The opinion
964 A.2d 988 (2008)
In re Ann H. LOKUTA, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Eleventh Judicial District, Luzerne County.
No. 3 JD 06.
Court of Judicial Discipline of Pennsylvania.
October 30, 2008.
Order December 9, 2008.
*997 Francis J. Puskas, II, Harrisburg, Deputy Chief Counsel, Judicial Conduct Board, for Judicial Conduct Board.
Louis J. Sinatra, Philadelphia, for Respondent.
Before MUSMANNO, P.J., and LAMB, SPRAGUE, P.J.E., and O'TOOLE, STREIB, BUCCI, and KURTZ, JJ.
OPINION BY Judge SPRAGUE.
AND NOW, this 30th day of October, 2008, based upon the Opinion filed herewith, it is hereby ORDERED:
That, pursuant to C.J.D.R.P. No. 503, the attached Opinion with Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law is hereby filed, and shall be served upon the Judicial Conduct Board and upon the Respondent,
That either party may elect to file written objections to the findings and conclusions of the Court, stating therein the basis for those objections, provided that such objections shall be filed with the Court within ten (10) days of the date of the entry of this Order, and a copy thereof served upon the opposing party,
That, in the event that such objections are filed, the Court shall determine whether to entertain oral argument upon the objections, and, if so, issue an Order setting a date for such oral argument. If the Court determines not to entertain oral argument upon the objections, the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law shall become final and this Court will conduct a hearing on the issue of sanctions,
That, in the event objections are not filed within the time set forth above, the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law shall become final, and this Court will issue an Order setting a date, pursuant to C.J.D.R.P. No. 504, for a hearing on the issue of sanctions.
I. INTRODUCTION
The Judicial Conduct Board (Board) filed a Complaint with this Court on November 27, 2006 against Ann H. Lokuta, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County Pennsylvania (Respondent) consisting of six counts which charge Respondent as follows:
1. Failing to be patient, dignified and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom she deals in her official capacity, and failing to require similar conduct of lawyers and of her staff, court officials, and others subject to *998 her direction and control, a violation of Canon 3A.(3) of the Code of Judicial Conduct (Count 1),
2. Conduct which brings the judicial office into disrepute, a violation of Article V, § 18(d)(1) of the Pennsylvania Constitution (Count 2),
3. Failing to dispose promptly of the business of the court, a violation of Canon 3A.(5) of the Code of Judicial Conduct (Count 3),
4. Failing to conduct herself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, a violation of Canon 2A. of the Code of Judicial Conduct (Count 4),
5. Failing to disqualify herself in a proceeding in which her impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including, but not limited to instances where she has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, a violation of Canon 3C.(1)(a) (Count 5),
6. Conduct which prejudices the proper administration of justice, a violation of Article V, § 18(d)(1) of the Pennsylvania Constitution (Count 6).
These charges arise out of conduct alleged to have begun soon after her election to the bench in 1992 and to have continued until the filing of this Complaint in November 2006. [1]
The Board presented 30 witnesses, [2] whose testimony was offered to establish the charges brought by the Board. The Respondent and her present tipstaff and secretary, Maureen Gushanas, [3] gave lengthy testimony disputing the testimony of the Board's witnesses, declaring that the Board's witnesses are all lying, giving false testimony, and committing perjury, in furtherance of a conspiracy to hurt Respondent. Our resolution of this question obviously will be essential to the fact finding process in this case and will dictate our ultimate conclusions. We find that the Board's witnesses were credible, did not give false testimony, and did not commit perjury. We find, on the other hand, that Respondent's and Gushanas's insistence that each and every one of these witnesses gave false testimony and committed perjury is, to put it gently, far-fetched.
The Board and the Respondent have submitted stipulations as to some of the facts in the case pursuant to C.J.D.R.P. No. 502(D)(2). The Court accepted the pertinent stipulations and proceeded to trial.
As we make our findings of fact, we will discuss the efficacy of those facts in establishing the violations of the canons and of the constitution asserted by the Board and set out in the six Counts recited above.
Before doing so, we set down fundamental principles which direct us in our work.
The constitutional amendment of 1993 establishing this Court provided certain specific instructions for the conduct of proceedings before this Court:
All hearings conducted by the court shall be public proceedings conducted pursuant to the rules adopted by the court and in accordance with the principles of due process and the law of evidence. *999 Parties appealing before the court shall have a right to discovery pursuant to the rules adopted by the court and shall have the right to subpoena witnesses and to compel the production of documents, books, accounts and other records as relevant. The subject of the charges shall be presumed innocent in any proceeding before the court, and the board shall have the burden of proving the charges by clear and convincing evidence.
Pa. Const. Art. V, § 18(b)(5).
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has defined clear and convincing evidence as follows:
The witnesses must be found to be credible, that the facts to which they testify are distinctly remembered and the details thereof narrated exactly and in due order, and that their testimony is so clear, direct, weighty, and convincing as to enable the [trier of fact] to come to a clear conviction, without hesitancy, of the truth of the precise facts in issue. . . . It is not necessary that the evidence be uncontradicted provided it "carries a clear conviction to the mind" or "carries a clear conviction of its truth."
In re Adoption of J.J., 511 Pa. 590 , 515 A.2d 883, 886 (1986). See, also, LaRocca's Trust, 411 Pa. 633, 640 , 192 A.2d 409, 413 (1963).
Acting pursuant to C.J.D.R.P. No. 501, the President Judge appointed a Panel to conduct the trial of this case. The Panel, consisting of Conference Judge Sprague, Judge O'Toole, and Judge Streib conducted the trial on September 24, 2007 to September 28, 2007, December 10, 2007, December 12 to December 14, 2007 and January 14, 2008 to January 16, 2008. Findings of Fact were initially made by the Panel.
Since the Constitution requires that "all actions of the court . . . shall require approval by a majority vote of the members of the court" (Pa. Const. Art. V, § 18(b)(4)) the Panel's Findings of Fact have been reviewed and this Decision is rendered by the full Court. Mindful of the reality, long jurisprudentially recognized, that assessments of credibility are best made by one who hears the witnesses testify and observes their demeanor, the Court is obliged to accord special deference to the Panel's Findings of Fact. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has addressed the subject as follows:
As long as sufficient evidence exists in the record which is adequate to support the finding found by the trial court, as fact finder, we are precluded from overturning that finding and must affirm, thereby paying the proper deference due to the fact finder who heard the witnesses testify and was in the sole position to observe the demeanor of the witnesses and assess their credibility. This rule of law is well established in our jurisprudence and is rooted in concepts of fairness, common sense and judicial economy. (citations omitted).
Commonwealth Dept. of Transportation v. O'Connell, 521 Pa. 242, 248 , 555 A.2d 873, 875 (1989). See, also, the observations of the United States Supreme Court in Patton v. Yount, 467 U.S. 1025, 1038 , 104 S.Ct. 2885 , 81 L.Ed.2d 847 (1984), ". . . the determination is essentially one of credibility, and therefore largely one of demeanor. As we have said on numerous occasions, the trial court's resolution of such questions is entitled . . . to `special deference'", and in Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 500 , 104 S.Ct. 1949 , 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984), "The requirement that special deference be given to a trial judge's credibility determinations is itself a recognition of the broader proposition that the presumption of correctness *1000 that attaches to factual findings is stronger in some cases than in others." We also determine that this is a case where the presumption should be stronger rather than weaker because, in this case, credibility determinations were pivotal.
We preface this Opinion by stating that our findings hereinafter made are based on evidence which is, in all cases, clear and convincing.
II. FINDINGS OF FACT AND DISCUSSION
The Court now makes its findings of fact; those which are stipulated are so designated.
A. INTRODUCTORY
1. Pursuant to Article V, § 18 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Judicial Conduct Board Rule of Procedure 31(A)(3), promulgated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on March 20, 1995 (amended 1996), the Board is granted authority to determine whether there is probable cause to file formal charges, and, when it concludes that probable cause exists, to file formal charges, against a justice, judge, or justice of the peace, for proscribed conduct and to present the case in support of such charges before the Court of Judicial Discipline. (Stipulated).
2. Since January 1992, the Respondent has served continuously to the present as a duly-elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas serving the Eleventh Judicial District, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. (Stipulated).
B. RESPONDENT'S WORK HABITS
Findings of Fact
3. Theodore Krohn is 75 years old and has been a member of the Pennsylvania Bar since 1956. Krohn was employed in Respondent's office as senior law clerk during two periods: (1) from 1998/1999 to June 2002; and (2) from January 2003 to April 2003. During his employment with Respondent, Respondent referred to Krohn as her "Clarence Darrow." (N.T. 24-28 Krohn; N.T. 2430, 3015, 3179 Lokuta).
4. Nancy Violi is a lawyer who began working as an assistant district attorney in Luzerne County in 2001. She frequently appeared in that capacity before Respondent from 2001 to February 10, 2004 when, after a particularly bad experience in Respondent's court where Respondent had repeatedly badgered and rebuked her for reasons such as: for speaking too soon, for not speaking soon enough, for not looking at Respondent when she was answering Respondent's inquiry as to how many witnesses she had having looked over at the witnesses to be sure she got the number right and "after months and months of all the abuse [she] had taken," she reported this situation to the first assistant district attorney and thereafter she was not assigned to Respondent's courtroom. (N.T. 798, 810, 817-822 Violi).
5. Virginia Murtha-Cowley has been practicing law in Luzerne County since 1985, She worked as a public defender from 1987 until February 2007. Since then she has been employed by the Pennsylvania State Education Association. She had a friendly, social relationship with Respondent until Christmas time one year in the late 1990s when it ended in an unfriendly manner. She appeared frequently in Respondent's courtroom in her capacity as a public defender until 2003. After her personal relationship with Respondent ended, Respondent's treatment of her in the courtroom dramatically changed and was repeatedly personally humiliating and abusive to the point where Murtha-Cowley became concerned that Respondent's obvious *1001 animosity toward her was negatively affecting her clients; and, upon her request, she was no longer assigned to Respondent's courtroom. (N.T. 989-1005 Murtha-Cowley).
6. Ingrid Cronin is employed as an assistant federal public defender in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She was admitted to the bar in 1991. From 1992 through August 2004, she was employed as an assistant district attorney in Luzerne County. During the course of her employment as an assistant district attorney, Cronin appeared before Respondent at least once per week during the periods when Respondent was presiding over criminal cases. Cronin also, for a period of years, had a supervisory role in the district attorney's office which required her, among other things, to direct the daily assignments of the assistant district attorneys before the various judges. (N.T. 1033-38 Cronin).
7. Rebecca Ann Sammon is a 2004 law school graduate presently employed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania House of Representatives. While in law school, Sammon worked for Respondent as a law clerk/intern for two summers, from May through August 2002 and from May through July 2003. (N.T. 1235-38, 1287-88 Sammon).
8. Judith M. Flaherty is an attorney who was admitted to practice in Pennsylvania in January 1999. From April 1999 through March 2001 Ms. Flaherty worked for Respondent as a tipstaff/law clerk. (N.T. 1408-11 Flaherty).
9. Patrick J. Toole, Jr. has been a judge in the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County since 1978. He served as president judge of the county from 1991 to 1996 and was president judge when Respondent first came to the bench in 1992. Judge Toole now serves as a senior judge in Luzerne County. (N.T. 240, 280 Toole).
10. Respondent was frequently late for court. (N.T. 39-45, 85 Krohn; N.T. 833 Violi; N.T. 1009-10 Murtha-Cowley; N.T. 1035, 1051-52 Cronin; N.T. 1267-68 Sammon, Exhibit R-643, p. 18; N.T. 1424-34 Flaherty).
11. During both time periods in which Krohn was employed by Respondent, Respondent was continually late for court sessions "from 20 minutes to possibly an hour or more," many times with a packed courtroom of attorneys. This was a recurring problem occurring "a number of times per week, some weeks more often than not." (N.T. 39-40 Krohn).
12. During both time periods in which Krohn was employed by Respondent, Respondent had people waiting in the courtroom for the business of court while she was talking with her staff in chambers and not working on judicial matters. On these occasions, Respondent instructed Krohn to tell those waiting that Respondent was engaged in legal research, or to tell them that Respondent had been delayed because of traffic problems or traffic accidents. (N.T. 41-45 Krohn).
13. Respondent was frequently absent from the courthouse during normal working days and hours. (N.T. 257-58 Toole; N.T. 1238 Sammon; N.T. 1424-29 Flaherty).
14. We find that the events related by the witnesses in the testimony in this record reproduced in the Discussion which follows occurred as described in the testimony at the times and with the frequency as related by the witnesses.
Discussion
We find the testimony of these witnesses on Respondent's work habits to be credible. [4] The question then is: does the *1002 conduct described by these witnesses constitute a violation of any of the constitutional or canonical provisions charged by the Board in Counts 1 through 6? In answering this question it is most important that we examine the testimony to determine:
1. Whether these absences were inconsequential, i.e., a few minutes or not, and
2. Whether they were infrequent occurrences or not.
Krohn answers both questions. As to the first he was asked:
Q. . . . Approximately what kind of lateness are we talking about?
A. Anywhere from 20 minutes to possibly an hour or more.
As to the second he was asked:
Q. And how frequently?
And he answered:
A. I would say a number of times per week, some weeks more often than not. (N.T. 40).
Krohn also testified that this was "one of the constantly recurring problems" and that "it was on a weekly basis and continuing in such fashion" and that "the judge was continually late for court sessions, many times for a packed courtroom of attorneys." (N.T. 38-39). Krohn testified that this was Respondent's modus operandi during both periods of his employment as Respondent's senior law clerk, i.e., from 1998/1999 to June 2002 and from January to April 2003. Krohn also testified that Respondent was late for court on the last day he worked for her in April 2003. (N.T. 43, 85).
Nancy Violi testified:
A. There were numerous incidents when I was there for PFA court that Judge Lokuta would take the bench, and if she was late that morning, she would always take the bench and always make a comment that it was somebody else's fault. And many times she was making derogatory comments about Judge Conahan, and he was the reason why she couldn't get to the bench to be at her hearings on time. (N.T. 833).
Virginia Murtha-Cowley testified:
Q. What, if anything, have you observed about Judge Lokuta's punctuality in court?
. . . .
A. She has a tendency to be late.
The Court then asked:
Q. Excuse me, what does late mean?
She answered:
A. Well, we would be waiting 15, 20, a half hour. She would get on the bench, and then, you know, say she had many other things to take care of. That would be common. Or she would get on the bench and go on for another 10 minutes or more about how what her workload is and how she is treated by the other judges and by the courts and on and on and on . . . . (N.T. 1009-10).
. . . .
Q. How frequently was that occurring?
*1003 . . . .
A. That was fairly frequently. (N.T. 1010).
Ingrid Cronin testified:
Q. What, if anything, can you tell the Court about Judge Lokuta's punctuality?
. . . .
A. It's my memory that the judge was very often late. And I can remember that the judge very took many more breaks than I would have expected, long breaks.
. . . .
Q. Now, when you say late, can you tell the Court what you mean by that?
A. I think it would be fair to say that one could generally expect things to start at least half an hour after they were originally scheduled and could be more than that.
Q. And was that a frequent occurrence?
. . . .
A. Yes, that was a frequent occurrence. (N.T. 1051-52).
Rebecca Sammon, Respondent's legal intern, testified:
Q. Now, how frequently had Judge Lokuta been at her office during that first summer?
A. Not Definitely not like 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday. It would be sometimes she'd only come in once a week. Sometimes, you know, I know she went on vacation. But there were times where I would only see her once a week, if that.
Q. During the second summer that you worked for her, how frequently was she at the office?
A. More often. . . . (N.T. 1241).
Q. What, if anything, can you tell the Court about Judge Lokuta Judge Lokuta's punctuality in coming to court?
. . . .
And I would be referring to both. And you can separate them if you want, summer of 2002, summer of 2003.
A. She was late a lot. . . . (N.T. 1267).
The Court:
Q. The question is, what can you tell about Judge Lokuta being late. I assume since you said she rarely showed up the first time you're talking about the second season.
A. Mostly, yes. But the times that she did come I remember one particular instance when she had a civil trial. She would frequently show up she would show up about a half hour late. And often she wouldn't get there until 10:30, noon. She was frequently late. (N.T. 1268).
