Jailed judge will get to keep his pension

ERIE - A retired Pennsylvania Superior Court judge will not forfeit his $82,000 annual pension for the insurance fraud that landed him in federal prison for 46 months.

That's because the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System has determined that judge Michael Joyce's $440,000 insurance fraud conviction wasn't related to his public employment.

Joyce began serving his sentence in a minimum-security federal prison in West Virginia in April.

The 60-year-old Joyce was convicted in November of mail fraud and money laundering for allegedly exaggerating neck and back injuries to collect $440,000 in insurance claims stemming from a fender bender in August 2001.

Federal prosecutors are still seeking to forfeit Joyce's home because they say he used some of the money to pay for it. *