The Supreme Court should not wait to take action on those judges until a federal investigation into Traffic Court is concluded or wait until the Judicial Conduct Board takes whatever action it might take against those judges, Marks said.
Castille said he was not discussing the report's reference to his fellow justice, Seamus P. McCaffery.
According to Chadwick Associates' report, two Traffic Court administrators said they were in a meeting with William "Billy" Hird, a former director of courtroom operations who also was alleged to have fixed tickets, when Hird said he had received a cellphone text message from McCaffery asking Hird to meet with him.
One of the administrators said he later learned that McCaffery's wife, Lise Rapaport, had been found not guilty of a traffic violation that day, according to the report. The other court administrator, according to the report, told Chadwick Associates that Hird reported that he had escorted Rapaport into the building, "seen to it that she was 'okay,' and then 'went outside and saw Seamus in the car.'"
The magisterial district judge presiding over the case denied that he found McCaffery's wife not guilty because of political influence, and Hird did not give an interview.
For his part, according to the report, McCaffery said that he called Hird, who he knew from political campaigns, because he wanted to have Rapaport's case assigned to an "out-of-county judge because it would be a conflict for a Philadelphia Traffic Court judge to hear Rapaport's case."
Castille declined comment on whether there is friction in the court right now because of the report and its reference to McCaffery, but he said the court can take up other issues with Traffic Court.
McCaffery did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Everything on the table
In terms of the future of the institution, everything is on the table, Castille said, from getting rid of it entirely to other less drastic reforms.
The difficulty is Traffic Court exists as part of the state constitution, Castille said. But there is some precedent with making structural change to a court without constitutional amendment, Castille said, referring to when the Pittsburgh Magistrates Court went out of existence nearly eight years ago. Pittsburgh magistrates were parallel to a countywide system of magisterial district justices.
Subscribe to The Legal Intelligencer
