that’s right.”
Justice Seamus McCaffery, a Democrat, abruptly retired in 2014 after being suspended by the court for his role in swapping the emails. Eakin was cleared at that time, but in September, Kane reignited the investigation by releasing more exchanges.
The board that investigates accusations of judicial misconduct said Eakin sent or responded to emails that included a satirical video about a busload of “sluts” crashing, a joke about a woman told to keep “her mouth shut” after telling her doctor her drunken husband had beaten her, a “sexually suggestive thread/conversation” about one of Eakin’s female employees and a joke about Tiger Woods that referred to his African-American and Asian background.
The email scandal, centered on the attorney general’s office, has already led to dozens of people being disciplined, fired or resigning under pressure.
Eakin, 67, has been on the state Supreme Court since 2002. He’s a Republican.
Eakin’s resignation leaves the seven-member Supreme Court with five Democrats, one Republican and one vacancy. A replacement would be nominated by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and require two-thirds confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate.