Judith Flaherty, Respondent's law clerk/tipstaff, testified:
Q. What can you tell the Court, if anything, about Judge Lokuta's punctuality in the court?
. . . .
A. What would happen is normally if she didn't have court a lot of the times she wouldn't come in until later in the day if court wasn't scheduled, usually in the afternoon maybe come in for a couple hours and do work and then leave. . . . So what would normally happen is when we got assigned a case, normally we'd call her to let her know because usually she wasn't in. . . .
Q. Where was Judge Lokuta?
A. She was home.
. . . .
A. From the conversations, she was at home in Dupont.
*1004 JUDGE SPRAGUE: Conversations that you had had on occasions with Judge Lokuta?
A. Myself or Susan. Usually Susan would get the call, and Susan was her secretary.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: But did you on occasion speak directly with Judge Lokuta?
A. A few times I had.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: And she was home?
A. She was home.
. . . .
Q. Were there times, if any, where you had to call Judge Lokuta to wake her up in the afternoon to come into the office?
MR. SINATRA: Objection, Your Honor.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
A. There would be times that I had to call her to let her know, like I said, about the criminal trial, and we hadn't heard about you know, heard from her. And I could tell she had just it sounded like she had just woken up.
Q. What made you think that? You can tell the Court.
A. Well, the way your voice sounds, you know, like groggy, a groggy voice, you know, someone who had just, you know, woken up from a sleep. You know, you can tell like when your talking voice isn't clear.
Q. And how often would that occur?
. . . .
MR. SINATRA: Objection to the form of the question.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Excuse me, that objection is sustained. The witness has not been able to say definitely that she woke her up. She gave her conclusion from the way in which Judge Lokuta spoke that sounded like somebody who had woken up. She never said, in fact, she woke her up. So the question is, how many times did you call her in mid-afternoon to get her to come to court?
Q. Right. How frequently would you have to call her in the afternoon to get Judge Lokuta to come into court?
. . . .
A. Well, most of the time it was Susan that would call her. But it was usually every criminal matter that we had. And usually around late morning or around noon, you know, when we knew for sure, Susan would call her. There's a few occasions that I had to actually call the judge. Sometimes she would call in. But most of the times it was Susan calling her to let her know. Sometimes I called her. (N.T. 1424-29).
Judge Toole testified about an incident which occurred in 1994 or 1995 when he was president judge:
Q. Do you recall an incident where you called Judge Lokuta's chambers and she was not there?
A. I recall a number of times I called she wasn't there. The one you're probably talking about is, and again, I'd have to find, because they are all memorandums back and forth about it, she was assigned a trial for that particular day. Early that morning that case was settled. I sent another case to her courtroom to be tried. Later that morning I inquired and I was told that
. . . .
A. I was informed by the court administrator that the case that I had assigned to Judge Lokuta that day *1005 was continued until 1:30. I went down, or I called, I apologize. I called the office and I asked to speak to the judge. I was told she was unavailable. I asked the secretary if she was there or out of the building. And I said, I want to know, is she there. And finally the secretary said to me
A. that, no, she was not in the building. I was concerned, because, one, I was given no notice that she was not going to be present that morning for an assignment. Then, if I recall correctly, I might have said please have her call me. And my recollection is, I received no call and I think that was that case. (N.T. 257-58).
As stated earlier, the Board's witnesses are credible and their testimony is clear and convincing to establish that this Respondent was habitually and egregiously late for court and frequently was not in the courthouse at work when she should have been. We find that this evidence establishes a violation of Canon 3A.(3) of the Code of Judicial Conduct as charged in Count 1 of the Complaint.
Canon 3A.(3) provides:
Judges should be patient, dignified, and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom they deal in their official capacity, and should require similar conduct of lawyers, and of their staff, court officials, and others subject to their direction and control.
Respondent's custom of arriving 15, 20 minutes, or a half hour or an hour or more late for scheduled court sessions is the quintessential discourtesy to litigants, jurors, witnesses, and lawyers. When it is commonplace, as here, it takes on the character of arrogance and disrespect for the judicial system itself, as well, of course, disrespect for those who, bidden by the court to be in court at a time chosen by the court, wait, sometimes in a "packed courtroom," for the arrival of the judge.
These considerations lead us to a contemporaneous finding that this conduct is such that brings the judicial office into disrepute which subjects Respondent to discipline under Article V, § 18(d)(1) of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
In In re Trkula, 699 A.2d 3, 7 (Pa.Ct. Jud.Disc.1997), this Court (referring to our opinion in In re Smith, 687 A.2d 1229 (Pa.Ct.Jud.Disc.1996)) said:
. . . this Court noted that the conduct of a judge which results in a decline in the public esteem for that judge, may not support the conclusion that the conduct has brought the judiciary as a whole into disrepute, absent a persuasive showing by the Board that the conduct is so extreme as to have brought the judicial office itself into disrepute.
In In re Cicchetti, 697 A.2d 297, 312 , aff'd, 560 Pa. 183 , 743 A.2d 431 , 444-45 (2000), this Court noted that:
The determination of whether particular conduct has brought the judicial office into disrepute, of necessity, is a determination which must be made on a case by case basis as the particular conduct in each case is scrutinized and weighed.
We note that for most of the occupants of the benches in this Respondent's courtroom the litigants, the jurors and the witnesses this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, their only exposure to the judicial system; and what they take away will be based largely, if not predominantly, on the conduct of the judge.
In Smith we said that:
"Disrepute" necessarily incorporates some standard with regard to the reasonable expectations of the public of a judicial officer's conduct.
*1006 Smith, supra, at 1239 ; see also, In re Harrington, 877 A.2d 570, 576 (Pa.Ct.Jud. Disc.2005), aff'd, 587 Pa. 407 , 899 A.2d 1120 (2006); In re McCarthy, 828 A.2d 25, 29 (Pa.Ct.Jud.Disc.2003); In re Zoller, 792 A.2d 34, 38 (Pa.Ct.Jud.Disc.2001); In re Strock, 727 A.2d 653, 657 (Pa.Ct.Jud.Disc. 1998); and In re Trkula, 699 A.2d at 7 .
Certainly the reasonable expectations of the public would include the expectation that the judicial officer act with the same respect for the court as those members of the public did by obeying the court's scheduling order; would include the expectation that the judicial officer would act with consideration for the time and schedules of the hard working people who crowd her courtroom; and would include the expectation that a judicial officer would conduct herself with the same deference and consideration for others as is taught in the schools and in the homes of Luzerne County. Respondent's conduct described in this record is the kind of conduct which gives the judicial office itself and courts in general a "bad name."
We conclude that the conduct of Respondent was so extreme as to bring the judicial office into disrepute.
C. CONDUCT IN COURTROOM
Findings of Fact
15. Angela Sallemi is presently employed by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Scranton, Pennsylvania. From 1985 to September 25, 2006 she worked as a court reporter in the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. She was assigned to Respondent's courtroom for a week every four to six weeks. (N.T. 711-13 Sallemi).
16. Lisa L. Tratthen has been employed as a court reporter by the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania for the last 15 years. She is generally assigned to Respondent's courtroom for one week every other month. (N.T. 750-52 Tratthen).
17. Daniel J. Coll has been employed as a court reporter by the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania for 30 years, for the last eight years he has been deputy chief court reporter. He has been assigned to Respondent's courtroom approximately 80 times. (N.T. 556-57 Coll).
18. Ruth Wasiluk has been employed as a court reporter by the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania since 1976. She has been chief court reporter since 1990. She has been assigned to Respondent's courtroom as a court reporter approximately 50 times. As chief court reporter her duties include assigning the court reporters to the judges. (N.T. 774-76 Wasiluk).
19. William T. Sharkey has been the court administrator for the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania for the last ten years. As court administrator he is responsible for the overall supervision of the entire court system. (N.T. 531 Sharkey).
20. Donna Miscavage is employed in the prothonotary's office of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. She has been employed there since 2000. From 2000 to 2006 she worked as a court clerk. Since 2006 she has been responsible for the transmittal of appealed cases to the appellate courts. Her duties as court clerk included swearing in the witnesses, assisting attorneys with picking the juries, taking the verdict, recording the verdict in the prothonotary's office, filling in for the tipstaff in handling the juries and keeping track of exhibits. During the period 2000-2006 she was assigned to Respondent's courtroom one week a *1007 month maybe more. (N.T. 1075-77 Miscavage).
21. Maura Cusick has been employed as a court clerk in the Luzerne County prothonotary's office since 2001. Her duties require her to sit in the courtroom in close proximity to the presiding judge. She was the court clerk in Respondent's courtroom from two to four days per month. (N.T. 1147-48 Cusick).
22. Jill Moran has been the prothonotary in Luzerne County since January 2002. Ms. Moran also practices as a private attorney. As prothonotary, she is responsible for the assignment of court clerks to the various courtrooms. (N.T. 1184-86 Moran).
23. Anna V. Torres has been employed as a deputy sheriff by the Luzerne County sheriff's department for six years. (N.T. 915-16 Torres).
24. James Patrick Joyce has been employed as a deputy sheriff by the Luzerne County sheriffs department since February 2001. (N.T. 941-42 Joyce).
25. Barry L. Stankus was the sheriff of Luzerne County from 2000 to the end of 2007. (N.T. 957-58 Stankus; 3035-36 Lokuta).
26. Cynthia L. Rachilla is a court reporter employed by the Luzerne County court. She has held that position for 22 years. (N.T. 626 Rachilla).
27. Selyne Youngclaus has been practicing as an attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 25 years. Her law practice consists primarily of criminal and domestic relations matters. Youngclaus also holds two positions in Wyoming County, one as the public defender for juvenile cases (since 2004) and the other as a divorce master (since 1989). From April 2002 until June 2003, Youngclaus worked as Respondent's part-time law clerk. From that date to November 2003, when she resigned, she was Respondent's full time law clerk. Youngclaus was a personal friend of Respondent's from 1985 until she resigned her position. (N.T. 1319-27 Youngclaus).
28. Susan Moyer was employed by Respondent from February 18, 2005 to May 17, 2005. Sometimes she acted as Respondent's tipstaff and sometimes as her secretary. (N.T. 1364 Moyer).
29. Susan Weber is employed by the orphans' court of Luzerne County. She worked as Respondent's executive secretary from 1996 through December 2001 and then again, from September 2002 through March 2004. (N.T. 1461-62, 1470-71 Weber).
30. Girard J. Mecadon has been a practicing attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1991. He is currently employed as a solo practitioner and serves as a part-time public defender and as a solicitor in Buck Township, Luzerne County. From January 2002 through April 2002, Mecadon worked as Respondent's part-time or junior law clerk. (N.T. 868-69 Mecadon).
31. Respondent was impatient, undignified and discourteous to court personnel including:
Court reporters (N.T. 50, 154-55 Krohn; N.T. 557-59, 566-69 Coll; N.T. 713-22 Sallemi; N.T. 752-66 Tratthen; N.T. 779-81, 787-788 Wasiluk);
Court administration (N.T. 535-39 Sharkey);
Court clerks (prothonotary's office) (N.T. 575 Coll; N.T. 828-29 Violi; N.T. 1078-95 Miscavage; N.T. 1149-61 Cusick; N.T. 1198-1203 Moran);
Deputy sheriffs (N.T. 75-77 Krohn; N.T. 916-31 Torres; N.T. 966-68 Stankus; N.T. 1088-89 Miscavage);
*1008 Attorneys (N.T. 85-86, 159-61 Krohn; N.T. 560-64, 571-72 Coll; N.T. 641-48 Rachilla; N.T. 785-86 Wasiluk; N.T. 800-26 Violi; Exhibit R-643, pp. 18-20 Sammon; N.T. 1001-09 Murtha-Cowley; N.T. 1035-41 Cronin; N.T. 1086 Miscavage; N.T. 1192-96 Moran; N.T. 1337-40, 1343-46 Youngclaus; N.T. 1464-68 Weber);
Everybody in the courtroom including witnesses, victims, parties, probation officers (N.T. 154-55 Krohn; N.T. 557-58 Coll; N.T. 828-36 Violi; N.T. 1042-45 Cronin; N.T. 1078-95 Miscavage).
32. Respondent's conduct in the courtroom created a tense and stressful atmosphere in her courtroom and had a serious negative effect on the ability of court personnel and attorneys to properly perform their duties. In addition, Respondent's conduct made it difficult for the various judicial support offices of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, as well as for the office of the district attorney, to staff her courtroom. In addition, Respondent's treatment of the deputy sheriffs interfered with the performance of their duties and was so rude and upsetting that the sheriff had to rotate them out of Respondent's courtroom every hour or hour and a half. (N.T. 558-59, 561-62 Coll; N.T. 641-48 Rachilla; N.T. 721-22 Sallemi; N.T. 752, 754-56, 760-64 Tratthen; N.T. 787-88 Wasiluk; N.T. 799-803 Violi; N.T. 918-22, 929-31 Torres; N.T. 950-53 Joyce; N.T. 966-71 Stankus; N.T. 996 Murtha-Cowley; N.T. 1035-36, 1038-41, 1057-58 Cronin; N.T. 1079-80, 1087-98 Miscavage; N.T. 1186-90 Moran).
33. We find that the events related by the witnesses in the testimony in this record reproduced in the Discussion which follows occurred as described in the testimony at the times and with the frequency as related by the witnesses.
Discussion
We set down here samples of the testimony which leads us to make Findings of Fact Nos. 31 and 32.
Theodore Krohn, Respondent's senior law clerk testified:
A. . . . And what caused this movement from one judge to the other personality, I'm not competent to say. I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist. All I can tell you, is I witnessed those very abrupt, cataclysmic mood changes. And I use the word cataclysmic because that's what they were.
Q. How frequent were these mood changes?
A. They became more frequent during my second period with the judge in that I believe that was one of the contributing reasons to my wanting to leave. I came back because I had hoped that I could be of some meaningful use, but apparently that was not the case.
. . . .
Q. Was there anything that precipitated these kinds of mood changes?
A. It could have been the personality of the attorneys involved in certain cases. Could have been anything. They just happened. That's all I know.
Q. And when they happened, what were the characteristics of her behavior?
. . . .
A. She became extremely combative. She became somewhat irrational.
Q. And who was this directed at?
A. It could be directed at anybody within the immediate area, the deputy sheriffs, the court stenographers, the court staff, counsel who were present in the courtroom. *1009 The court administrator's office was the brunt of a great deal of this. So.
Q. Could you explain what you mean by that, when they were the brunt of it? For example. Can you give a specific example?
. . . .
A. Well, I've already indicated that she would come down hard on the sheriff's deputies. She would come down hard on the court stenographers. She would come down hard on whoever happened to be within the area. . . . (N.T. 153-55).
Daniel Coll, deputy chief court reporter for eight years, court reporter for 30 years, testified:
Q. How does Judge Lokuta conduct herself on the bench?
. . . .
A. It depends because she's two people. On a good day, she will be fine. She's always stern. Always she does demand respect and such things. On a bad day, whatever you do is always wrong.
You can do the same procedure you did yesterday, but today it is wrong. So you never know what to expect when you walk into her courtroom, how she will treat you, how she will treat counsel or the parties. And so that is what makes it difficult when you are assigned to Judge Lokuta.
Q. Do you have a problem doing your job in her courtroom?
. . . .
A. I am able to accomplish my job while in her courtroom but it is with great consternation at times. She makes it very difficult in that she speaks incredibly fast. She has a very high vocabulary which she uses constantly, sometimes as a weapon against parties.
. . . .
Q. Can you explain that?
A. Especially when she asks a defendant or a party what their educational background is, and they should mention that they dropped out of school when they were in ninth grade.
Immediately, her vocabulary will go way past the college level. She just talks to these people in such a manner and at such a rapid rate of speed, they are like a deer caught in your headlights. They don't understand what she is saying. She could start talking French to these people, and it would make just as much sense to them. (N.T. 557-59).
He also testified:
A. Exactly what occurred was we were standing at sidebar. There was a sidebar conference. I take my machine off the tripod. Now the machines have the paper tray which is deeper than the machine. So if I try to set it flat, the machine is at an angle such as this.
The judge would keep a box of tissues on the bench that I would slide underneath in front of my machine to raise it at an angle that I could write. This one instance she said I need a tissue. So I lifted my machine. I pushed her the box of tissues.
Keeping her eyes on me, she grabbed the box of tissues and slid them to the opposite end of the bench, flipped to counsel and said continue counsel.
