Re Judge Eakin and A. G. Kane, LNP management tries to cover up its mistakes

Today’s sole editorial is headed “No more scandal, no more embarrassment, from the state Supreme Court, please”

“Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin last week apologized for a batch of emails exchanged on his private email account. One email, which Eakin sent in 2010 to five people — including a senior state prosecutor — contained a joke about a woman being beaten ‘to a pulp’ by her husband and being advised by her doctor to keep her mouth shut. It was among 15 emails —sent or received by Eakin using a Yahoo.com email address — that were obtained by the Philadelphia Daily News. (Other of the15 emails contained pornographic and racist content, that paper reported.) The state’s Judicial Conduct Board and the Supreme Court are investigating the matter…”

Later LNP states:

“..in his statement, Eakin went on to say: ‘Those who know me understand the items chosen for release do not reflect my character or beliefs, nor have they ever been part of my consideration of any case or business of the court.’ ”

“Here, he is implicitly criticizing Attorney General Kathleen Kane for her misguided decision to release only some of the offensive emails that were circulated among judges, prosecutors and lawyers.

“We agree with him and indeed everyone who thinks she’s been releasing these emails selectively to deflect attention from her own legal problems. As an Allentown Morning Call article pointed out, ‘Kane turned over Eakin’s emails nine days after he and the five other (Supreme Court) justices voted to suspend her law license.’ ”

Yet it was disclosed a week ago and later reported as follows by Bill Keisling here at NewsLanc.com:

“Kane’s spokesperson, Chuck Ardo, felt compelled to tell reporters over the weekend… Kane granted the court and its jesters full access to the emails last year, and had turned over the pertinent Eakin emails then, Ardo says.

“Perhaps the problem, politely put, Ardo suggests, rests with the Conduct Board, its staff, or other ‘technical issues.’ ”

As Keisling further observes: “It now seems painfully obvious that both the courts and the Philadelphia newspapers fully wanted and expected to cover-up and leak all this material last year, but now are surprised and embarrassed to have done such an incomplete and sloppy job of it.’

So the real scandal isn’t the possible minor indiscretions by Kane over a year ago but the fact that the Supremes and its Judicial Conduct Board purposefully and willfully disregarded the evidence provided to them by the attorney general’s office in order to whitewash the investigation of Judge Eakin.

Moreover, what are LNP and Eakin talking about?

Justice Eakin is responsible for his own emails, and his own troubles, not Kane.

As judges are fond of telling defendants standing before them in court, “You are responsible for your own conduct.”

So both Eakin and LNP should stop their embarrassing scapegoating.

According to Keisling,

“At any time in the past year Justice Eakin could have, and should have, come forward and taken responsibility for his own ‘John Smith’ emails.

“By the same token, Eakin certainly could have, and should have, called off the partisan dogs attacking Kane this week over the rushed hunt for his emails that, just as obviously, were his responsibility not only in their circulation, but also in his continuing to hide them.

“So Eakin’s ‘apology’ is not only disingenuous and dishonest: it is simply more of the same from Eakin. His ‘apology’ is designed to protect only himself, not the court or its litigants, and deflects harm to others, including Kane, as he has been doing all along.

This is further evidence that Pennsylvania’s judiciary is one of the most corrupt in the nation.

The local scandal is that management at LNP is conducting a cover up of its earlier rush to judgment concerning Kathleen Kane.

LNP management accuses Judge Eakin of only giving a half-hearted apology. But they give none!

Their editors, reporters and readers deserve better.