The Judicial Conduct Board’s chief counsel suggested to the board’s members in June 2007 that it table an investigation into a former Luzerne County judge because he was a witness in an upcoming judicial discipline trial, according to a written statement made last week by the board’s members.
According to the statement, revealed during testimony before the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice Monday, JCB chief counsel Joseph A. Massa told board members in June 2007 that Luzerne County Common Pleas Judge Michael T. Conahan was a witness in fellow Luzerne County Common Pleas Judge Ann H. Lokuta’s upcoming disciplinary trial. Because of that, the statement says, Massa suggested a notice of full investigation into Conahan — something Massa had previously suggested in writing — be tabled until the Lokuta matter was concluded.
