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Top Pa. Court Axes $3.5M Libel Verdict Due to ‘Judicial Impropriety’

Posted Nov 4, 2009, 06:38 pm CST
By Martha Neil

Because of questionable conduct of the Luzerne County judges who oversaw the case, a Pennsylvania newspaper must get a new trial in a defamation lawsuit that resulted in a $3.5 million bench verdict in 2006, the state's top court ruled today.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not find that lawyers for the Citizens' Voice were correct in their contention that reputed Bufalino crime family head and convicted felon William D'Elia may have intervened with the then-president judge of Luzerne County to get a winning ruling from another judge for a plaintiff businessman. But the court did find that the "pervasive appearance of impropriety" in the assignment and trial of the libel case requires a new trial, according to the Scranton… Continue reading...



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