Philadelphia Judge Scott DiClaudio is suspended without pay amid accusations that he sought to influence a case
Another judge accused DiClaudio of intimating that he should give a defendant a favorable sentence.
Pennsylvania’s Court of Judicial Discipline on Thursday suspended Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio without pay amid allegations that he sought to influence a colleague’s decision in a case with ties to rapper Meek Mill.
DiClaudio was placed on administrative leave in June after fellow Common Pleas Court Judge Zachary Shaffer told his supervisors that DiClaudio intimated he should give a defendant a favorable sentence in a forthcoming case.
DiClaudio has vehemently denied the accusations, and on Thursday his lawyer, Michael van der Veen, said they were disappointed by the decision and would immediately appeal it.
The suspension comes just days after DiClaudio was reelected to another 10-year term on the bench.
The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board, which investigates complaints of judicial misconduct, filed formal charges against DiClaudio in September, accusing him of a host of ethical violations and asking that he be suspended without pay pending the outcome of the case.
DiClaudio appeared before the Court of Judicial Discipline last month and said that the conversation with Shaffer was a misunderstanding, and that he would never attempt to influence a case. DiClaudio and his attorneys asked the disciplinary panel to allow him to keep his pay while the investigation was underway.
But on Thursday, the court decided against that. It offered no explanation in its order.
The case against DiClaudio stemmed from an episode in Philadelphia’s criminal courthouse in June. Shaffer, during the hearing before the disciplinary panel, said he was sitting in his courtroom that month when DiClaudio’s assistant, former attorney Gary Silver, came in and said DiClaudio wanted to see him. Shaffer said he and his clerk had been planning to buy T-shirts from DiClaudio’s wife’s cheesesteak shop, and assumed that’s what he wanted to discuss.
They spoke with DiClaudio briefly in his robing room, Shaffer said, before DiClaudio asked the clerk to leave.
After the clerk left, Shaffer said, DiClaudio pulled out a piece of lined paper with “Dwayne Jones, courtroom 905, and Monday’s date” written on it.
DiClaudio held it out at his side, he said, then looked at him and said, “OK?”
Shaffer said he was confused, and hesitantly said “OK.”
DiClaudio ripped up the paper and threw it away, he said.
The judges then spoke casually about unrelated topics for a few minutes, Shaffer said. Then, as he started to leave, Shaffer said, DiClaudio said “something along the lines of, ‘You probably would have done the right thing anyway.’”
Jones, a friend of Philadelphia rapper Mill, was scheduled to appear before Shaffer for a sentencing in a gun-possession case in the coming days.
Shaffer said he immediately felt as if DiClaudio was trying to influence the sentencing. He reported the conversation to his supervisors the next day and recused himself from the case.
DiClaudio, meanwhile, said Shaffer’s testimony “was completely wrong.” He disputed many of the details Shaffer provided, and said he told Shaffer about his conversation with Jones only to give Shaffer a compliment.
“I wasn’t trying to influence a case,” DiClaudio testified.
Depending on the outcome of its investigation, the disciplinary board could still impose further penalties against DiClaudio.
Melissa L. Norton, the judicial conduct board’s chief counsel, said in an interview that the board’s decision to request a suspension without pay depends on the allegations in each case.
In the last two years, she said, the board has filed a total of five complaints and requested that pay be withheld in two of them — this case against DiClaudio, and one in which Norton said a Bradford County magisterial district judge inappropriately sought to strike up a relationship with a litigant.
The case marks the second time this year that the judicial conduct board has accused DiClaudio of wrongdoing. In April, it charged him with improperly using his position as a judge to promote his wife’s cheesesteak shop (it did not seek to have his pay withheld in that case). DiClaudio has denied the allegations, and the matter remains pending before the court.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia courts declined to comment on the suspension.