I stood back and said I can't write like this. She said well, what do you suggest? And I looked down at the other end of the box of tissues.
*1010 And at that point in time, I looked back at her and she says why don't you kneel at my feet as they all do? Some of the girls would take their machines, drop it as low as possible, put it down by her feet and kneel on the top step.
That was the first time I knew that now she is going for me. . . .
. . . .
Then she tells us every word I speak when I enter the courtroom is to be taken down. From the moment I walk into this courtroom, every word is to be taken down. Because with the other judges, you don't take anything down until the case is called in front of you. Then you begin to make the record.
The judge would come out and start making statements to the general audience about I'm sorry for the delay, ladies and gentlemen, her burgeoning personal schedule and things being thrust upon her at the eleventh hour.
I wasn't taking this down because I was not used to taking this down, this kind of stuff. And her tipstaff at that time Maureen Gushanas, he is not taking this down I heard her say to the Judge.
She looks down at me and says you are not taking this down? Every word I speak is to be taken down. Fine. So from then on, I start taking down everything she says from start to finish.
Several weeks later, I'm with her again.
MR. SINATRA: Can we have a year again? Can we have a year for the first instance?
A. I would probably say XXXX-XXXX, 2005.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Go ahead.
A. A couple of weeks later, we are in court. She has PFA Court, then followed by or Summary Court then followed by Motions Court. I'm taking PFA Court finishes. I am taking down she is just talking to the lawyers that are there now for Motions Court apologizing for the delay and blah, blah, blah as usual.
She looks down at me and says why are you taking this down? There is no case before us. Why are you taking this down? And that is what I mean. You cannot win in her courtroom. You cannot please her. What you did yesterday is not good today. It is a whim. (N.T. 566-69).
Under questioning by the Court Mr. Coll testified:
JUDGE SPRAGUE: And taking up the other areas, what can you describe to the Court in terms of conduct towards lawyers in the courtroom? And again, if you can give examples, state approximately when.
A. All right. Let's say maybe 2003, maybe even earlier than that, 2002, back when she did have Civil Court, there was a civil oral argument that counsel came in for.
. . . .
A. She notified counsel that they have seven minutes to present their oral arguments to her, having 3.5 minutes apiece. I had never heard that rule before.
So they start to try to get in as much of their argument as possible in that 3.5 minutes. And she stops counsel dead and says counsel, I cannot possibly write that fast due to my thoracic outlet syndrome, and goes on with the explanation of the nerves and tingling in her hands.
*1011 She looks at her watch and says you now have 1 minute and 15 seconds to conclude your argument. So he starts to continue his argument. It's one I think instance of putting counsel in a difficult spot.
. . . .
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Just stick to what you observed and recount it as faithfully as you can without your own views about it. You gave an illustration. Give some more if there are any and approximately when.
A. Okay. Throughout her tenure, she demands copies of exhibits. If counsel should pull an exhibit from his folder, he has to have a copy for the Court, opposing counsel, the witness and the record.
And if he doesn't have the appropriate amount of copies, this Court will have to recess until you complete that task. And she will recess the case for 15, 20 minutes while he has to find a photocopier now and start making all of these copies.
She won't allow counsel to share a copy of the exhibit and stand there with the witness. She demands all of these extra copies.
There are just so many instances throughout her tenure. It is difficult to just pull them out. (N.T. 571-73).
Counsel then inquired about Respondent's treatment of deputy sheriffs and court clerks:
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Can you tell the Court anything about your observations of Judge Lokuta's treatment of Sheriffs in her courtroom?
. . . .
A. She would direct the exact position in which she wanted a sheriff to stand or sit. Sheriff, I want you to take two steps forward. Now take one to the left. And you, Sheriff, I want you to take two steps back and one to the right. And Sheriff, I want you seated right there in that seat by the door. . . .
. . . .
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Mr. Coll, could you tell the Court what you observed about Judge Lokuta's treatment of Court Clerks?
A. Just that she is very demanding of them. A Court Clerk is usually especially in PFA Court, they get the petition. They have to put the seal on it.
. . . .
A. And she may hand she would be trying to hand the clerk another document. The clerk is busy doing what they are doing, and she will chastise them. I want one eye on me at all times so you can always take these documents when I try to hand them to you. That is one instance with the clerks that I have seen.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Is this in open court?
A. Oh, yes.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: in front of whoever is in the courtroom?
A. Yes, Judge.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: And what is the frequency of that kind of comment?
A. Again, it depends on the clerk. If she does not like the clerk, she will be criticized often. That is all I can say.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: This went from when to when that you would see
A. This goes on to this day. (N.T. 573-76).
*1012 Angela Sallemi, court reporter in Luzerne County for 23 years, testified that between 2004 and 2006:
A. I was made to feel very uncomfortable in her courtroom. The reason for that is because I never knew when I was going to be embarrassed or put on the spot.
The one particular or a couple particular occasions when I was swearing a witness in Judge Lokuta's courtroom, just as I was sworn in here, I asked the witness to spell her name, and it's just something that I routinely do in other courtrooms. And when I finished, the Judge looked down at me glaringly and in a harsh tone said I swear the witnesses in my courtroom, and I mean I was embarrassed momentarily for myself and also for the Judge because when things like this occur, there are other people in the courtroom, and you can kind of see like little snickers and rolls of the eyes like, okay, it's that kind of day.
. . . .
Q. Can you tell the Court about these moods? What do you mean by that, these moods that you've referenced?
. . . .
A. Well, the randomness of her moods, you know, there will be times in the courtroom when she is very kind and solicitous to witnesses and attorneys. And then in a moment's time, her moods become demeaning, demanding, and that's what I mean by her moodiness.
Q. Are there things that precipitate that mood change?
. . . .
A. It could be anything or it could be nothing. It could be as little as you know, there may be lawyers or litigants in the back of the courtroom making too much noise or looking at her in a way that she thinks is not appropriate or it could be something that we can't even determine. The other difficulty did you want me to go on about the difficulties? (N.T. 714-16).
Lisa Tratthen, court reporter in Luzerne County for 15 years, testified:
Q. And are you able as a court reporter to effectively carry out your court reporting duties in Judge Lokuta's courtroom?
A. Yes and no.
Q. Could you explain that?
A. I'll do my best. The courtroom atmosphere itself is very uncomfortable for myself. Then once we get into any kind of testimony or any kind of hearings that we might have, on occasion
. . . .
Q. Why is it uncomfortable?
. . . .
A. It's very difficult to do your job when every time you turn around you're stopped from trying to do your job, and the example that I have is in the mid-1990s I decided that I had had enough of trying to figure out what was in my notes that were sloppy because the tempo in the courtroom is very, very fast. So I decided that I would stop anybody including Judge Lokuta that were speaking too fast. So I attempted to go into the courtroom that day and stop whenever I felt necessary.
. . . .
Q. Now, you had mentioned something about your notes being sloppy. Can you explain what you're talking about there? What was the problem *1013 with your notes that you're leading to an incident.
A. Quite frankly, it is Judge Lokuta speaks way too fast, and so I stopped her and asked her to slow down.
Q. How did you ask her to slow down?
A. I just simply said could you please slow down, you know, at one instance. There was another one that day where I said, you know, could you repeat something that she might have been reading, and then she proceeded to speak even faster to the point where by the time I finished and I was able to go downstairs, I went to my boss, I closed her door, and I broke into tears quite frankly and said, you know
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to the hearsay.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled. This is not hearsay. She is relating what she said.
A. I said, you know, I can't do this anymore. It's too difficult. Just don't put me back there pretty much, and then the very next day I had to go back up to the courtroom. Same time frame the very next day. And before court I was invited into chambers area by her tipstaff, and I was offered cappuccino so I could keep up with her.
I found that very upsetting because I was only trying to do my job. . . .
. . . .
Q. Have you had problems in Judge Lokuta's courtroom with her policies or protocols on how you should do your work?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you explain that?
. . . .
A. 2005, we had a directive in our office from Judge Lokuta that we were to not rise when she came into the courtroom. That we were to stay seated in our seats and take down whatever she started saying the minute she came out of her chambers.
So I went into court. Stayed seated even though everybody rose and started writing the minute she came out of her chambers. And when she got to the bench and realized I was writing, I was told this isn't on the record and why aren't you standing, something to that effect. So she had already taken her seat, so I stayed in my seat at that point. (N.T. 752-61).
Ruth Wasiluk, chief court reporter, testified:
Q. You had made a statement earlier in your testimony that when I asked you about whether you experienced difficulties in the courtroom you said it depended, and I want you to explain what you meant by that?
. . . .
A. It depends on her attitude which can change so quickly. One minute she can be congenial. One minute later she is ranting, raving, chastising attorneys for really no reason at all. Maybe the attorney didn't have a copy of an exhibit. He may have been an out-of-town attorney. He didn't know her protocol. She would chastise him for not having a copy of an exhibit and then go right back into being congenial. There is just no she is all over the place as far as attitude goes.
. . . .
Q. Can you tell the Court when you use the word chastising, can you describe the tone, the manner, the *1014 volume when Judge Lokuta does this?
A. Volume, extremely high, extremely high. Her voice goes up in octaves at times and at a very, very rapid pace, extremely rapid pace.
Q. What about her physical bearing when she is sitting at the bench, speaking from the bench at this high volume?
A. She is like very frustrated. She seemed to be very frustrated. Just ranting and raving. I do not try to look at her too much when she when I'm in her courtroom reporting because sometimes if you do, she wants to know what you are looking at if you happen to look up at her, so I do not try to look at her.
Q. What do you mean? Does she question you?
A. What are you looking at, why are you looking at me. So I don't even try to pay attention to her as far as looking at her.
. . . .
Q. When you've been in Judge Lokuta's courtroom, have you observed her treatment of attorneys?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. Can you tell the Court any incidents that you observed?
A. I sure can.
. . . .
A. Attorney Mark Singer who was an Assistant District Attorney at the time was handling guilty pleas for the District Attorney's Office, She was doing guilty pleas at the time. We had a case where a man was pleading in front of the bench. Attorney Singer did not have his file in front of him at the time. He had it on a table that was behind him.
She asked him a question concerning the case. He said he did not he would have to retrieve the file to obtain that information. She chastised him for not having the file in front of him in a very loud, loud voice and told him to retrieve the file. He turned around to retrieve the file, at which point he was chastised for turning his back on the Judge. He then, again, faced her and back peddled into the table to retrieve the file literally with his hands behind him trying to find the file.
He did find the file, picked the file up, opened the file, at which point he was chastised for opening the file because he was not directed to open the file. He was only told to retrieve the file.
Q. As chief court reporter, what can you tell the Court about the effect Judge Lokuta has had on your group of people?
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to that.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled. She is the chief court reporter, as I understand it, and it was developed that her reporters report to her.
MR. PUSKUS: Yes. I believe she said that in the beginning, Your Honor.
A. Any time that a court reporter comes down from court that has been sitting with the Judge, they are very upset. They are very tense. They're very tense in the morning before they have to go up not knowing what is going to happen. Are they going to get chastised for something, what's her demeanor going to be like. When they come down, they are upset, just tense and nervous all the time, *1015 all the time. It's a stressful situation.
Q. What can you have you observed anyone crying when they come down from court?
A. Absolutely. Absolutely. Three reporters that I can just name right off the top of my head have come down crying.
Q. And who would they be?
A. Lisa Tratthen, Kimberly Klesh, Rosemary Schwalm.
Q. Have you had any problems in running your department because of these difficulties with Judge Lokuta?
A. Yes, because nobody wants to go with her. It's very, very difficult to get somebody who really wants to sit with the judge and work. Naturally, they have to go, but it is so difficult to get somebody to really want to go. I try to cover as much as possible because I do understand the tension and I try to alleviate that as much as possible, as does Dan Coll. (N.T. 779-88).
Nancy Violi, assistant district attorney, testified:
A. So in the beginning when I had these PFA hearings, I had no problems with Judge Lokuta. She was fine. She treated me just like every other judge treated me in the county, but that all kind of changed one day. There was a civil hearing that was being conducted.
Q. Could you put a time frame on that, to the best of your recollection?
A. To the best of my recollection, I would have to say maybe end of 2002 to 2003, sometime around there. As an ADA
. . . .
As an ADA, I only take part in the indirect criminal complaint hearings, so the civil PFA hearings I have no part in obviously because they are civil. And on this particular day, there was a civil PFA hearing that was being conducted. . . .
. . . .
And Judge Lokuta had asked me at one point to get involved in that hearing on behalf of the parents of the minor child. I knew that that wasn't appropriate for me to do, and I told the judge that I couldn't do that. She ordered me to do it again, and, again, I said, judge, I can't do that. This is a civil hearing. I'm here on behalf of the District Attorney's Office. I have no place in this, and it was very, very uncomfortable.
I don't even know how to describe it. The tension, you could have cut it with a knife in that room. It was very obvious that she was extremely upset with me for not doing this, and I wasn't doing it to upset her. I just knew that it was inappropriate for me to do.
From that day forward, things became very different between Judge Lokuta and I. And on a regular basis, anytime I would appear in front of her for PFAs, it was like I was walking into that courtroom as a target for her. There was just constant attacks. She was trying to belittle me, make it look as though I couldn't perform my duties as an ADA.
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object again, Your Honor, and ask that it be stricken.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Motion denied.
Q. Could you please, so the Court understands, explain the tone, the volume, the manner in which she addressed you? You were starting *1016 with this incident about getting involved in a civil matter.
A. She just she glared at me. It was I could feel her eyes just penetrating right through me. She was very abrupt. She was loud. These are all things that I know when you read a transcript they don't really come through because all you're reading are just words on a page, but the way that she looks at you, she the tone of voice that she uses, she is loud.
She is actually, on one occasion she hunched over at me from her bench. She actually put her hands on the bench and hunched over at me when she was scolding me for something. These are all things that you don't see by reading a transcript. (N.T. 800-03).
She further testified:
Q. Could you tell the Court during the course of those two matters that you had, those two ICCs, was there some. . . . Do you recall specific things?
A. I do. I remember she kept cutting me off several times when I was trying to explain myself. I think maybe with the first hearing, a question had arisen as to how many witnesses the Commonwealth had.
When she asked me that, I just because I had had all my witnesses standing to I believe it was my right. I quickly looked over to my right to ensure that I was telling her the correct number of witnesses. As soon as I did that, she scolded me for turning away from her and said, you are to look at me when you are talking to me, and I was just trying to see how many witnesses I had. So there was that incident.
Oh, gosh. I know it's in the transcript, but she cut me off several times when I was trying to explain myself.
Q. Did you make personal notes of this matter?
A. I actually did. Things had gotten just so out of hand with the way I was being treated by her that I didn't even know what to expect, so I actually started taking notes of all kind of crazy things that were happening just because it was so bizarre, I couldn't believe it was happening myself. (N.T. 817-18).
And, Violi continued:
A. At that point I actually went and got my boss, First Assistant District Attorney Jackie Carroll because she didn't know about all the problems that I had been having with Judge Lokuta. I had never told her about that.
. . . .
JUDGE SPRAGUE: You don't have to repeat it. After you told the First Assistant your problems, what occurred?
A. At that point I think just everything kind of overwhelmed me after months and months of all the abuse that I had taken and I actually broke down into tears when I was talking to her about it.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Then what happened?
. . . .
JUDGE SPRAGUE: . . . Was it then that you no longer went in front of Judge Lokuta?
A. Yes, Your Honor.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Any further questions?
MR. PUSKAS: Yes.
*1017 Q. What can you tell the Court about your observations as an Assistant DA in Judge Lokuta's courtroom about her treatment of other attorneys?
. . . .
A. There were numerous attorneys that were treated just as poorly as I was. They would be scolded for just very little things that really wouldn't even draw anyone else's attention. (N.T. 820-23).
Violi was questioned about Respondent's treatment of other court personnel:
Q. Did you have an opportunity while you were an Assistant District Attorney in Judge Lokuta's courtroom to observe how she treated other court personnel?
A. Yes. I recall an incident with the clerk who was at PFA hearings one day.
Q. When would that have been? The year?
A. I believe this was again when we were in the main courthouse, so 2003 to the very beginning of 2004.
. . . .
A. And we were up at the bench getting ready to have the witnesses sworn in, and as the clerk was getting ready to swear them in, the Judge yelled at the clerk for taking too long to swear the witnesses in. And they literally had just been up at the bench maybe a second or two.
