Ding Dome Gossip

Faithful drinkers of this swill will recall that earlier this year we talked about hearing about talks about settlement talks in the Judicial ethics complaint against Luzerne County's only female jurist, Ann Lokuta.

We had heard from more than one source that Judge Lokuta was offered the option of retiring -- with full benes in place -- and that the Judge was seriously considering the offer. That story was shot down by the Judge's then-new attorneys. Now comes confirmation of the report, of a sort. The pretend newspaper in Scran'en last week "reported" confirmation that a deal was offered to Lokuta late last year, but that the Judge didn't grab it.

Yep, just like a broken clock . . . . .

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Then Again, Maybe Not

Over the last three weeks, we heard from three different sources in Luzerne County that Judge Lokuta was on the verge of cutting a deal to resolve the charges pending against her. We blabbed about it here.

Part of the report said that her trial was imminent and thus the resolution. However, on checking with the Court of Judicial Discipline, we learned that no trial date has been set formally at this time. We then contacted her new counsel about the settlement rumors.

It had been reported in one of the local rags that the Judge had hired Nancy Burdine of the Philadelphia law firm of Pelino & Lentz, P.C., so we contacted her. In reply, we didn't get a no comment -- Ms. Burdine responded that "We do not believe that there is any such arrangement." Now, that's a curious response. It suggests a number of possibilities, some conflicting. But we'll let that answer perc a little as we touch base over the next week or so with some of our former colleagues up there.

One other bit 'o news, Ms. Burdine revealed that Louis Sinatra, a litigation partner in her firm, was the main contact person on the Lokuta case. That makes a bit more sense -- Ms. Burdine, although I am sure extremely capable, is a relatively junior lawyer while Mr. Sinatra has several decades litigation experience.

As far as we could tell, this is the first published confirmation that Judge Lokuta has retained this firm and its lawyers as her new defense counsel.

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Resolution Could Be Near in Lokuta Case

{UPDATED 5/18} It is looking like the men sharing the bench with Luzerne County Common Pleas Judge Ann Lokuta may be getting what they hoped for when they got together-- ahem, okay, allegedly got together-- to contrive the charges filed against Judge Lokuta by the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania late last year. (See the update after the jump -- some of the information appears to have been incorrect, casting some doubt on the report of a deal.)

Judge Lokuta recently fired her lawyer, Sam Stretton, supposedly after learning that he was advising the (recently-failed) judicial campaign of her former law clerk, Tom Marsilio. (Marsilio, for his part, was/is supposedly set to be a witness for the prosecution. It has been said that he easily criticized his former employer on the campaign trail when the question was raised. Asked at one gathering how he would work with her, he reportedly told the audience that "no one can work with her". One can be curious as to why and when Marsilio came to that conclusion -- he was an enthusiastic speaker at a high-ticket fundraiser for the judge in her recent retention election.)

Back to Judge Lokuta after the jump . . .

The judge's trial on the charges is said to be set for later this month (something I am trying to confirm). {UPDATE 5/18: The information about the trial date appears to be wrong. The Court of Judicial Discipline has advised us that no trial date has been set.} Through the gapacious Luzerne County Ding Dome grapevine, we hear that a deal is about to be cut which would permit the Judge to retain her pension interests and open up another space on the bench for yet another white male ass.

We hear that the Judge will be bidding the Courthouse a not so fond adieu sometime this summer, perhaps as early as June 1.

In our other ear, a different friend-who-heard-something-from- someone-who-thinks-they-are-in-the-know, whispered the name of a (very capable) local attorney, with deep political roots in those parts, who is in line to get the nod from Fast Eddie to fill Lokuta's spot on the bench. We'll keep that one under our sombrero for now.

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Gotta love the Google

Love it the way the Google saves its searches. We got some interesting hits this week from up in Wilkesberry (hey, is your snow off the streets yet? I have to go up that way next week). It seems that someone at one of the really big local firms up there spent quite a bit of time looking over our various posts about Judge Lokuta. Hope we amused. But, pal, if you really want to get the scoop on what's going on with the judge -- you might want to spell her name correct when you Google it -- It is "Ann Lokuta", not, "Anne Lokuta".

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Inquiring Minds Want to Know

It seems that we've attracted the attention of government workers at the state and federal level today.

SOMEone at the United States House of Representatives spent a fair amount of time today searching the internets for information on "a big fat slob" (using Google and the IE browser on a Windows machine hooked up the the House network):

Domain Name: house.gov(United States Government)
IP Address: 143.231.249.# (Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives)
ISP: Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives
Referring URL: http://www.google.co...:en&q=a big fat slob
Search Engine: google.com
Search Words: a big fat slob

Now, I don't know that this was related to my articles about Reprehensible Tim Murphy, or my email inquiries sent to his Communications Director, yesterday and today. But, one can make a reasoned guess. I hope they found out what they wanted to find out.

