Pa. judges defend one of their own
Several high-profile jurists testified during the fraud trial of a former colleague.
PITTSBURGH - Several Pennsylvania judges appeared in a federal courtroom yesterday to defend one of their own, retired Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce.
Joyce, 59, is being tried on mail fraud and money laundering charges. He allegedly scammed insurance companies out of $440,000 by faking or exaggerating neck and back injuries from a 2001 fender-bender.
The defense contends that the injuries were legitimate or that Joyce believed they were.
Testifying for the defense, Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery, Superior Court President Judge Kate Ford Elliott, and Erie County Court Judge Michael Dunlavey said they recalled Joyce's complaining of back and neck pain since the August 2001 accident.
"It was generally believed by me, and I guess by others, that he had a back problem," Ford Elliott said.
Joyce's attorneys contend that the traffic accident aggravated spinal-fusion surgery Joyce had on his neck in the early 1990s. They argue that the pain caused Joyce to curtail, though not halt, his active lifestyle.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold contends that Joyce's car was rear-ended at 2 to 3 m.p.h. Prosecutors say that after the accident, Joyce golfed regularly, piloted a plane at least 50 times, and renewed his membership in an association of professional scuba divers.
Trabold contends that Joyce faked the injuries to support a lifestyle he could not sustain on his $165,343-a-year salary, including a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a hot tub, $6,000 worth of plastic surgery for the woman who is now his wife, and down payments on a new home and Cessna airplane.
The centerpiece of Trabold's case is a rambling letter Joyce sent to an insurance company, saying the injuries kept him from working and cost him a run at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2001.
McCaffery and Dunlavey recalled Joyce's complaining of back pain.