Q. Have you had the opportunity to hear Judge Lokuta
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Excuse me. Could I ask one question, when you related an incident like you just did and your experiences with Judge Lokuta, was this a special incident or was this kind of thing repetitive? I mean maybe different people. I'm trying to get an idea. You can't relate each and every incident. I'm trying to get an idea picture in the courtroom.
A. It was definitely repetitive. I mean it seemed as though there were occasional days where there would be no incidents, but they were kind of few and far between.
For the most part, there was always something, and a lot of times it was directed at me, but there were times when it was directed at me, but there were times when it was directed at other people. Somebody was always getting hammered by Judge Lokuta is what it seemed like. (N.T. 831-32).
The Court inquired of Ms. Violi:
JUDGE SPRAGUE: I have one question. I heard you talk about your observations of Judge Lokuta and the treatment of court reporters and others, and I understand the use of the word master to those under 18, but in terms of the public, to whatever extent the public was in the courtroom or the parties as opposed to the attorneys to the litigation, can you describe Judge Lokuta's treatment of them?
A. Yes, I can, Your Honor.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Would you, please.
A. There were numerous occasions where
. . . .
A. There were numerous occasions where she would kind of speak, I would say, above their level of understanding. And to be quite honest, there were many times that some of the words that Judge Lokuta used even I had a hard time understanding. . . .
. . . .
*1018 A. And there were other times where I observed her being curt with certain witnesses, victims, Defendants. If they spoke maybe out of turn and she didn't want them to speak yet until she was done completing whatever her colloquy was or whatever her thought was, she would be curt with them and tell them this is not your time to speak, wait until this Jurist is done speaking.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: The manner of speaking as you are talking about, is the manner of speaking in a courteous mariner or in an arrogant manner?
A. I would definitely say arrogant.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: All right. Cross-examine. (N.T. 834-36).
Donna Miscavage, one of the court clerks, testified as to how it was in Respondent's courtroom whenever she was assigned there in the years 2000 to 2006 as follows:
Q. I believe my question was, what is it like working in Judge Lokuta's courtroom?
. . . .
A. What is it like. Its anxiety filled every day. If you were assigned with her that week, come Monday morning you were filled with anxiety. You didn't know what was going to happen in her courtroom that day. All of the court clerks constantly fought over
. . . .
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Relate what you observed and what you participated in and your feelings.
A. Okay. You would go in, and, like I said, you would sit there. You would wait for her to come out on the bench not knowing what sort of mood she was in that day. And then more likely than not, she exploded. Every single day there was some kind of tirade.
. . . .
Q. I had asked you what you meant when you said she came in and exploded. Can you specifically explain what you mean by that?
. . . .
A. It would depend. Certain things, different things, different people, different noises that went on in her courtroom just rattled her and just would make her start going off. And you never knew when it was going to happen, you know, throughout the proceeding. You'd be sitting there, call a witness. Everything would be going along, and then something would happen, like I said, whether it would be a witness, a noise, something someone said. And you can see her just building and building to finally where she would just explode. And then after that, it all went downhill, and that's the way it went from there on into the end of the proceeding.
Q. When you say explode, what precisely would she do?
. . . .
A. She would start yelling, whether at She would just get agitated, very agitated, very easily. If a witness was on the stand and she couldn't hear them whatever, she'd say can you speak up and that. And if she had to ask a second time or a third time, you could just see her building. And then from then on, she picked on every little thing.
Q. What was her tone and manner when you mentioned she was yelling? What was her tone and manner and volume?
*1019 A. Very loud, talked very fast, not very nice.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Can you illustrate? Become an actress here.
A. She would constantly complain about having no microphones in her courtroom and she couldn't hear and that. And a witness would be on the stand, and she'd say, madame, can you speak up, I can't hear you. And then it would go on for a little bit, and she'd say, madame, madame, please could you speak up, there's no microphone in this courtroom, I cannot hear you, please, why don't you sit forward, sit forward so we can hear you better. And this was every day every proceeding this was her manner.
Q. What did you observe about the physical effect on the persons to whom she was speaking if there was a witness on the stand?
. . . .
A. You just had to feel sorry for people. They felt very intimidated. You can see
. . . .
JUDGE SPRAGUE: What did you observe in terms of the physical reaction, if any, by witnesses to what you have described?
A. Sometimes they would just turn red. They would try to do what she was asking them to do. But she would keep repeating. You know, if they thought they were speaking up after she asked them to, you know, they became embarrassed. They would get nervous, lose their train of thought because she just kept picking and picking, and you could see them shake, visibly shake.
. . . .
Q. Ms. Miscavage, you also mentioned in your testimony mood, Judge Lokuta's mood. What did you observe about Judge Lokuta's mood?
. . . .
A. It changed a lot. She would go from, like I said, you would start out, and maybe she would be in an okay mood. She wouldn't be yelling or anything. And then it would change in an instant. She would go from a good mood to a bad mood. You know, mainly when she went to a bad mood it stayed like that.
But, you know, if she took a break, whatever, she'd come out composed again, and we'd start over, and she'd be okay. But then she'd go right back to being in a bad mood, yelling, picking, nitpicking at everything that went on in the courtroom.
Q. And how frequently did you observe this behavior?
. . . .
A. Very frequently, almost daily.
. . . .
Q. What, if anything, have you observed about Judge Lokuta's treatment of attorneys in her courtroom when you've been there?
. . . .
MR. SINATRA: May we have a time
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Let her start her answer. Part of the question was and give us the time frame to the best of your ability, Counsel.
A. It's difficult to give a time frame because it happened consistently. Six years I spent in her courtroom and it was almost on a daily basis. She was not very nice to attorneys, especially attorneys who were from out of county.
*1020 Q. Now, when you say not very nice, that doesn't mean much to the Court, if you can explain more precisely what you mean.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Give some illustrations.
A. The way they labeled the exhibits or if they didn't have copies of the exhibits for her, if they stood when she wanted them to stand, if they I mean, if they stood when she wanted them to sit. If they were sitting, she wanted them to stand, if they didn't speak up, you know, come up to the bench, no, sit back at the tables, their arguments and that. Just, you know, she found fault with almost everything.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Did you personally have difficulty doing your duties as a court clerk in her courtroom?
. . . .
A. Yes.
Q. Can you explain why?
A. Because feeling the anxiety and, you know, never knowing when there was going to be an outburst or whatever. Myself personally I just went in and tried to do my job to the best of my ability, go in, get it done, get out and But there was always an outburst, never knew who it was going to be directed at, was it going to be me, was it going to be someone else and just try my best to do my job right so it wasn't me.
Q. If you can put into words, what, if anything, was the atmosphere in the courtroom?
. . . .
A. Very tense, very just a very tense-filled atmosphere. Everybody walked in, and there was just tension. And you would sit, and then you would just wait for her to come out on the bench. And no one could relax. There was just no relaxing. You went in, and you were just high strung and, you know, wait until she came out, took the bench, and then proceedings started and then, okay, let's see what's going to happen.
Q. What, if anything, did you observe about Judge Lokuta's treatment of sheriffs?
. . . .
A. She was never happy with sheriffs. There was either too many sheriffs in her courtroom, too little sheriffs, you know, too few sheriffs in her courtroom. She was never happy where they stood. Them, too, if they were standing, if they were sitting, she just wasn't happy. She wanted to change it. If they were standing, she wanted them to sit. If they were sitting, she got annoyed and wanted them to stand. And then she would tell them where to stand within the courtroom. She wasn't happy ever where they were within her courtroom. If they moved, you know, if they rattled keys, whatever they it annoyed her. It annoyed her. And she would stop proceedings and ask them if they had a problem. (N.T. 1079-89).
Maura Cusick, another of the court clerks, testified:
Q. And from the number of times you've been in Judge Lokuta's courtroom, have you had an opportunity to observe how she conducts herself on the bench?
A. Absolutely.
Q. And based on your observations of Judge Lokuta from the times that *1021 you've been in her courtroom, what is it like working in her courtroom?
....
A. Well, I compare it to the movie the Wizard of Oz. You never know whether you're going to get the good judge or you're going to get the wicked judge.
Q. And can you explain that?
A. Well, on any given day the meaning and demeanor will change in a second for the slightest reason, could be papers rustling in front of the attorneys, someone in the back of the courtroom whispering to the other person, my chair squeaking which I can't help.
Q. Did you have an incident involving your chair?
A. Absolutely.
Q. Can you tell the Court about that. And if you can, put a time period on that to the best of your recollection.
A. I'd say approximately about a year and a half ago, something like that.
Q. 2005 or '06?
A. Correct, yes.
Q. And what happened?
A. Well, the chair squeaked andat the slightest movement, and every time I stood up to hand the judge an exhibit from the attorney, it would make a noise. And I was chastised for that.
Q. Well, what did Judge Lokuta
A. Ms. Cusick, are you going to apologize. And I was just taken aback. I didn't know I was supposed to apologize for what reason. I couldn't help but
Q. What did you do?
A. I apologized. And I said to myself, I don't know if anybody heard me, I think the chair needs WD-40.
Q. And what was the tone, volume, or manner in which Judge Lokuta chastised you about the squeaking chair?
....
A. Oh, just really rude, really rude. And just the look in her face was just ready tolooking down at you so condescendingly, just makes you so scared and so nervous.
Q. Can you tell the Court about any other specific incidents that happened to you while you were in Judge Lokuta's courtroom?
A. Oh, absolutely.
Q. Okay. Please do. And if you can, put a time frame on them.
....
A. Well, since I've been a court clerk, this is ongoing. Specific instance of swearing in a witness, I was told to swear in the witness, stood up in the middle of the oath, the judge started talking over me to the attorney. I stopped and I stood and I waited. And it went on for quite some time. And I remained standing. I was told to sit down and move so I can see this attorney. And that just You just start shaking. I've been in there in PFA court where I have
MR. SINATRA: Can we have a time for that first incident?
A. I would say about year, year and a half, something like that.
MR. SINATRA: Thank you.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Go ahead.
A. I've been in PFA court where I have sworn in the witnesses, and then the judge has taken a sidebar to speak with the attorneys and then will continue. And I will say to the parties you've already been sworn. Judge told me, no, they've not, or if they have, swear them *1022 again. So I did swear the woman again. And then it was the gentleman's turn. I decided I better swear him again, too. And I was yelled at because he had already been sworn, things of that nature.
Q. Was there an incident involving you and a cough drop?
A. Absolutely. I had a horrible cold and a horrible cough, and I came to work because we were very short-handed. And it was my week with Judge Lokuta. I was coughing severely. And I did put a lozenge in my mouth to try and suppress the cough. I swore in the witness, and I had the cough drop in my mouth, but it was not helping.
And the judge asked me if I had a problem, and I apologized and said, I'm sorry, Your Honor, but I have a severe cold, well, what do you have in your mouth. I said, a lozenge, get it out, get it out of your mouth.
And there is a rule there are no drinking or any kind of candy in the courtroom. But I felt if I put this in my mouth to suppress the cough and be able to swear the witness. After I swore the witness, I still kept coughing, so I excused myself from the courtroom. I walked out into the hallway trying to stop this coughing jag.
I believe it was on a break Your Honor asked me to relieve myself and get another person over there to relieve me. I explained to the judge we were swamped, there was court everywhere, everybody was busy. She asked me where my boss was, Jill Moran. She wanted Jill Moran, Esquire to come in and replace me.
....
Q. And were there other incidents that you observed when you worked for Judge Lokuta?
A. Absolutely.
Q. Could you tell the Court
A. Absolutely.
Q. and if possible, put a time frame on that.
A. Okay. I would say about, oh, a year or so ago the end of the court day I was
....
A. I was standing up at the end of the court day to retrieve all my belongings from the bench. I have the dispo sheets I write and everything. I was starting to stand up. I was startled because something poked me in the back. And I just turned around. I was likeAnd it was twoa couple files, and the judge said, clerk, clerk, take these back with you when you leave which I have no problem with. That's fine. But I was just startled that I felt this jabbing in my back.
Q. And what was Lokuta's tone, volume, and manner when she did this?
....
A. On that particular incident agitated, agitated, clerk, clerk, take these with you when you go. (N.T. 1149-56).
Cusick's cross-examination on the cough drop incident was as follows:
Q. Now, let's go back to the clear protocol in the cough drop thing. It is one of the judge's items of protocol that she doesn't want people chewing gum or coming there with candy or cough drops in their mouth, correct?
A. Correct. But this was a special incident. I thought I was helping matters and helping myself and the court proceedings by trying to suppress *1023 my cough to the point where I left so that the judge and anyone else in that courtroom could hear that witness and I would not be disrupting court by coughing. I took myself out of the situation and went into the hallway out of respect.
Q. So you left the courtroom. Were the court proceedings still ongoing when you left?
A. Yes.
Q. And as I understand it from your testimony, the only response from the judge when you walked out of court was to say that your boss should have another person replace you, correct?
A. She asked me I should go over to the prothonotary's office and get another court clerk.
Q. And you were ill?
A. And she was very nasty about it, very admonishing me.
....
Q. I heard your testimony on direct examination, madame, but I have a right to ask you these questions, and I want to ask you this
....
Q. When you walked out of the courtroom while the proceedings were going on, the judge's only response was to say to you, we need another clerk, have your boss send in another clerk, correct?
A. No. She told me she wanted another court clerk over there, and I explained there was no one else to send over. Court that week was very busy. All our court clerks were with other judges. Then I was told to get Jill Moran, Esquire over there to relieve me, where's your boss. She wanted to know very, very nastily. (N.T. 1174-76).
Prothonotary, Jill Moran, testified about her experience appearing before Respondent as an attorney:
Q. Can you tell the Court about from your personal observations of being in Judge Lokuta's courtroom how does Judge Lokuta conduct herself on the bench?
....
A. Well, appearing before the judge as an attorney I know prior to the time of course I was always very nervous going in which I think was fairly typical because you didn't know what to expect. And that was really kind of the theme. To go into the judge's courtroom you never knew what type of personality she would have that day.
....
Q. What do you mean by what type of personality she would have that day?
A. You just didn't know what type of mood she would be in that day. If she wouldSometimes you felt like you had a target on your back and that she was just looking to yell at you or to really berate you and embarrass you in front of your colleagues. And so you never knew. It was justYou're very cautious in going in because you didn't know what to expect.
I've been in her courtroom where she has demanded from attorneys appearing before her that they provide their attorney identification number to her before she'll hear anything from them. And I've seen attorneys scrambling for attorney identification numbers and trying to provide that and attorneys who had been before her before but requesting that. I've heard her yelling at people from clicking *1024 their pens or writing too loudly that she could hear it, from talking.
....
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled. You can proceed, and to the extent you can place times on it, please do so.
A. Sure, Your Honor. And I can tell you that thisthe last time I was before the judge was this year, this calendar year, and so within perhaps the last six months or so. And it's consistent, I mean, it's always You know, that has never changed. To hear her yell at attorneys when you're in there or to hear her stop proceedings or leave the bench and not know when she was going to be back on the bench, to hear her laughing and talking behind the closed doors of the chambers and really not know what was going on. (N.T. 1192-95).
On cross-examination on this point, Ms. Moran was asked:
Q. My question was, do you recall testifying that one of the problems that you have is that when the judge from time to time adjourns the courtroom you've heard her laughing? That's a problem for you, correct?
A. It's not a problem for me, Mr. Sinatra. It's not
Q. Okay.
A. appropriate
Q. Then let's go on to the other
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Mr. Sinatra, please let the witness finish her answer before you go on to your next question.
MR. SINATRA: Well, her answer was it's not a problem for her.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: She was still talking, sir, and you then interrupted her. And whether you like what you're hearing or not, give the witness the courtesy of finishing her response just like I try to maintain your right to finish your question without interruption.
MR. SINATRA: Thank you, Your Honor. I kind of did like what she was saying.
BY MR. SINATRA:
Q. Had you finished your answer?
A. I believe I had. And I just said I was finishing and saying that it's not appropriate behavior. It's not a matter of whether I personally have a problem with it. It's just disrespectful and inappropriate behavior.
Q. Which part, the laughing or the talking?
A. Actually the fact that the judge will leave the bench and you'll have no idea when she will come back, if at all.
Q. So the laughing is not inappropriate?
A. No. It is inappropriate, Mr. Sinatra. I don't know how much clearer I can be. It's a matter of respect on both sides. (N.T. 1209-11).
