The Court of Judicial Discipline has suspended Justice J. Michael Eakin on an interim basis with pay pending his trial on the merits over his involvement in the exchange of offensive emails. The suspension, the third of a sitting state Supreme Court justice since 2012, comes following a hearing Monday in which Eakin tearfully apologized and claimed that his lesson had been learned.
Eakin has been charged by the Judicial Conduct Board with four ethics violations over sending and receiving emails with sexist, racist and otherwise offensive content. The CJD’s six-page per curiam order requests pretrial memoranda from both Eakin and the JCB by Jan. 11 and sets a pretrial conference for Jan. 21 in Harrisburg.
