PENNLIVE: Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin choked back tears, his face reddening, as he took the stand Monday to fend off a possible suspension for his involvement in an exchange of vulgar and offensive emails.
Eakin, a former Cumberland County district attorney who was elected to the state’s highest appellate court in 2001, was by turns apologetic and defiant.
The emails in question, which date from about 2008 through 2013, were sent via a private Yahoo account and uncovered via Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s review of her predecessors’ handling of the Jerry Sandusky investigation.
“With apologies to the attorney general, perhaps my demeanor is (like) one of the boys,” he said, “but what I sent was to people who were also one of the boys. It was in the locker room. I allowed, I created, something that could be released… (more)
EDITOR: A justice cannot spend his time in the “locker room with the boys” and then be expected to view impartially “the boys” when they come before him / her.