Ms. Moran was questioned further regarding Respondent's treatment of attorneys in her courtroom:
Q. What, if anything, did you observe as the precipitating reason for her yelling at attorneys?
A. I've heard yelling from things as handing an exhibit or piece of paper, not handing it to the appropriate person, not handing it to perhaps the clerk or perhaps the stenographer. And you would not know which person you were supposed to hand it to. I've heard her reprimanding attorneys for speaking too quickly, speaking too *1025 slowly, speaking too softly. And it's not just can you please raise your voice, can you please repeat that. It isIt's screaming.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Can you illustrate? I know it's not you speaking, but for us, we need to have examples if you're able to do so.
A. It's in terms of, Counselor, you need to speak more slowly, this is ridiculous, I can't take notes. You're going too fast. Don't hand that exhibit to her, hand it to this person. You should know better. Just it's that tone of voice.
I mean, the transcripts that I have read just in the course of my practice can never convey the tone of voice that is used. It is a demeaning, berating, angry tone of voice. And I can't possibly do it justice. It's just not my personality. But that's how I would describe that. (N.T. 1195-96).
Ms. Moran also testified about her experience as prothonotary in assigning court clerks to Respondent's courtroom:
Q. How do you assign clerks to various courtrooms in the court system?
A. Well, when I took office in 2002, I noticed that there was a schedule of court clerks that was kept by one of the other employees in the office. And they had basically a schedule for all of the judges in the courthouse, and then they had a separate schedule that they called special judge. And I didn't understand what that was when I took office. And I asked someone right away, I said, well, what does this mean, what does special judge or special J mean, and they said, well, that's special judge
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to the hearsay declaration.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
A. Special judge they told me was for Judge Lokuta'sfor any matter that was being heard before Judge Lokuta because the court clerks found that
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Not because. You were told the identification for the special judge is Judge Lokuta. Is that correct?
A. Yes, Your Honor.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Proceed, Counsel.
Q. And what was the difference between this special J scheduling and the other scheduling?
....
A. The court clerks generally would agree among themselves as to what hearing or what trial they were going to go to for the day, and they would do it in order of seniority. The person with the most seniority would choose where she wanted to go. And they are mostly females who serve as court clerks in our office.
The list that was kept for Judge Lokuta's courtroom was something that one person would be designated for one week to serve as the clerk because otherwise the most senior employee would always opt to not be her clerk. So they had to make sure to be fair that someone would take a rotation with the judge for one week.
Q. And did you follow that particular practice when you took over as prothonotary?
A. When I took over, I told them I didn't think it was appropriate to distinguish between the judges or among the judges and I didn't like the designation of designating someone as a special judge. And they said there was no other way *1026 that they could agree to do it. They agreed to change the name on the list to rotation court which is what they now call it. But among themselves, they said that that was how they had to do it.
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to the hearsay.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled. She's just describing the procedure that was set up.
....
Q. Ms. Moran, as prothonotary of Luzerne County, in your administrative capacity what, if any, problems did your office experience in dealing with Judge Lokuta's courtroom?
A. Well, it was difficult in a lot of ways especially when it came to court clerks because, again, if you have a situation where the clerks really don't want to go to a certain judge's courtroom, it does make it difficult if one of them is assigned to be in front of Judge Lokuta for a week and if she gets sick or wants to go on vacation and no one else wants to take that position. And they would end up bartering among themselves, well, if I'm out today, I'll take two turns with Judge Lokuta next time to make up for it.
And it just made it extremely difficult. We never knew how long they would be over there when they were sent over to Judge Lokuta's courtroom. We didn't knowI didn't know if they'd be thrown out of the courtroom. And that happened a few times that the clerks were sent back to my office and there was a request for another clerk to be sent over....
....
Q. In your capacity as prothonotary, have you been able to communicate with Judge Lokuta about any difficulties with your clerks in her courtroom?
A. Originally when I first took office, we would speak, I mean usually via telephone. The judge would call me. She'd identify that she was on the phoneUsually her secretary or clerk would call and say the judge wanted to speak to me. The judge would get on the phone. She'd identify who was in the room with her. There were usuallyIt was usually the judge and someone else who was on the phone on speakerphone, and it would be me on the other end of the phone.
And she would requestsometimes request something, request that a certain clerk not be returned to her courtroom or a certain assignment be made. And in the beginning that's how we communicated. And we would try to accommodate the best we could. We were very short staffed with court clerks, but we would try to do it. And in the beginning that was the line of communication.
It's deteriorated over the years that I've been in office, and now I'd say the only communication we have is through memos.
Q. And when you say it's deteriorated, why has it deteriorated?
A. I really could onlycould only guess why it has deteriorated.... (N.T. 1186-98).
Ingrid Cronin, who was an assistant district attorney in Luzerne County from 1992 to 2004, testified that when Respondent was hearing criminal cases she was in her courtroom "once a week at least" (N.T. 1034). She was asked what it was like working in her courtroom, and she answered:
*1027 A. Specifically the judge never treated me in a way that I considered to be a problem personally. I certainly can tell you that the court proceedings were often long and drawn out, that there were many recesses, that you often had to wait a long time for things to get underway. There was an element of tension. Many people felt
....
A. I observed people expressing anxiety while either performing their duties or waiting for their turn.
....
Q. What was different about Judge Lokuta's courtroom from your other assignments?
....
A. No other courtroom had that underlying sense of tension. I had no otherAssistant DAs never came to me on any regular basis about anybody else to say don't put me in front of that person, it makes me anxious, it makes me.... (N.T. 1035-41).
Ms. Cronin's responsibilities as an assistant district attorney included making assignments of the assistant district attorneys to courtrooms and Board counsel inquired:
Q. Right. And did you have a particular protocol for Judge Lokuta's courtroom?
....
A. I had no particular protocol for assigning people to a specific judge. Certainly if a conflict came or if somebody would tell me that they were very anxious or if somebody had a particular reason why they couldn't do something such as picking up a child or a medical appointment, we wouldI would make whatever adjustments I could to make people's lives a little easier if I could.
Q. Was there anything unusual you did in handling the assignment to Judge Lokuta's courtroom?
A. I can tell the Court that the attorneys in the office would have considered the short straw to draw Judge Lokuta. It took longer than anybody else. There was a sense of anxiety. Nobody wanted to go. (N.T. 1038-39).
William Sharkey, court administrator of Luzerne County for the last ten years, testified about the difficulties his office had in its dealings with Respondent:
Q. How long have you been certified in that position?
A. Ten years, going on eleven.
Q. And as part of your position, what are your duties?
A. Overall supervision of the entire Court system.
Q. And that entails what?
A. Criminal, civil, domestic. And I have oversight over our Domestic Relations, Adult Probation and Juvenile Probation.
Q. And as part of that position, do you interact with other judicial chambers?
A. Everyday.
Q. Is that a necessary part of your function?
A. Absolutely.
....
Q. Since you have been serving as Court Administrator, have you had interaction with Judge Lokuta's office?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. What kind of interaction have you had?
*1028 A. Originally good. At some point, things changed. They became somewhat confrontational.
Q. What caused that?
....
A. She just always seemed to have a problem with my office, the girls in my office.
....
Q. And in your capacity as Court Administrator, did you have any problems with Judge Lokuta?
A. Yes, every time
....
Q. Could you explain what those problems were?
....
A. It seemed that any time we did scheduling, Judge Lokuta had a problem with our scheduling. She was the only Judge we had that type of problem with.
Q. When you say problems with the scheduling, what specifically do you mean? Can you give an example?
A. It just seemed anything we did was wrong.
Q. Did you speak with Judge Lokuta personally about those problems?
....
A. No.
Q. Who did you speak with about these problems with Judge Lokuta?
....
A. The President Judge.
Q. What prompted you to speak with the President Judge?
....
A. Just on a daily basis, it got to the point where I would go back to my office, and my girls were sometimes reduced to tears.
....
Q. Mr. Sharkey, were complaints made to you by your staff?
A. Yes.
Q. And you made those aware to President Judge?
....
A. Yes I did.
Q. As a result of that, was there a change made in how matters were scheduled by Judge Lokuta concerning her Court?
A. Yes. (N.T. 531-38).
Virginia Murtha-Cowley was an attorney who worked in the public defender's office from 1987 to February 2007. Mrs. Murtha-Cowley testified that she had a friendly, social relationship with the Respondent for a little over a year in the late 1990s. She testified that during that period one Beth Boris was serving as Respondent's law clerk and that the two also had a personal relationship which soured in the late 1990s. (N.T. 992). After Respondent and Beth Boris "split their professional and personal relationship" (N.T. 1015) Mrs. Murtha-Cowley testified that:
A. I wentI was invited to a party at Beth Boris's home, a Christmas party. I went to that Christmas party. And literally the next day the relationship I had with the judge changed. And how I know this is that the day before
....
A. The day before I went to this party she was talking about how she had bought a present for my daughter.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Who is the she?
A. The judge. Judge was talking about how she had bought a present for my daughter for Christmas. I went to the party, and then there was just no contact.
....
*1029 Q. And what isWhat was it like for you working in Judge Lokuta's courtroom after this time period when you mentioned this Christmas party?
MR. SINATRA: Objection.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
A. It became very, very difficult for me. MyMy fear was
....
JUDGE SPRAGUE: I take it from what the witness is saying that this is what commenced and occurred after having been at that party that she spoke about. She can't quite pin the time except to say she believes it was sometime in the late 1990s. That's when as a result of the change these things occurred. Is that correct?
A. That's correct.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Proceed.
A. Well, I went from having my case called first to having my case called last.
Q. And what would that mean for you in terms of your daily work?
A. Well, that made it very difficult for us to schedule in the public defender's office because there were four full-time employees and eight or nine judges plus at that time magistrates, 18 magistrates that we had to cover.
So if we would look at our schedule and I would see that I had, you know, one PFA, in theory I should be out of that court in no longer than an hour and be able to then be assigned elsewhere. But that would thenThat changed.
So I could no longer guarantee to either my supervisor or any of my other colleagues that I would be available for the whole day. I mean, PFA court started at, you know, maybe 9:00, 9:30, 10:00. There was no guarantee that I would get out of there at anyYou know, it could be well into the afternoon.
Sentences changed. And I can't give you a specific case. But my Attitudes towards my clients changed.
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to attitudes towards her clients changed.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: I don't know what you mean when you said your attitude changed.
A. No, her attitude, the judge's attitude.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Well, you have to be specific. Even if you can't remember a specific case, give examples of what you're talking about. When you said sentences changed, what did you mean by that?
A. Well, sentences seemed harsher to me after that. Her manner with my clientsShe lovedloves to use, you know, big words, and that would be more evident so that I would kind of have to translate for the average public defender client what she meant.
Her distaste for me was obvious in the fact that if there was one incident where I had to turn around just to Counsel tables are here. We would stand kind of there. And I had to turn around and look in my file and, you know, get something. I don't remember what exactly I was doing. And I was chastised for turning my back on the courtroom which
....
Q. Can you put a time frame on this incident?
A. It was after that party. I would say that it was early 2000. You know, *1030 she said very specifically, don't turn your back on this jurist.
Q. What was her tone, manner, and physical bearing when she said that to you?
A. Her tone was harsh. Her manner was, you know, leaning forward pointing her finger. It was chastising.
Q. Her volume?
A. Yeah, oh, loud.
Q. Were you intending to be disrespectful?
A. No. WithTraditionally with public defender appearances in court we don't just have one case. We have a multitude of cases. And we're trying to kind of gather our files. And I would say that happens constantly that we have to turn, look through our papers, you know, to move onto the next case or the next issue or whatever. So I certainly was not attempting to be disrespectful.
....
Q. Are there other specific instances you can relate to the Court, and if you can put a time frame on them, please do so, about Judge Lokuta's treatment of you post this Christmas party?
A. I would say it was maybe about a year later.
....
Q. When you say a year later, are you talking 2001?
A. I would say early 2000, yes. I was in court. PFAs are divided into both the criminal aspect and the civil aspect. From the public defender's office, we would only represent them on the criminal aspect of the charge. I had represented an individual on the criminal aspect. That portion of the case was over, and I sat down.
And Judge Lokuta from the bench said, Attorney Murthashe never acknowledged my marriage name, but that's neither here nor thereAttorney Murtha, why are you sitting down. I said, well, my aspect of the case is over. You sit down when this jurist tells you to sit down. So I stood up.
And you know, everyonePeople are looking at you. And I stood there. And of course that case was over. The next case was called, and I wasn't quite sure what to do. I was given a very I thought specific directive that I was not to sit down until she told me to sit down. So I remained standing.
And you know, then she realized that I was standing into the next case and chastised me, why are you standing, well, you told me to stand. I mean, I didn't quite know what to do, at which point she said, well, now you're just being ridiculous, and I sat down.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: And I take it this was said in open court?
A. Yes, you know, yes, open court, I mean my clients, everyone.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Did this kind of conduct happen frequently?
A. Yes.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: You're giving an illustration. You're saying that that was just one ofthat's illustrative of the kind of things.
A. Correct. (N.T. 993-1002).
We find that Respondent's conduct described in the testimony set out above is clear and convincing evidence of violation of:
*1031 1. Canon 3A.(3) of the Code of Judicial Conduct as charged in Count 1;
2. Article V, § 18(d)(1) of the Pennsylvania Constitution for the conduct is such that brings the judicial office into disrepute as charged in Count 2;
3. Article V, § 18(d)(1) of the Pennsylvania Constitution for the conduct is such that prejudices the proper administration of justice as charged in Count 6; and
4. Canon 3B.(1) of the Code of Judicial Conduct. [5]
We will discuss these findings in the order they are listed above.
1. Canon 3A.(3) provides:
Judges should be patient, dignified, and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom they deal in their official capacity, and should require similar conduct of lawyers, and of their staff, court officials, and others subject to their direction and control.
The testimony set out in the Discussion above so clearly establishes such astonishing, recurrent violations of Canon 3A.(3) that anything we might say about it would be superfluous. The excerpts recited above provide only a sample of the testimony of witness after witness, of men and women, some employed by Respondent, some employed at various other jobs in the courthouse, some employed elsewhere, describing incident after incident, occurring continually, repeatedly and unpredictably, none having any relation to the high standard imposed by Canon 3A.(3) of the Code of Judicial Conduct.
We find it useful to consider the words these witnesses used to describe Judge Lokuta's attitude and demeanor towards those with whom she came into contact in the course of the everyday business of her judicial office. Here are some of them:
venom (N.T. 152 Krohn)
combative, irrational (N.T. 154 Krohn)
hostile (N.T. 160 Krohn)
agitated, in your face (N.T. 199 Kostelaba)
very agitated and loud (N.T. 204 Kostelaba)
aggressive, rash (N.T. 213 Kostelaba)
curt, brusque, sharp (N.T. 562 Coll)
witch, diabolical (N.T. 600 Coll)
curt, loud (N.T. 647 Rachilla)
demeaning, demanding (N.T. 716 Sallemi)
very harsh (N.T. 719 Sallemi)
short and curt (N.T. 763 Tratthen)
ranting, raving, chastising (N.T. 780 Wasiluk)
attorneys for no reason
at all
loud, demeaning, not good (N.T. 789 Wasiluk)
condescending (N.T. 828 Violi)
curt (N.T. 835 Violi)
arrogant (N.T. 836 Violi)
condescending, curt (N.T. 863 Violi)
disrespectful (N.T. 917, 931 Torres)
shoo me to another area of (N.T. 917 Torres)
the courtroom
intimidating (N.T. 931, 934, 939 Torres)
harsh, loud (N.T. 998 Murtha-Cowley)
unapproachable, vindictive [6] (N.T. 1003 Murtha-Cowley)
horrendous [treated (N.T. 1044 Cronin)
probation officer as a
whipping boy]
angry, intense and (N.T. 1045 Cronin)
accusatory [over a
minor matter]
rude, really rude (N.T 1151 Cusick)
discourtesies and rudeness (N.T. 1161 Cusick)
very nasty (N.T. 1175 Cusick)
tense, loud, abrasive, cruel, (N.T. 1239 Sammon)
angry
terrible, cruel-based things (N.T. 1246 Sammon)
loud, abrasive, cruel (N.T. 1248 Sammon)
very abrasive, in my face, (N.T. 1252 Sammon)
very volatileunkind
out of control, abrasive, (N.T. 1259 Sammon)
cruel, just completely out
of proportion
brutal (N.T. 1262 Sammon)
oppressive and inescapable (N.T. 1329 Youngclaus)
very demeaning (N.T. 1330 Youngclaus)
*1032
very unkind (N.T. 1341 Youngclaus)
demeaning, over the edge, (N.T. 1342 Youngclaus)
angry
very mean, very condescending, (N.T. 1367 Moyer)
nasty
very mean, very condescending, (N.T. 1372 Moyer)
very frantic,
dark, evil
demeaning, belittling, (N.T. 1468 Weber)
intimidating
abuse was so intense and (N.T. 1473 Weber)
relentless and persistent
extremely condescending, (N.T. 1478 Weber)
sarcastic
very agitated, very loud, (N.T. 1498 Weber)
very demeaning
cruel (N.T. 1514 Weber)
Thus, we come to our conclusion that Respondent's conduct constitutes a violation of Canon 3A.(3) of the Code of Judicial Conduct. We do not come to this conclusion unmindful that all judges do not come to their office with the same allotment of equanimitysome have a lower threshold of intolerance than others; but, whatever their idiosyncratic predispositions, in the conduct of their judicial duties there is no place for discourtesy.