And, I am sure that they also missed the irony here. My write-up on Reprehensible Murphy had to do with his use of his campaign staff to investigate the backgrounds of citizens who dared write letters to the editor critical of Murphy. Of course, instead of simply responding to my inquiries, they, naturally, began an investigation into the background of this Big Fat Slob. Wonder how long it will take that paranoid jerk to get his enemies list up to 30,000?

Moving from Southeast of home to Northeast of home, it looks like Luzerne County Courthouse workers were also "curious" -- if not assigned -- to find out more about Your Slob.

An employee at the Luzerne County Adult Probation Office spent part of the workday searching the 'net for information about "the [sic] big fat slob":

Domain Name: luzcoadultprobation.com (Commercial)
IP Address: 216.37.230.# (epix Internet Services)
ISP: epix Internet Services
Visitor's Time: Nov 30 2006 9:21:47 am

Wonder what the work-related reason for that search was?

But, the big winner for wasting Luzerne County money was this curious soul from the Luzerne County Courts, who spent the better part of over five hours of the workday on the 'nets searching out information about Yours Truly:

VISITOR ANALYSIS
Referring Link http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=the big fat slob&FORM=MSNH
Host Name luzernecountycourts.com
IP Address 216.37.230.249
ISP Epix Internet Services
Visit Length 5 hours 43 mins 34 secs
VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS
Browser MSIE 6.0
Operating System Windows 2000
Resolution 800x600
Javascript Enabled
Navigation Path
search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=the big fat slob&FORM=MSNH
November 30th 2006 09:21:11
November 30th 2006 09:25:34
November 30th 2006 09:29:52
November 30th 2006 09:32:56
November 30th 2006 12:24:28
November 30th 2006 12:24:50
November 30th 2006 13:34:48
November 30th 2006 13:36:29
November 30th 2006 15:04:10
November 30th 2006 15:04:45

So, right after I run a piece about the hit job pulled on Luzerne County Judge Ann Lokuta, and the rumors that President Judge Conahan and other members of the bench were secretly involved with the complaints leading to the charges, two County employees, using County property and on County time, are investigating whatever background information the internets will cough up on the Slob.

I'm sure that Conahan will get right on this and ferret out whomsoever is wasting County money and illegally using County property. The investigation will begin at once . . . . unless, of course, Conahan already knows who did it because he directed it.

It's unfortunate that the good people of Luzerne County, who have four newspapers within the range of a swung cat, don't have a single journalist willing to challenge Conahan and his heir apparent, Mark Chiverella.

And, I am sure that this all gives the people of Luzerne County a warm and fuzzy feeling to realize that Justice in their County, lay in such hands.

Finally, here's an obscure little ditty with which Murphy, Conahan, and their respective posses should become intimate.

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Pot, Meet Kettle

Judge Ann Lokuta, sitting on the Court of Common Pleas for Luzerne County, has been a thorn in the sides of the County Democratic Party (who didn't support her candidacy), lawyers, prosecutors, and court staff throughout most of her 15 years or so on the bench (from what this outsider can tell, the problem seems to be as much from the good ol' boy -- emphasis on the gender-- attitude up there, as it is from Judge Ann's own "unique" personality).

Most of all, she has been an irritant to the other judges on that Court (apparently, especially, her boss, the President Judge, as the charges expressly refer to her criticisms of the way he runs the courthouse).

They have, finally, gotten back at her.

The Pocono Record reports today that the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board has filed a 22-page complaint against the Luzerne County jurist. Sources tell me that this is the result of months of effort by many of her fellow-judges.

Back in the day, when I was a practicing attorney, I spent only a little bit of time in the Luzerne County Courthouse. While I never had the pleasure of appearing before her, I did have the chance, on several occasions, to observe her behavior and have, of course, listened with bemusement to all the gossip about her supposedly bizarre behavior.

I do not rise to defend Judge Lokuta -- let her able defense counsel take care of that.

But don't think that Judge Lokuta is an aberration on the Luzerne County bench -- based on years of conversations with lawyers who regularly and irregularly appear in Luzerne County, most of Judge Lokuta's fellow judges have no concept of what it means to be a judge.

With exceptions so rare you can count them on two fingers, the Luzerne County bench often can be depended on to allegedly decide cases based on the identities of the parties or their counsel.

They can be relied on to give the finger to litigants and the law by absolutely refusing to do their jobs -- minor, unimportant things, like issuing opinions explaining their decisions. Only a few weeks ago, one of their elite issued a large verdict in a defamation case and didn't bother to give the parties an opinion on why he reached the results that he did.

This lack of care is not surprising, consider that their President Judge was elected to office without ever having set foot in a courtroom, anywhere, as a lawyer representing a client -- he inherited a magistrate's job in Hazleton before he got hard for the big time.

They also delight in their unwritten rules -- such as granting a motion to compel discovery without even requiring the lawyer to notify the other side that the motion has been made.

Many of the judges also love to harass attorneys from outside the County for no other reason than that they can. (Okay, I'll have to admit a personal grudge about this one.)

As a whole, Judge Lokuta might be at the lower end of the lot, but it is already a fairly low lot of judges on the Luzerne County Bench. Collectively, this Bunch is one of the best arguments for merit selection you can find.

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