Court Digest

Pennsylvania
Ex-justice levels bias accusation at state high court chief justice

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Black woman who is a former justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has released a sworn affidavit that accuses the court’s chief justice, Thomas Saylor, of complaining to another judge about “her minority agenda.”

Cynthia Baldwin, the second Black woman to serve on Pennsylvania’s highest court, released the affidavit publicly Thursday, The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported.

Saylor, who is white, denied making the comments, and in a statement through the court’s offices called the allegation “false and offensive.”

The alleged comment by Saylor came in 2012 to a judge in the context of a forthcoming disciplinary complaint against Baldwin. That disciplinary process ended in her being publicly reprimanded by the state’s high court over her work as Penn State’s chief counsel during the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Baldwin contested and fought the complaint, saying she was treated unfairly.

“If the affidavit is as sworn, it shows bias and vindictiveness” in the disciplinary process against her, Baldwin said in an interview Friday.

The affidavit recounts a 2012 conversation between Saylor and a former Northumberland County Court judge, Barry Feudale, who oversaw the grand jury investigation into Sandusky.

Speaking at a judicial conference in Hershey, Saylor told Feudale that a disciplinary complaint was forthcoming against Baldwin in connection with the Sandusky investigation, and Saylor urged Feudale to help the inquiry, the affidavit says.

Saylor told Feudale that Baldwin “caused us a lot of trouble when she was on the Supreme Court with her minority agenda,” it says.

Feudale signed the sworn affidavit last August. Baldwin said she had no knowledge of the affidavit or Saylor’s alleged comments until her lawyers in the disciplinary case received it from Feudale.

Feudale declined to comment to the Inquirer, although Feudale’s one-time lawyer, Samuel Stretton, said Friday that Feudale had previously described the conversation to him.

Baldwin, 75, a Democrat, served on the high court in 2006 and 2007 as an appointee of then-Gov. Ed Rendell. She later became chief counsel for Penn State.

Saylor, 73, a Republican, has served on the court since 1997 and became chief justice in 2015. All seven current justices are white.

Baldwin received a reprimand in February by the high court over a complaint  that she violated professional rules for lawyers by testifying about university officials accused in the Sandusky scandal in front of an investigating grand jury after she appeared with them in front of the panel.

Feudale went on to write an opinion defending Baldwin’s actions as proper. Saylor recused himself from Baldwin’s disciplinary complaint before the Supreme Court voted 4-0 to discipline her.

The state Supreme Court removed Feudale from his role overseeing statewide grand jury investigations in 2013 at the request of the state’s then-attorney general, Kathleen Kane. The high court also declined to reappoint him as a senior county court judge.

Washington
Suquamish Tribe to sue King County after wastewater spill

SEATTLE (AP) — Two years of Puget Sound sewage spills totaling more than 6 million gallons, have driven the Suquamish Tribe to threaten a lawsuit against King County for the violation of clean-water laws.

In a letter to King County officials this week, lawyers representing the tribe stated the tribe’s intent to sue the county within 60 days for violation of the Clean Water Act because of sewage spills from its West Point Treatment Plant in 2018 and 2019, The Seattle Times reported. That’s in addition to other violations of county permits reported by King County to its regulator, the state Department of Ecology.

The biggest spill noted by the tribe came on July 19 last year just as the Suquamish Tribe was welcoming 40 canoe paddlers and hundreds of guests to its reservation for the annual Tribal Canoe Journey.
An order from the health department warning to have no contact with the water had the tribe scrambling for clean shirts and washing stations for guests as they arrived on their shores.

It was a blow that still stings for the people from the Place of Clear Saltwater, who pride themselves on hospitality.

“It was rather difficult, and embarrassing,” Leonard Forsman, chairman of the Suquamish Tribe, told the newspaper.

The spill was caused by a sag in power supply to the West Point Treatment Plant for less than a second that turned off some of the pumps at the plant. The spill and possible fines remain under investigation by Ecology.

King County has made major improvements to wastewater treatment facilities and operations in recent years, and is investing an additional $9 billion this decade in clean water and healthy habitat, according to a statement from the county’s Wastewater Treatment Division in response to the tribe’s letter.

The tribe’s complaint also comes as the county has started work on a new comprehensive plan for further investment in wastewater infrastructure.

The county has hundreds of miles of pipes, pumps, tanks, treatment plants and other equipment, some of it 50 years old, and is facing a growing population and a changing climate that will hit the system with more intense storms that increase the volume of wastewater it must manage. Wastewater is made up mostly of storm water, in addition to raw sewage from homes and businesses.

The county will spend billions more over the next few decades on system upgrades and expansions, all paid for with utility rates that are already among the highest in the country.

“This is the hard part of the job for me sometimes as a chairman, when we have to take these drastic actions against people we have partnered with before,” Forsman said of King County Executive Dow Constantine and other county managers. “The problem is, this keeps happening … Our fishermen and our elders expect us to protect our ancestral waters.”

Christie True, director of King County Natural Resources and Parks, which has authority over the Wastewater Treatment Division, said the county highly values its relationship with the Suquamish and that she’s sure they will be talking with them soon.

New Jersey
Court revives man’s lawsuit over canceled poker tournament

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey appeals court has revived a lawsuit by a Vermont man who traveled to an Atlantic City casino for a poker tournament that wound up being canceled.

Michael Bandler said in the lawsuit that he traveled to the Golden Nugget in early 2015 after seeing advertisements that the tournament would offer $150,000 in prize money.

The tournament started, but was canceled by the casino due to a low number of registered players. Bandler was given a small amount of prize money for winning one of the events. His lawsuit claims the casino’s advertising was misleading and violated state consumer fraud laws.

The casino argued the state Division of Gaming Enforcement has jurisdiction over casino advertising, preempting consumer fraud laws. The casino also argued the ad’s fine print said the tournament could be canceled at any time, and didn’t say the money was guaranteed.

A lower court dismissed the lawsuit but the appeals court reversed on Wednesday, with the panel writing that consumer fraud laws apply and that “the casino omitted stating it intended to pay $150,000 only so long as enough people signed up, and the only indirect reference to that intent was the disputed disclaimer in small print about official rules and the right to change or cancel the event.”