2. As noted above, we hold that the same conduct is such that brings the judicial office into disrepute.
The cases cited earlier, i.e., In re Smith, In re Cicchetti and In re Trkula govern our consideration of the conduct discussed in this Section II C. Our determination of whether this conduct has brought the judicial office itself into disrepute we make upon examination of this conduct to see if it is so extreme as to have effected that outcome. Review of this record leaves no doubt that it has.
In addition to all of the specific examples of Respondent's conduct which fill this record, we point out that we consider the adjectives used by the Board's 30 witnesses to describe Respondent's conduct as important to our determination. We must bear in mind that the proceedings in Respondent's courtroom were not videotaped, [7] so perfect replications are not available. The best the Board can do, therefore, is to ask the witnesses to describe Respondent's demeanor, her tone of voice, her appearance, whether her manner was seemly or unseemly, decorous or indecorous, civil or uncivil.
The choice of adjectives made by those witnesses in responding to those questions paint a picture of a judge whose behavior was entirely antithetical to standards of common decency as well as to the standards set out in the Code of Judicial Conduct. In our view her behavior qualifies as scandalous; it certainly is such that brings the judicial office into disrepute
3. As noted above, we hold that the testimony set out in the Discussion above is such that prejudices the proper administration of justice.
This Court has addressed the question of what is required to establish that any particular conduct is such that prejudices the proper administration of justice.
In In re Smith, 687 A.2d 1229 (Pa.Ct. Jud.Disc.1996) this Court held that:
We therefore adopt the following standard to determine the elements which constitute the proper administration of justice. The administration of justice encompasses all work of the courts of common pleas which aid in the systematic operation and normal functions of the court system. Conduct which prejudices the proper administration of justice ... is conduct which obstructs or interferes with those activities which enable the systematic operation of the courts. The term "systematic operation" encompasses not only the procedures adopted by courts which aid in functioning, but also the standards of conduct expected of judicial officers in the performance of the work of the courts. Hence, when a *1033 judicial officer's conduct departs from the standard expected of judges and has the effect of obstructing or interfering with the systematic operation or normal functions of the court, his conduct will have affected the proper administration of the courts.
Id. at 1237 .
In the record in this case witness after witness relates how Respondent's conduct in the courtroom seriously impaired their ability to perform the everyday duties of their jobscourt reporters, court clerks, "private" attorneys, as well as assistant district attorneys and public defenders, and deputy sheriffs. All of these court officers are in the courtroom because each has an essential function in the administration of justice. Their ability to function was so severely affected by Respondent's ill-treatment of them and by her volatile and unpredictable behavior in her courtroom that they developed an aversion to assignment to her courtroom. It was not infrequent that some were reduced to tears. Many begged that they not be sent to Respondent's courtroom. Special protocols had to be put in place by the prothonotary and the court reporters (N.T. 788, 1186-89) for assignments to Respondent's courtroom. Attorneys had to be taken off assignments to Respondent's courtroom by the district attorney's office. (N.T. 821-22, 1038-39). The primary function of the court administrator is assignment and scheduling of cases for all of the judges. Because of Respondent's unrelenting complaints and never-ending difficulties in scheduling Respondent's cases, this function was taken away from the court administrator's office and shifted to Respondent who then scheduled her own casesa radical departure from the established organization and system in place in Luzerne County. (N.T. 466-68 Conahan; N.T. 532-38 Sharkey; N.T. 579-84 Coll, Board Exhibit 7; N.T. 663-64 Rachilla, Board Exhibit 10; N.T. 729-30 Sallemi, Board Exhibit 12; N.T. 988-89, Board Exhibit 13; N.T. 1196-97 Moran; N.T. 2783-84, 2833, 3240 Lokuta). In Respondent's courtroom the sheriff's department had its own problems. Because of Respondent's demands the sheriff was required to depart from his normal protocol in place throughout the courthouse. For example, when the judge ordered someone to prison, it was the sheriff's custom to hold that person in the courtroom until the end of the day when they were then taken to prison with any other prisoners. However, Respondent required the deputies to remove anyone sentenced to prison immediately. The sheriffs and his deputies viewed this as increasing the security risks in the courtroom. The Respondent viewed the sheriff's preferred protocol as more dangerous than hers. We think the Respondent has a point; for it is not unreasonable to consider it more dangerous to require a defendant, who has just been sentenced to incarceration, to remain in the courtroom until the end of the day, than removing him from the courtroom as soon as the sentence is imposed. In any event, the subject is debatable and we believe deference must be given to the preference of the presiding judge for it is he (she) who is ultimately responsible for what happens in his (her) courtroom. Even if we were to decide that the sheriff's plan was safer, which we decline to do, Respondent's insistence on her plan would not constitute a violation of any precept of the Code of Judicial Conduct or of the Constitution. However, Respondent habitually interfered with the deputies in the performance of their duties [8] and, because of Respondent's rude and unpredictable behavior, the sheriff had to rotate his deputies out of *1034 her courtroom every hour to hour and a half. [9]
It is hard to imagine conduct more congruent with that defined in Smith as constituting conduct which prejudices the proper administration of justice; certainly Respondent's conduct "ha[d] the effect of obstructing or interfering with the systematic operation or normal functions of the court." And, consequently, "ha[s] affected the proper administration of the courts." Id.
4. Canon 3B.(1) of the Code of Judicial Conduct, in pertinent part, provides:
Judges should diligently discharge their administrative responsibilities, maintain professional competence in judicial administration, and facilitate the performance of the administrative responsibilities of other judges and court officials (emphasis added).
The evidence referred to above establishes violation of this Canonon a continuing basis. The conduct described, far from facilitating the work of other judges and court officials, had the opposite effect. "Facilitate" means to help along, make less difficult, expedite; the conduct described accomplished the opposite: it hindered, obstructed and made more difficult the administrative responsibilities of other judges and court officials, particularly those working in her courtroom and the offices of the court administrator and prothonotary and of the president judge.
We are aware that Respondent had not been charged with a violation of Canon 3B(1). Any suggestion, however, that this may derogate Respondent's right to due process does not hold for, as the Supreme Court held in In the Matter of Glancey, 518 Pa. 276 , 542 A.2d 1350 (1988) and in In the Matter of Cunningham, 517 Pa. 417 , 538 A.2d 473 (1988), and as we held recently in In re Harrington, 877 A.2d 570, 575 (Pa.Ct.Jud.Disc.2005), and In re Berkhimer, 877 A.2d 579, 597-98 (Pa.Ct.Jud.Disc. 2005), the Board's focus on one rule and this Court's finding violation of another is not prejudicial because the underlying conduct is the same and the Respondent has been advised of what that was from the beginning of these proceedings.
D. CONDUCT IN CHAMBERS
Findings of Fact
34. Respondent was impatient, undignified and discourteous to her staff with whom she dealt in her official capacity, including law clerks, legal interns, tipstaffs, and secretaries.
35. Respondent's conduct created a tense and stressful atmosphere in her chambers and had a serious negative effect on the ability of members of her staff to properly perform their duties.
36. Respondent isolated herself and her office from the other court departments, including the prothonotary, the court administrator as well as the president judges of Luzerne County. In dealing with the court departments and the president judges, Respondent was ever-aggrieved and confrontational. Communications between her office and the other departments and president judges Respondent would permit only by written memorandum or if a "witness" was present.
37. We find that the events related by the witnesses in the testimony in this record reproduced in the Discussion which follows occurred as described in the testimony at the times and with the frequency as related by the witnesses.
*1035 Discussion
We set down here samples of the testimony which leads us to make Findings of Fact Nos. 34-36.
Girard Mecadon, Respondent's law clerk from January 2002 to April 2002, was asked:
Q. And can you tell the Court how Judge Lokuta treated you as an employee?
A. Well, I mean it was hard to gauge it because it was likeit was kind of like a Jekyll and Hyde type situation. Sometimes, you know, it would be fine, and other times it would just beit would just be like a blow-up right from the get-go depending on the day.
....
A. She ... basically was critical of me because, you know, either I did open the door or I didn't open the door, I can't remember what it was now.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Do you remember specifically what she would have said?
A. Well, like I said, basically would be you were supposed to know to do this or to do that, you didn't do that. Sometimes it would be, you know, if she was in a bad mood, she might call me Sonny Boy or something like that or just something to sound degrading more like as if I wasn't qualified ...
....
Q. Mr. Mecadon, you had just testified about an incident of opening the door and you mentioned that attorneys are there. Can you describe theI want you to be precise about it, the circumstances in which this happened?
Q. Where did it take place?
A. This specific incident occurred at Penn Place after the Judge had relocated there.
Q. Where in Penn Place?
A. In her chambers.
....
Q. How many people wereI'm not askingif you can't remember the names of the attorneys, but I'm asking you how many attorneys were there?
A. There would have been at least the plaintiff's attorney, defense attorney, the Judge, myself, possibly Mr. Krohn....
....
Q. So they are coming in for a meeting in chambers you are showing them in?
A. Yes.
Q. And what precisely happens?
....
A. Like I said, it would depend on the day. I mean one daywe had these for several days in a row, and the one day the door was supposed to be closed and the other day I had it open. And when it was opened, then I gotI went to close it, and then I got yelled at for closing it which the day before was how she wanted it, so I couldn't figure out what she wanted. And then, you know, she would just criticize me openly in front of the other attorneys.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: When she said yelled at you, she criticized you in front of the other attorneys, can you tell us what she said and what she said in yelling at you and the manner?
....
A. So, basically, what would happen is if I did
*1036 JUDGE SPRAGUE: Relate what it is that she said and the circumstances and the manner and tone. Have you done that?
A. I told you this yesterday. You closed the door. Today I closed the door. Now, by doing what I did yesterday, I'm getting yelled at because I'm doing the same thing, but yet she wanted me to do the opposite thing, and I'm trying to do what I had done the previous day, but I'm getting yelled at for the door being opened or the door being closed.
There is other people in the room listening to this, hearing her going on about the door being open when it should have been closed when the day before it was what she wanted me to do.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: When you said that she was critical of you, what do you mean? Walk me through that more generally.
....
A. Well, she wouldwhen I didn't do what she wanted me to do, basically, I would be called incompetent or stupid or like a name like Sonny Boy like I wasn't experienced enough to work for her. That's the kind of comments that
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Would she call you stupid?
A. At one point I believe she asked me how I could have passed the bar exam.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: The question was you used the word stupid. In following it up, did she call you stupid?
A. Yes. There were times that happened.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Did she at times say that you were incompetent?
A. I would say, Judge, that shewhen she asked me how I could have passed the bar exam, I would take that as being called incompetent.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Did these things occur during the three-month period?
A. Yes, sir.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Continue, Counsel.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. What tone, volume, and manner did Judge Lokuta have about her when she was making these comments to you?
A. Very loud and direct, and it would be like I told you to do this, this is what you were supposed to do, you didn't do it the way I wanted you to do. It was always like veryit didn't matter if it was a trivial thing or a very important thing to the Judge. She always seemed to always have a very high intensity in her tone of voice, whatever it was that she was explaining or critical about.
Q. How frequently did this type of activity occur while you worked there during the three-month period?
A. Well, it really wasn't a question of if the Judge was going to be in a good mood or not. It was more of a question of how long it was going to take the Judge before something happened where she would be in a bad mood and become critical of whoever was there.
....
JUDGE SPRAGUE: The question is a simple question. Did Judge Lokuta's treatment of you have anything to do with you leaving?
*1037 A. Yes. I mean it definitely exacerbated the situation, and I couldn't seem tono matter what I tried to do to please her, I couldn't seem to make her happy, and it was starting to affect my own practice, and I needed to get out because it was just getting to be overwhelming.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Mr. Mecadon, you mentioned in your testimony that Maureen Gushanas and Judge Lokuta would argue?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. You testified I believe that the Judge would back down. How often would arguments occur between Judge Lokuta and Maureen Gushanas?
A. It would be really hard to count every one. There were arguments daily in the office, and Maureen was the tipstaff, so she was always there. Andrea was the second. She was always there. I was a part-time clerk, so I wasn't always part of the arguments, but I would say that at least two or three times a week. It was a problem with somebody or something or the Court Administration. There was always a problem with something.
Q. Where would these arguments occur?
A. Normally it would be in chambers or could be in the antechamber or II don't remember her ever yelling at Maureen in open court, but, you know, I've seen her do that to other attorneys.
....
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Mr. Mecadon, my question was what can you tell the Court about the tone, the volume, and the manner of these arguments between Judge Lokuta and Maureen Gushanas?
A. The tone wasI mean her volume level always escalated. She would
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Who is her?
A. I'm sorry. When the Judge would argue, it would start out withshe would say something like she would justthe next word would automaticallythings would get louder, more intense, and just nastier as it went on. It was like a build-up, and it would just be like automatic to the next level, and Maureen usually kind of matched her volume for volume if she argued with her.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. When they were arguing, were they in one particular area of the chamber or were they moving about?
A. It really didn't matter. It could bethere was no set place where they would argue. It would be anywhere.
Q. How did this affect the office?
A. It was very upsetting. Just even if I wasn't involved in it, just to have to hear what was going on and just be a part of it, it just didn't sit well with me. I didn't like having to deal with that all the time, and it was very hard to do any work when there was always some type of turmoil or argument going on. (N.T. 869-909).
Donna Miscavage testified that, while serving as a court clerk she had occasion to witness incidents between Respondent and her tipstaff, Maureen Gushanas and she testified as follows:
Q. What, if anything, did you hear or observe between Judge Lokuta and Maureen Gushanas?
*1038 A. Just loud voices. I neverI never stayed around to hear what they were saying. It was embarrassing. You would walk down the little hallway, knock on chambers door. And, I mean, they'd be screaming in there, having a screaming match. I would turn around and walk right back out. I didn't want any part of that. I didn't, you know
Q. And did you recognize
A. I didn't want them
Q. their voices?
A. Oh yes, yes. I didn't want them to think that I was standing outside the door listening to them because that's how it would be interpreted.
Q. Why would you have been going to that door at that time?
A. To take the disposition sheets back. When we sat in a hearing in her courtroom, you would have to fill out a disposition sheet, what happened with the proceedings. And she would get a copy of that when you were done. So we would be taking her blue copies back over to her chambers for her after the proceedings.
Q. What kind of door is on that chamber that you would have been knocking on?
A. A wooden door, a solid wooden door. And when you would knock, it would be open that much, and it would just open it a little bit, and you'd hand your papers through, and then you would go. But you wouldYou know, before you would even knock sometimes, you would just hear the screaming in there. And, like I said, I wouldn't even knock. I would turn around and go back to the office.
Q. And did this occur more than once?
A. Yes, it did.
Q. How frequently?
MR. SINATRA: Objection to the form of the question.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
A. It's hard to say. IMe personally it wasn't every day. It wasn't every week. It was, you know, maybe one month and then, you know, in a couple weeks or the next month I would hear it again. Or, you know, it was like infrequent, but it happened more than one time. (N.T. 1090-92).
