Government Law

Judge apologizes for explicit emails, blasts state's chief justice for 'vindictive' attacks

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A justice on Pennsylvania’s top court has apologized for sending more than 200 sexually explicit emails from his personal computer, some of which went to the work email addresses of state attorney general’s office employees.

However, Justice Seamus McCaffery also blasted the state supreme court’s chief justice for what McCaffery described as a misleading press release and a claimed “vindictive pattern of attacks,” reports the Legal Intelligencer (sub. req.).

Chief Justice Ronald Castille, who turned 70 earlier this year and must hence retire by the end of 2014, “has done everything possible within our court to undermine me with my colleagues, and that didn’t work,” said McCaffery in a written statement provided to the legal publication. “Now, with only two months left in the hourglass of his tenure on our court, he is trying to finish what he has been trying to do for so many years.”

McCaffery contended that Castille, in sending out a press release Wednesday about the emails, misrepresented that the release came from the court as a whole.

Castille declined to comment, the article says.

Related coverage:

ABAJournal.com: “Latest fallout in AG’s ‘porngate’ probe: State supreme court judge sent or received over 200 emails”

See also:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “State Supreme Court justices are bracing for Castille’s final year on bench”

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