PA State Attorney General's office to investigate abuse allegation against York County Judge Tom Kelley

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State AG's office to investigate abuse allegation against York County Judge Tom Kelley

By RICK LEE and EMILY OPILO Daily Record/Sunday News

Judge Thomas H. Kelley VI (Daily Record/Sunday News - File) York, PA - The state Attorney General's Office is investigating the allegation of abuse leveled against Judge Thomas H. Kelley VI by a county assistant public defender. Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for the AG's office, said the attorney general received the referral Monday afternoon from York County District Attorney Tom Kearney, "and we will move forward on it." Janan M.E. Tallo, 30, of Hellam Township, was granted a temporary protection-from-abuse order against Kelley, 47, Monday afternoon. In her PFA petition, she said she is a "current or former sexual or intimate partner" of Kelley's. She alleged he slammed her to the floor in his York Township home during an argument Feb. 8, breaking her right elbow. Kearney would "neither confirm nor deny" he made the referral to the attorney general's office. Speaking hypothetically, Kearney said his office investigates all complaints it receives unless there is a conflict of interest. The conflict here would be that his staff appears daily before Kelley on a myriad of criminal cases. "The alternative is to ignore it, and I won't do that," he said. "When a complaint is brought, I don't throw it away." State law gives district attorneys primary jurisdiction in prosecuting most cases. The only reason they can refer a case to the attorney general's office is because of a conflict of interest or a lack of resources, Frederiksen said. A conflict of interest - or the appearance of

one - usually involves a working or personal relationship, Frederiksen said. The AG's office can pull its own agents, investigators and prosecutors who have no relationship to anyone to independently look at a case. Kearney said he has no personal or professional concerns that the relationship between Kelley and Tallo in any way affected the judge's judicial decisions on cases. "I have no reason to think that he dealt inappropriately with any cases," Kearney said. It is not clear what role the York Area Regional Police Department, which covers York Township, is playing in the case. When asked about the allegations against Kelley, York Area Regional Sgt. Rod Varner would only say the department took a report of an assault that occurred between a man and a woman at 11:30 p.m. Feb. 8 in the 900 block of Heritage Hills Drive. No arrests had been made in the assault, Varner said, and cited department policy in not naming the victim. Court relationship ethics The Pennsylvania Judicial Code of Conduct does not expressly prohibit a relationship between a judge and an attorney, according to an expert. It's the nature of that relationship - the duration and the courtroom contact between the pair - that govern the ethics of the situation, said Harrisburg attorney Bob Davis. Davis, an adjunct professor at Widener Law School, specializes in ethics and has served as deputy chief and acting chief counsel for the Disciplinary Board of the state Supreme Court. "The key is, how close was the relationship between the judge and the attorney?" Davis said. "Would a reasonable person conclude that the relationship might influence the judge and any decision he or she might make?" Several canons of the Pennsylvania Code of Judicial Conduct apply to the recently disclosed relationship between Tallo and Kelley, Davis said. The code requires Kelley to disqualify himself from a proceeding in which impartiality might be questioned, including prejudice concerning a party. But attorneys also share that burden, Davis said. Another rule states that lawyers should not aid in the violation of any ethics rules, including judicial ethics. In cases of a potential conflict of interest, the president judge is responsible for ensuring the two parties do not appear together in court, Davis said. President Judge Stephen P. Linebaugh said that, once Kelley disclosed the relationship to him, he directed that all of Tallo's cases be heard by one of the three other county judges who hear criminal cases. To determine whether a conflict of interest might have existed prior to Kelley and Tallo's disclosing their relationship, you would have to look at the type of courtroom proceeding that went on before the judge, Davis said. For example, a full-blown trial is different from more procedural judicial actions. "If a public defender or defense council or anybody agreed on a particular disposition of a matter, and it's not contested, the judge is there to sign off on the reasonableness," he said. "There's little to no judicial decision making involved, and that wouldn't have any impact from a relationship with a lawyer." Staff writer Teresa Ann Boeckel contributed to this report. Relieved of some duties On Tuesday, York County President Judge Stephen P. Linebaugh issued an order relieving Judge Thomas H. Kelley VI of his supervisory duties. In December, as he prepared to take the reins as president judge, Linebaugh designated Kelley as supervising judge of the criminal courts and as Linebaugh's designee and representative to the York County Prison board. Linebaugh's order states he will act as the criminal court supervising judge and his own representative on the prison board until a further court order is issued. Most of the county's judges are assigned some additional duties such as supervising judge of civil court, family law court, juvenile court and other areas of the local court system. On Monday, Linebaugh removed Kelley from presiding over criminal cases. Linebaugh said he was transferring Kelley's cases to the county's three other criminal-court judges. Linebaugh said the purpose was to not have Kelley ruling on any cases being represented by the public defender's office. Read more Click here to read the previous story about the temporary PFA granted against Kelley. Read more at www.inyork.com

 

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