Maura Cusick testified:
Q. Did you hear or observe any interaction between Judge Lokuta and her tipstaffher then tipstaff, Maureen Gushanas
A. I believe she was the secretary at that time, yes.
Q. that was disturbing to you?
A. This was fairly recent. I would say within a year, year or so.
Q. Pardon me. Let me finish first.
A. Oh, I'm sorry.
Q. Did you observe or hear any interaction between Judge Lokuta and Maureen Gushanas while you were working as a clerk in her courtroom
A. Yes, I did.
....
Q. that you found disturbing?
A. Absolutely.
Q. Can you please tell the Court what that was
A. Yes.
Q. and please put a time period on it if you can?
A. I'd say about a year ago. I was still in the courtroom after proceedings were done because now the procedure is in miscellaneous court we'll *1039 have several files. They could be from 7 cases up to 30. You don't know. And at the end of the day my job is to take these files back to my office, the prothonotary.
What we have laying onThere's a table by the chambers' door, and there are slips of paper there that match the case number with the file. And I hook them both up. I look. I sign my name that I see the file, I'm taking it with me. And then I leave those paperwork on the table for either Maureen or whomever from her office to collect them.
Well, I was the only one in the courtroom. I was still doing my job. And I heard screaming from the judge's chambers. I heard Maureen Gushanas calling the judge
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to statements made by somebody
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
MR. SINATRA: If I may finish, Your Honor.other than the Respondent.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled. Proceed.
A. I observedI'm sorry. I overheard Maureen Gushanas screaming at the judge calling her a fucking bitch, fucking bastard, if you ever embarrass me in front of an attorney, I'll kill you.
And then I heard the judge start yelling back, and I was too frightened that they would come inout of the court chambers, see me, and know I'd overheard them. I ran out of there. I was too frightened. I left my purse in there, left the files, left my work in the middle of it, stayed away for approximately a half an hour until I composed myself and went back in. And when I did, I finished my work, took my purse. I did not hear anything at that point in time. But I was so frightened and shaken by what I heard. I just walked out. I literally ran out.
Q. And you recognized those voices as Judge Lokuta and Maureen Gushanas?
A. Absolutely. (N.T.I 157-60).
Rebecca Sammon, legal intern for Respondent during the summers of 2002 and 2003, testified:
A. ... then about five minutes later the judge came in, and she was screaming at me. And she was like, you look like a tramp, you lookthat's really low cut, that's completely inappropriate.
And, I mean, I don't dress inappropriately. That's not who I am. That's notYou know, I don't dress inappropriately. I'm very aware of what I wear. And, you know, my mom is super conservative. She usually makes me when I leave the house look overdressed for a nun.
So I was very upset, and I started to cry. I mean, that's not related to my work. That's not related to anything I'm doing. That's a personal attack on me when I felt
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to
JUDGE SPRAGUE: We understand how it affected you. Continue with the next instance.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Before I move on to that, can you for the record describe the tone and volume and manner of Judge Lokuta when she was saying that to you?
A. Very abrasive, in my face, very volatile, you know, demonstrative in her actions and, you know, abrasive, cruel, unkind.
*1040 Q. Can you relate to the Court any other incidents that happened during that summer?
....
A. There was another incident where She and Maureen Gushanas would fight a lot and IThere was one particular day where she had Maureen doing some copying. Maureen was at the copier, and I don't know what Maureen was copying because the judge had instructed Maureen to copy it herself. And Maureen whatever it was she was visibly upset by it. And the judge kept buzzing her and screaming out to her and yelling at her, and it was, you know, a very tense environment and a very tense atmosphere.
And, you know, I like Maureen. I didn't want to see her upset. And it was, you know, it was a really bad situation. And, you know, this kept going on with buzzing back and forth and the intercom ringing. And it was just constant. It was over probably a period of a half an hour.
And then Maureen apparently had typed up a request for vacation time, and she asked the judge if she could have like vacation for a week, and the judge denied it. And Maureen came out, you know, really, really upset kind of stomping a little bit and just very upset. And the two of them screamed back and forth and bickered back and forth for awhile, and then Maureen all of a sudden screamed really loud
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to the auditory declarations.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: This is in the presence of the judge and you?
A. Yes. It was in the presence of myself, the judge, Susan Weber, and Selyne Youngclaus.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled. Proceed.
A. And she was, you know, yelling and stomping her feet, and she screamed at the top of her lungs, just because I'm not sleeping with you anymore, Judge. And I was completely taken aback by that. I had no idea anything like that was going on. IYou know, IMaybe I'm naive. I'm from Duryea, Pennsylvania, small town. I didn't pick up on anything like that. I knew they hung out a lot. I just thought they were friends. So I was just, whoa. And, you know, I was just completely freaked out by that. And, you know, what they do in their own personal life is their own business, but when it affects my ability
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to the
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Just stick to what occurred. What did the judge say or respond to
A. And she justThey just kept screaming back and forth at each other.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Do you remember specifically anything the judge said?
A. Not really, just lots of screaming back and forth. I know that she denied the vacation, and I know that it wasYou know, there were insults flying back and forth. So that was one incident. And then there was one more.
....
Q. Can you tell the Court about any other incidents while you were working there?
*1041 A. There is one more that I think wasthat really, really bothered me.
....
A. Again, this is in the summer of 2003. I had come in, in the morning, and Susan was probably typing something. Maureen was in the judge's chamber. And I answered the phone. And it was somebody from poison control, and they said we had just received a call from this number about a child who swallowed bleach....
....
A. So I quick, you know, knocked on the judge's chamber and kind of walkYou know, I just knocked quick and walked in, and I said, Judge, there's a call from poison control, is Daniel here, they said a little child swallowed bleach. And she screamed at me. She's like, it's Your Honor, don't you disrespect me. And I was just like, I don't think judge
First of all, I don't think judge is a disrespectful term. I think that most judges would agree that the word judge is not disrespectful....
....
Q. Could you describe her tone, volume, and manner when she was screaming at you?
A. Out of control, abrasive, cruel, and just completely out of proportion.
Q. What effect did that have on you at that moment?
A. I was just completely upset. First I was upset that she screamed at me. And second I was upset that someone would have that little disregard of the possibility of a little boy hurting himself or, you know, even if it wasn't Daniel another little boy somewhere or another little child. I was just mortified and upset.
I mean, I lost my cool. I did start crying. I'm not used to being spoken to that way. I'm not used to, you know, dealing with people like that.... (N.T. 1251-60).
Rebecca Sammon further testified.
Q. What was it like working for Judge Lokuta?
A. It was tense at times. She wasn't there very often. I don't knowI know that she has some health problems, so I wasn't aware of whether it was sick time. Or at that point I had never worked for another judge before, so I wasn't aware of whether or not that was procedure or protocol for a judge when they're not, you know, seated or on the bench whether they come in on the days off or what. I had never, you know, worked for a judge before.
But the atmosphere could be rather tense when she was there. But it was never directedI can honestly say it was never directed really towards me that first year.
Q. And did you work Monday through Friday?
A. Yes.
Q. And now you just stated that it wasn't directed at you that first year.
A. Yes.
Q. What can you tell the Court about that?
A. Sometimes she would be very tense and abrasive and I would say cruel to her secretary. It was Andrea Fogelman at that time. She had onlyShe was there the first summer. It was tense. It wasShe *1042 could be abrasive. She could be cruel. She would often compare Andrea to another secretary that she had, Susan Weber, and say, you know, how great Susan was and how horrible Andrea was. And it would be tense. There would be a lot of bickering back and forth. It was just a rather tense environment sometimes.
Q. Well, what was the tone, volume, and manner in which Judge Lokuta addressed Andrea?
A. Loud, abrasive, angry.
Q. And what, if any, circumstances brought that about?
A. It could be anything sometimes. It could be a colon instead of a period, or it could be the wrong font or the wrong color paper. It could beIt would be anything. It would never be something, you know, what I would consider monumental.
....
Q. What, if anything, did you observe about Judge Lokuta's treatment during the summer of 2003 of other personnel in her office?
A. She was brutal. She treated Susan Weber worse thanShe was horrible to that woman.
Q. And can you give examples of what you observed?
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Other than what you have said.
A. Okay. She would justShe would call her stupid. She would, you know, talk down to her. She would say that she was the dumbest secretary she'd ever seen. She would You know, I think she would kind ofAt this point it was both she and Maureen, and she would kind of encourage Maureen I think to Like she would nudge her on to be mean to Susan.
And, I mean, Susan as far as I could see was a competent secretary and would work really hard. And it would be just the smallest error would set her off. And one minute she'd give a directive to do something one way, and the directive would be complied with, and then a moment later she would say, this isn't what I asked you to do when it was precisely what she asked.
And her demeanor would change on a dime. Like one minute she would be as nice as pie, and the next minute she would be just this cruel, cruel person.
Q. Now, you just mentioned in your testimony that
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to the characterizations that aren't responsive.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. that Judge Lokuta nudged Maureen on. Could you explain that?
A. She would encourage Maureen to She would kind of like when Maureen would attack Susan or say nasty and inappropriate things to Susan like she was the stupidest secretary she ever saw, she would kind ofYou know, the two of them
JUDGE SPRAGUE: You're talking about various females, so don't use she.
A. I'm sorry, sir.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: I don't know which one you're talking about.
A. Okay. I'm sorry. The judge would encourage Maureen Gushanas to When the two of them would be bickering back and forth or when *1043 Susan would sayMaureen would say something to Susan like you're the dumbest secretary I've ever seen, the judge would do nothing to stop it, and she would more or less join in. The twoThe judge and Maureen would kind of double team Susan. And it wasI don't know if there was an external conflict between them or
....
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. How frequently did this, what you're describing double teaming, occur?
....
A. Pretty constantly....
....
Q. What did Judge Lokuta's treatment of youWhat effect did Judge Lokuta's treatment of you have?
....
A. I was justI would cry every day when I got home from work. I justI felt like there were knots in my stomach constantly. When I would go to work in the morning, it would be as if, you know, which Judge Lokuta is it going to be today. And it was just constant. It was like you were sitting on pins all the time like wondering if, you know, you did the slightest action what would happen to you. It was just a constantI just felt like I had knots in my stomach all the time. I was just
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Okay, next question. (N.T. 1238-66).
Selyne Youngclaus, Respondent's part-time law clerk from April 9, 2002 to June 3, 2003 and her full-time law clerk from June 3, 2003 to November 3, 2003, testified about the state of affairs in Respondent's chambers as follows:
Q. During the time that you worked for Judge Lokuta, can you tell this Court what it was like working in her office?
....
A. There were good days, and there were bad days.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Can you explain them?
A. There were daysI don't know what the Court has heard pervious to my coming here. But with respect to her tipstaff, Maureen Gushanas, if she and Maureen were going okay and were not arguing, we would have a good day. We would get through the cases. Things would be fine. If they weren't having a good day or something occurred before I came into the chamber that morning, it would not be a good day. There would be arguments. It would be hostile, just not a good day.
....
Q. And can you describe howwhat, if anything, these argumentswhat effect these arguments had on the on getting the Court's work done in that office?
A. It was very distracting. It was very difficultI'm her law clerk. I'm sitting in the comer of her chamber. There was a table set up in the corner of her chamber. I would sit there. You've got the normal flow of traffic coming in and out, you know, asking the judge questions, doing whatever. And then you would have continuous arguments. I'm trying to focus and concentrate, do my research, write opinions, do whatever the judge wanted me to do. I have in the back of my head this banter between *1044 her and Susan Weber, her and at one point Andrea Fogelman was there when I was there, her and Rebecca Sammon, her and Maureen.
When things would get extremely bad or the arguments would escalate, then on top of the yelling and screaming, there would be a constant intercom buzzing for either Maureen or Susan or Rebecca or whoever to come into the chambers.
They would no sooner come into the chambers, the judge would tell them to do something. And before they got back to their desk, she was buzzing them again to ask them if it was going on. It was very difficult for me because I guess I need to have quiet to be able to focus and get my work done.
Q. How long did this kind of buzzing, coming in the chamber, going out, and being buzzed go on in a typical situation?
A. She would probably buzz maybe, I don't know, continuously maybe 5 or 10 minutes to the point where it waswe just left the door open because they were running back and forth between the antechamber to the chamber.
Q. Now, do you remember any specific incidents of Judge Lokuta and Maureen Gushanas arguing in her office when you were there?
A. Unfortunately, yes.
Q. Can you tell the Court about those?
MR. SINATRA: Objection. It's beyond the statute.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. You can answer the question.
A. I cannot tell you the date. I was sitting inat my corner table, and Maureen cameMaureen had made a request for a period of vacation. I don't know the paperwork on the other end, but the end result was that the judge denied her request as untimely, or some excuse was given. I don't know what it was. Maureen found out that the judge denied her request for a vacation.
The judge is sitting at her desk in her chamber, and I'm at the corner table, and Maureen bursts into the judge's chamber and screams, I know why you denied my request for a vacation, it's because last night I told you I wouldn't sleep with you anymore.
....
Q. Can you describe the tone, volumethe tone and volume of this argument going back and forth?
A. It was heated. They wereMaureen came in and screamed. It was a volatile situation as far as I was concerned. I didn'tI didn't want to be there. I didn't want to hear it.
....
Q. During your time in Judge Lokuta's office, were you able to observe how she treated other staff persons?
....
A. Yes.
....
A. I was there when Andrea Fogelman was her secretary for a period of time. That was when I first got there, and the judge was in Park Place. I recall an incident where the judge toldthe judge came out of her chamber, came out to the antechamber where Andrea was. The judge told Andrea to do something, I don't remember what, and Andrea said, yes, siror, yes, *1045 Judge. And the judge went back in her chambers. And then she comes back out a few seconds later and says, that's Your Honor to me.
Q. And do you recall her tone, volume, or manner when she came back out to Andrea Fogelman?
A. Demeaning. She was agitated. And I thought maybe I was missing something. I mean, she said, yes, Judge. But that wasn't good enough.
....
Q. What did you observe about her treatment of Susan Weber?
A. I canI've thought about this at length. I can only describe it as oppressive. It was a continuous beating down of someone, oppressive and inescapable.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: And what?
A. Inescapable. There was noThere was no right answer. There was nothingSusan couldn't do anything right. It was just a constant berating. I don't know how else to describe it.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. And what kind of tone, volume, and manner did Judge Lokuta exhibit toward Susan Weber?
A. Very demeaning, veryShe would raise her voice to her at times. She wouldI would be there for a lot of the exchanges because the judge always wanted to have someone else there. I can't say that she ever called her stupid, but she would say, why can't you understand what I'm asking you to do or what's thedo you have a problem, is there something preventing you from understanding what I want you to do. (N.T. 1322-30).
Called by the Board in rebuttal, Selyne Youngclaus was asked to address certain testimony Maureen Gushanas had given regarding her relationship with Respondent. Ms. Youngclaus's testimony was:
Q. Ms. Youngclaus, out of your presence, Maureen Gushanas testified in these proceedings that she did not tell another coworker that she had an injury to her arm or leg or that Judge Lokuta had punched her, hit her. She also denied that she ever called another coworker at night, crying and complaining that Judge Lokuta pushed her down the stairs; that the two of them fought and that Judge Lokuta had her up against the wall.
I'm going to read specific testimony from Maureen Gushanas provided at trial and then ask you questions.
A. Okay.
Q. This is referring to the trial transcript for December 12th, 2007, Page 2105, starting at the top.
Q. "QUESTION: In fact, isn't it true that you have told people in the office, your coworkers, that Judge Lokuta has punched you?
....
A. "ANSWER: No, I have not. That is not true.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. "QUESTION: In fact, haven't you called another coworker at night, crying and complaining and saying that Judge Lokuta pushed you down the stairs, you fought with her and she had you up against a wall?
A. "ANSWER: No, Counselor, I never did. I am twice her size. Remember, I weigh 185.
Q. "QUESTION: Isn't it true that you told another coworker that *1046 you had an injury to your arm or leg, that Judge Lokuta punched or hit you?
A. "ANSWER: No, that is not true."
....
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Do you agree with that testimony?
A. No.
Q. What is your response to that?
A. Maureen Gushanas constantly called me. I would pick up the phone and she would already be crying. She would call me during the evenings. She would call me almost every Saturday morning until it got to the point that the phone calls were so numerous, that I stopped taking the phone calls. I just left her messages on the answering machine. I just couldn't deal with it anymore.
