Pennsylvania justice in lewd email scandal said he 'was not going down alone,' second justice says
The rhetoric is heating up as a second Pennsylvania justice acknowledged he likely received inappropriate emails and accused the other justice in the scandal of vowing not to go down alone.
Justice J. Michael Eakin released a statement Friday targeting Justice Seamus McCaffery, who had apologized the day before for sending more than 200 sexually explicit emails from his personal computer. The Legal Intelligencer, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Philadelphia Daily News have stories on the latest controversy labeled a “full-court brawl” by the Inquirer.
Eakin alleged that McCaffery told him last Thursday morning that he was aware of the emails sent to Eakin’s private account, pressured Eakin to get the chief justice to retract statements about McCaffery’s emails made the day before, and said he needed an answer from Eakin by noon to prevent release of the Eakin emails.
“The subject of much recent publicity concerning the sending of salacious emails, Justice McCaffery next told me he ‘was not going down alone,’ ” Eakin wrote.
McCaffery said Eakin misinterpreted the call and that he never released anything to the media.
The emails were uncovered by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, which revealed that eight of its own employees sent or received explicit emails.
In the statement and a letter (PDF) to the Judicial Conduct Board, Eakin acknowledged media reports about inappropriate material being “sent unsolicited to my private email account” and alleged that McCaffery “caused” the material to be released to the media. The emails were sent to Eakin’s “John Smith” account, which he had set up to avoid identification of his position in personal matters.
“The media reports today about inappropriate material sent unsolicited to my private email account,” Eakin said in the Friday statement. “Yesterday, Justice McCaffery caused certain material, sent to my private email account some years ago, to be given to the media. I have not seen the material, nor do I wish to, but insofar as receiving such may be seen as violative of the rules of conduct, I have referred the matter to the Judicial Conduct Board.”
Eakin said he told McCaffery he wouldn’t call Chief Justice Ronald Castille. Eakin did not get back to McCaffery by noon, and Eakin learned that reporters had received a stack of the emails later that afternoon.
“To be clear, I still have not seen [the emails sent to reporters],” Eakin said. “I have no reason to question the media’s description of ‘the emails,’ and that these were received, not sent.” Eakin said the letter was being sent to the conduct board to determine if there were any ethics violations on his own part.
McCaffery issued his own statement on Friday denying Eakin’s allegations. “I unequivocally deny that I have or ever have had Justice Eakin’s personal emails, and I have never leaked anything to the media,” McCaffery said.
“The purpose of my call,” McCaffery said, “was to inform him that I was hearing strong rumors that a personal email account that belonged to him contained not only hundreds of sexually explicit emails, but—even worse—racially offensive images. In light of my own recent experience, and given the way these emails have been leaking, I expressed my concern for him, especially because of the racially-charged emails, which, as I recall, I told him I feared could bring him down.”
The Philadelphia News had reported that one of the emails sent to Eakin’s private account mocked the clothes and appearance of black teens in an email captioned “Prom Night at Camden High School!!”
