Facebook friendship of judge, politician an issue in drunken driving case
Is there any room for "friend"-ship between a judge and a defendant? That question arises from a recent drunken driving case against State Rep. Cherelle L. Parker in which the judge also happened to be her Facebook friend.
Is there any room for "friend"-ship between a judge and a defendant?
That question arises from a recent drunken driving case against State Rep. Cherelle L. Parker in which the judge also happened to be her Facebook friend.
On Tuesday, Municipal Court Judge Charles Hayden dismissed the evidence presented from Parker's April 30 arrest. That evidence included a Breathalyzer test that measured her blood-alcohol level at 0.16.
Hayden suppressed all evidence for Parker's nonjury trial, saying he doubted the testimony of the two arresting officers.
Parker, a former aide to City Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco, is a well-known politician who was first elected to the House in a special election in 2005. She represents the 200th District, which includes Mount Airy, Chestnut Hill, Roxborough, and Andorra.
To avoid a conflict of interest, District Attorney Seth Williams, who is friends with Parker (on Facebook and off), turned the case over to the state Attorney General's Office.
On Thursday, Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the attorney general, would not say whether the office was aware of the Facebook friendship. He did say the office "is reviewing all options regarding possible appeal."
It's hard to know what the Facebook friendship between Parker and Hayden amounts to.
Hayden did not return calls seeking comment. Parker referred questions to her lawyer, Joseph Kelly, who said in an interview that Facebook friendships are common and that Parker and Hayden are not friends otherwise.
On the social media site, Parker has more than 4,500 friends and Hayden more than 1,300, many of them politicians or politically connected Philadelphians, and including journalists.
Lynn A. Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, a nonpartisan nonprofit, said judges use of social media was a "cutting-edge issue."
It makes sense for judges to use sites such as Facebook for campaigns, Marks said, for the free exposure.
"But it also can have troubling consequences," she said. "When they become a judge, there are certain things - even if they're not prohibited by law - that they shouldn't probably do."
Judges probably should terminate social media campaign sites after elections, she said.
Superior Court Judge Anne Lazarus is heading a committee appointed by the state Supreme Court to review the code of judicial conduct, including the use of social media sites.
In May, Williams ordered a review of drunken driving convictions of cases between September 2009 and November 2010 based on faulty Breathalyzer calibrations discovered by the Philadelphia Police Department.
