Brady hopes in hands of Wilkes-Barre judge

A veteran judge from Wilkes-Barre, Patrick J. Toole Jr., was appointed yesterday to referee the first round of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady's fight to stay in the Democratic race for mayor.

Toole, 73, a Luzerne County judge for 29 years, scheduled a hearing for Tuesday on an election-law challenge that could knock Brady off the May 15 primary ballot.

The judge's name has been prominent around Wilkes-Barre since his father served as a state senator - a Democrat - in the 1950s. Toole was elected to two terms as Luzerne County's district attorney before he was appointed to a vacant judgeship by a Democratic governor, Milton J. Shapp, in 1978.

Brady, chairman of the city's Democratic Party, is in trouble for failing to list his $8,727-a-year city pension in a financial-disclosure form required of all political candidates.

One of his primary opponents, Tom Knox, is paying for a lawsuit that says Brady should be thrown out of the race for the oversight.

But Brady's attorney, Stephen A. Cozen, contends that it wasn't an oversight, that the pension disclosure wasn't required under state law or the instructions of the state Board of Ethics.

Knox's attorney, Paul R. Rosen, asked the city's president judge, C. Darnell Jones II, to seek appointment of an out-of-county judge to handle the case, citing Brady's influence in Philadelphia judicial elections.

Cozen went along with the request, and Jones asked the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts to appoint someone.

Toole, a senior judge since he reached age 70, was initially selected by the state court administrator, Zygmont Pines, and then approved by the state's chief justice, Ralph J. Cappy, according to a spokesman for the court system.

Cozen predicted this week that no matter who wins the first round of the dispute, it will reach the Supreme Court on appeal.

In recent years, a divided Supreme Court has thrown two Philadelphia candidates off the ballot for failing to identify sources of income: former judge John Braxton, a candidate for city controller, for not listing six rental properties; and Council candidate Vern Anastasio, for failing to list jobs with the Legislature and the Human Relations Commission. *