She would call. She would be crying. She wouldshe told me about an incident when she and Annie had a physical altercation, that Annie pushed her down the steps. I don't know if it was at Annie's house, Maureen's house, that I don't know. She told me she injured either her arm or her leg. I'm not sure which it was.
She told me about another incident when they had a fight about something. I don't know what it was about. That Annie pushed her up against the wall and somehow had herher arm across herher neck and (demonstrating), I don't know, was holding her shoulders back against the wall, was the impression I got from her.
....
Q. And, specifically, I read you some testimony. I had asked Maureen a question, "Isn't it true"this would be starting on Page 2105, Line 24 "Isn't it true that you told another coworker that you had an injury to your arm or leg, that Judge Lokuta punched or hit you?"
"No, that is not true."
What is your specific response to that?
A. That she lied. She did tell me that. She would callshe would be crying. She would be crying. And I guess I believed her, because she was crying so hard when she was telling me this. (N.T. 3528-33).
Also called in rebuttal, Ted Krohn was asked about the same testimony of Maureen Gushanas, he was asked:
Q. Mr. Krohn, out of your presence, Maureen Gushanas testified in these proceedings that she did not tell another coworker that Judge Lokuta had punched or hit her.
I'm going to read you some specific testimony from Maureen Gushanas during these proceedings and then I will ask you questions.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. All right. I'm referring to the trial transcript for December 12th, 2007, specifically Page 2104or, pardon me, 2105, starting at Line 1. This is my question to Maureen Gushanas.
"In fact, isn't it true that you have told people in the office, your coworkers, that Judge Lokuta has punched you?"
....
"No, I have not. That is not true."
....
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. Hearing that testimony read here today in Court, do you agree with that testimony?
*1047 ....
A. Absolutely not.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. What is your response?
A. My response is that it's an outright lie.
Q. Can you tell the Court what you know about that specific area that we are rebutting?
A. I recall being in chambers one morning with the judge's secretary, Susan Weber, awaiting the arrival of the judge. Maureen Gushanas arrived sometime before the judge arrived, I believe took off her sweater. Held out, I believe it was her left arm, pointed to some bruises and said, if she ever hits me again, she's going to be very, very sorry.
And I was sitting there. I looked at Maureen and I looked at Susan, and I made no comment whatsoever.
I recall that very distinctly, without any question or hesitation whatsoever.
....
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Wait a minute. I have a question. There's a lot of "shes" in this world. Who is the "she" that was referred to?
THE WITNESS: Judge, there was no question in my mind that she was referring to
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object.
THE WITNESS:Judge Lokuta because she had also complained of similar events, indicating the judge by name, in the past. This was not an isolated incident. (N.T. 3579-83).
Susan Moyer worked in Respondent's chambers as a tipstaff and secretary from February 18, 2005 to May 17, 2005 and she testified of that experience as follows:
Q. And from your time working in Judge Lokuta's office, did you have an opportunity to observe how she conducts herself on the bench?
A. Yes, I did a few times. When I worked there, she wasn't on the bench a whole lot.
Q. Did you have an opportunity from the time you worked there to observe how she conducts herself in the chambers?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. How did she treat you?
A. She was very mean to me, very condescending. Both she and her secretary, Maureen, were very, very mean to me, condescending, nasty. She told meShe would not let me help her with her robe on, put her robe on because she said I had cat hair, which I did not. You know, I takeI would take pride in my appearance prior to going to work. I did not go to work with cat hair or any kind of hair or any kind of dirt on my clothing.
....
Q. Can you tell the Court what happened after you finished helping Judge Lokuta with her robe?
A. We went into the courtroom. I said, all rise, county court is now in session and went into the courtroom. And when we came back in, she started disciplining me telling me she was so embarrassed, she never heard county court in all her life and if I didn't wise up I wasn't going to have a job for long. In the afternoon we had motions court.
Q. Could you explain to the Court the tone, the volume, and the manner in which Judge Lokuta spoke to you?
A. Judge Lokuta was very condescending, very frantic, very nasty, dark, evil. She would look at me with such hatred in her eyes that I would *1048 become totally petrified, frightened. She told me if I didn't know what I was doing, it's not that hard, that I wasn't going to work out. (N.T. 1366-72).
....
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. What happened after that?
A. I believe motionsI may be getting messed up. Motions
Q. Just take your time.
A. Motions were in the afternoon. They were always a fiasco. Nothing was ever right.
Q. Well, hold on. We'll take this slowly. Were there other incidents while you worked for Judge Lokuta that you can tell the Court about regarding her treatment of you?
A. Oh, yes. Oftentimes she would talk too quickly for me to understand, and I would look at her, and she'd look at me and say, is there something wrong with you, did you ever have any head injuries that would cause you not to understand what people are asking of you.
Q. In what manner would she speak to you, her tone, her volume?
A. It would be loud, and it would be condescending and in a disciplinary way and belittling. She asked me that on numerous occasions.
....
Q. When Judge Lokuta would give you an assignment, how much time would transpire before you got another assignment?
A. I would get one assignment, and a few minutes later I would get another assignment, and I wouldn't be finished with the first one. For example, she might want an article out of the paper andBut she wouldn't want it just out of the paper. She would want it put onto another paper because she kept all of the incidents involving her or any of the other judges in binders.
Sometimes I would need to make a copy on a copy because the first page would say something, and then it would be continued on another page. And I would be in the process of doing that, and she'd ask me to make copies for her or something.
And one day I was doing some work, and she came out with papers, and she said to meShe went to the copy machine. She made copies. And she said, this is your job, but I don't know if you're able to do it, if you're smart enough orit wasn't smart enoughbut if you're intelligent enough to know how to make copies. (N.T. 1382-85).
Susan Weber was Respondent's executive secretary from 1996 to 2001 and then again from September 2002 to March 2004, she testified about her experience working in Respondent's chambers as follows:
Q. ... Why did you leave Judge Lokuta's employ?
A. After the judge's retention, it was very tense in chambers, and I really felt that I couldn't take that atmosphere every single day. So I decided to try and get a job in law in a private law firm.
Q. When you say tense during that first period, what do you mean by that?
....
A. There was a lot of fighting going on in chambers, a lot of arguing back and forth between Judge Lokuta and Maureen Gushanas, and then it would spill over onto me. It just became every day was problematic. Everything that you went to do it *1049 was a problem. And there was tension, and there was fighting. And I really just couldn't take it. And I thought I really have to get out of here. It was too much.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. So you left?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. And when you left, did you provide a letter of resignation?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. And what did you express to Judge Lokuta as your reason for leaving?
A. That I felt that I needed to get into a different area of law in order to further my future goals.
Q. Did that encapsulate your entire reason for leaving?
A. No, it didn't.
Q. Why did you write the letter that way?
A. Because I felt that the judge would be very vindictive and she would come after me. And, in fact, even with that letter stated the way it was, she did. [10] When I worked for Eugene Sperazza which was
....
A. The attorney I worked for had asked for a continuance of a pretrial conference, and I had called Judge Lokuta's chambers in order to, you know, make that provision for him. And I was told that
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to what she was
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled, This leads to a conversation, as I understand it, that you had with Judge Lokuta.
A. With Judge Lokuta, correct.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: You can tell the background. Go ahead.
A. And so I was trying to make this arrangement for the continuance of the pretrial conference. And I called and spoke to her law clerk, Ted Krohn, and he said that he didn't think that it would be a problem. I relayed that information to my boss, and his problem was that he had a dispositiondeposition, I'm sorry, that he had to attend in Scranton, and he couldn't make it, he would like to reschedule. We thought that it was taken care of.
Well, the day of the conference I received a phone call from Judge Lokuta's chambers asking where he was, and I stated that he was in a deposition in Scranton. And I was told that I needed to get in touch with him and get him to Judge Lokuta's chambers immediately.
What happened after that is that Judge Lokuta called me at the office where I was working at and was screaming and yelling at me over the phone. Everybody couldThe girls sitting next to me could hear the whole conversation. And it was very embarrassing, very uncomfortable.
BY MR. PUSKUS:
Q. What did she say?
A. She said, how dare you call my chambers and ask for a continuance, you know that's not procedure, how could you do this, you've got to get your attorney to my conference. And she just went on and on and on.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Could you sort of illustrate, it's not you, but could you illustrate the manner and tone of the judge on that phone call?
*1050 Q. That's a little difficult, but she
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Do your best.
A. When Judge Lokuta would get angry, she would use a very strong, loud voice. And how dare you is what she would say, very emphatically, and it's just very demeaning and belittling and intimidating.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Continue.
A. Oh, so the outcome was that Gene, Eugene, had to leave his deposition in Scranton, get his paralegal, go over to the courthouse, and sit in chambers with Judge Lokuta. When they gotAnd I was getting very nervous about this sitting back in my office. This was a new job. I was trying to turn over a new leaf. And when Eugene and his paralegal came back into the office, they just shook their head and said, well
MR SINATRA: I'm going to object to
JUDGE SPRAGUE: You can't relate what they said. Did you have any further conversation with Judge Lokuta on this matter?
A. No, sir, I did not.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. And did it come about that you went to work for Judge Lokuta a second time?
A. Yes.
Q. How did that happen?
A. I was approached by Maureen Gushanas. She called me at home, and she said that the judge was looking for a secretary, that Andrea Fogelman was going to be leaving. And she said I think that she would be very receptive to your coming back to work. She said that on several occasions she wished that Susan Weber was back at work with her.
So I was very hesitant. I said, I don't know, Maureen, you know, it was pretty tense, it was pretty bad before I left. And she said, well, think about it, you know, sleep on it and we'll talk some more. So we talked some more. And I had just purchased an old house, needed a lot of fixing up.
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to the stream of consciousness.
JUDGE SPRAGUE. Overruled. She's relating why sheher considerations for going back to work for the judge.
A. Correct, yes. And the amount of money I was making was much less than what I made at Judge Lokuta's. So, as I said, I had this new responsibility, and I had really hoped that after Judge no longer had Ted Krohn, Mike Kostelaba had left, I had left, I thought maybe she'smaybe she's seeing that this is not the way to treat your staff, maybe she'll turn over a new leaf, maybe we can make things okay.
And I even talked to her on the phone. We had a conversation on the phone. And she said, I think that, you know, things will be fine and that we're just going to handle things differently this time. So I had every optimism about the whole situation that things might be better this time. And I was willing to give it a second try.
Q. So you went back?
A. So I went back.
Q. And how long did you stay with her this second time?
....
A. Okay. The second stint I believe came to about 15 or 16 months because it was September of 2002 to *1051 March of 2004. So I think that works out to about 16 months, something like that.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. And how did your employment come to an end there?
A. My employment came to an end because quite frankly I had justI couldn't take it anymore.
Q. Did youYou quit?
A. I did. I handed in my resignation, and I wrote her a note and said that I cannot take your abusive behavior any longer, and I handed her my keys. And I said, I just can't take it, this is what you want anyway, and I walked out.
Q. And, thereafter, did you file a complaint with the Judicial Complaint Board?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. Is that the complaint that you filed with the Judicial Conduct Board?
A. Yes, it is.
Q. And when did you file that?
A. I filed that in April of 2004.
....
Q. Why did you file that complaint with the Judicial Conduct Board?
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object, Your Honor.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
A. I filed the complaint because it was so unbearable. Excuse me. I couldn't imagine anybody else having to go through that. It was something that changed my life forever because the abuse was so intense and relentless and persistent. And I knew that it was not just me, that it extended to other people as well. And I felt that somebody needed to know. I didn't know what would come of the complaint, but I felt that I had to let somebody know exactly what was going on in that chambers.
....
Q. What can you tell the Court about Judge Lokuta's treatment of you?
....
A. For the first six months that I was back from September to January, it really wasn't that bad. It was somewhat bearable. She would have her bad days but never directed at me. It wasn't anything that you couldn't handle at the end of the day.
After January, shortly after Mort Gordon left, her treatment of me every day was one that I couldn't walk across the room that it wasn't right. Nothing I did was correct. And it wasn't that you were just scolded or reprimanded. You were screamed at for it. You were told you were stupid no matter what you attempted during the day.
And she would give youThe pattern that became the norm was that she would give you a task. She would wait 10 minutes. She'd give you another task, wait another 10 minutes, give you another one. And in the meantime, she's buzzing you, she's interrupting you. And then she'd come in and she'd start screaming for the results from the first task which you didn't have any time to complete obviously.
And this would keep occurring over and over and over again. And she would just badger you. It was relentless. And it wasn't just for that period of time. It went on throughout the whole day.
Q. How did that make you feel?
*1052 A. Horrible, stupid, nervous. I couldn't focus on anything because I just kept worrying when is she going to start yelling at me again, what is the next thing I'm going to do that is going to be a mistake. It made you make mistakes because you couldn't focus. You were just waiting for the next hit.
Q. What was her tone, volume, and manner when she was addressing you?
A. Her tone was extremely condescending, sarcastic at times. Her volume if she was really angry at you was screeching. And if you wentIf you would try to defend yourself, you were insubordinate, and you would get screamed at for that. If I didn't say anything, she screamed at me that I was passive aggressive. There was no way to handle the situation. It was unbearable.
Can you give the Court some specific examples of incidents that occurred between you and Judge Lokuta thatYou've generally described her treatment of you, but can you give some specific examples of her treatment of you?
MR. SINATRA: Your Honor, may we have the witness relate the time period first as we have been doing?
JUDGE SPRAGUE: As you give these examples to the best approximation state about when this occurred to the best that you can. And if there's a problem because they were on such a recurring basis
A. Exactly.
JUDGE SPRAGUE:that it's difficult because of the repetition, then just say so.
A. Yes. It is difficult because it was very repetitious, and it was so often....
....
Q. Was there another incident, and I'm referencing December 10th, 2003, where Maureen had an outburst on you in front of Judge Lokuta?
A. Yes.
....
Q. Can you tell the Court about that?
A. Yes, I can. The judge had miscellaneous court that day, and it was customary at the end of her miscellaneous court that the files would come back to me for processing. And there was a receipt that the prothonotary people usually filled out, and it would indicate as to whether or not a matter was continued or whatever.
So when Maureen brought me back the files, I noticed that the receipt wasn't there. And I said, Maureen, I have a question about this one, I noticed that the receipt isn't here. And she turned on me. She was walking away. She turned around. She turned on me, got right in my face, and started screaming at me and pointing at me and say, how dare you call me a liar.
And I said, Maureen, I didn't call you a liar, I just asked where the receipt was. Don't you ever question anything that I do. Oh, yeah, you're the one who never makes any mistakes. And she started yelling and screaming and going on and on and on.
And then she started to walk away, and the judge was in her chambers but in the doorway and noticing all of this and did nothing to stop it which was also quite usual. If she saw some
*1053 MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to the editorialization.
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled. Continue.
A. between her staff members, she did nothing to diffuse it and to set it right and to resolve it. So Maureen turned onAfter she turned away from me, she started yelling to the judge, she's the worst secretary I've ever seen in my life, she wouldn't know her ass from a hole in the ground.
....
Q. Do you recall an incident onI'm referencing June 20th, 2003where Judge Lokuta and Maureen Gushanas were arguing about something with Maureen's vacation?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell the Court about that?
A. Because they were arguing quite a lot.
Q. Who was present, first of all, at that time?
A. We were all in the judge's chamber. It was the judge, myself, I believe Selyne Youngclaus, Rebecca Sammon may have either been in chamber or within earshot, but I think she was in chamber. I think we were all in the judge's chamber. And Maureen had given the judge a memo requesting a vacation, and the judge denied it saying that she didn't have six weeks' notice and she required six weeks' notice which was a rule that I never knew about, changed constantly. You never knew what the rules were.
MR. SINATRA: I'm going to object to
JUDGE SPRAGUE: Overruled.
A. So Maureen was taken back by this. She didn't realize six weeks' notice was supposed to have been given. But she got very, very agitated and upset. And you could see that a fight was going to brew because she came bounding back into chambers and pointed at the judge and said, why, Judge, is it because I'm not sleeping with you anymore? And then she flew out.
Well, this was not a shock to me, but it was a shock to a lot of other staff members and made them very uncomfortable and upset them.
BY MR. PUSKAS:
Q. What was Judge Lokuta doing during this time?
A. She was sitting at her desk.
Q. Do you recall anything that she said?
A. MaureenI t
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