1/25/04: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/pittsburgh/s_176310.html
Magistrate
ready to go back on the bench
And Millvale District Justice Richard McCarthy says he won't be the
only one glad to see him resume his duties Feb. 2.
"There's a lot of people who want me back," McCarthy said. "I just have
a little collateral damage to offset. As far as my reputation from the
last 20 years, that's well-established. People know me and like me. They
know I'm fair."
"I'm not perfect. I'm not Mother Teresa," he said. "(But) I wasn't the
bad boy that everybody thought I was."
The 54-year-old magistrate was suspended in July by the Court of Judicial
Discipline after admitting, among other things, that he fought with his
ex-father-in-law at a bar and threatened a bartender who refused to serve
him alcohol.
McCarthy received full pay -- $20,130 -- for four of the six months
of his suspension. The suspension cost him $10,005 in pay.
District justices are paid $61,472 a year.
While McCarthy was off the bench, Shaler District Justice Robert Dzvonick
was shouldering his caseload -- an extra 25 percent -- all without extra
pay for the judge and his staff.
Still, Dzvonick isn't complaining.
"It was a large burden, but one that we took right in stride," the 51-year-old
magistrate said. "I'm an old military guy. l follow orders. I got an order
telling me to do this, and I do it. That's my job."
It was a preview, Dzvonick said, of 2006, when McCarthy's district --
Millvale and Reserve -- is to be merged into the Shaler district.
"This was a good opportunity for the citizens in Millvale and Reserve
to see how it's going to be after 2006," he said.
McCarthy views the shift of his cases to Shaler as an effort by Allegheny
County Court administrators to hurt his reputation and bolster Dzvonick's.
The two judges plan to run for the same post in the 2005 election.
"That was the idea -- to enhance more public embarrassment for me,"
said McCarthy, a district justice since 1982. "It was nothing but a personal
vendetta because of adversaries Downtown."
Former Allegheny County President Judge Robert Kelly made the decision
to move McCarthy's cases to Dzvonick's court. Kelly deferred questions
to district court administrator Ray Billotte.
Billotte said Dzvonick's office was chosen because it borders McCarthy's,
and leaves and retirements left the court system short-handed.
He called McCarthy's charges baseless.
"This office does not do business in a political sense," Billotte said.
"We evaluate the best course of action to accommodate the needs of the
public."
The judicial discipline court in May found McCarthy guilty of three
counts of bringing disrepute on the judicial office.
In a signed document, the judge admitted:
Drinking Perfect Manhattan cocktails during work hours at the Grant
Bar in Millvale and Skelly's Place in Shaler.
Making unsolicited physical contact in April 1999 with a woman at the
Grant Bar.
Fighting two months later with his former father-in-law at the Grant
Bar.
Falling asleep in January 2001 on the bar at the Grant Bar and mooning
a female friend.
Threatening a bartender in February 2001 who refused to serve him more
alcohol.
McCarthy said his indiscretions did not affect his job performance.
"The system has changed. I'm a little old school," McCarthy said. "They
want to own you 24/7, and you can't go out and socialize with friends.
Nobody ever told me when I ran for the job that I'd be owned by somebody
24/7."
Dzvonick, meanwhile, feels good about his chances in next year's election.
"I do my job in a professional manner," he said. "I conduct myself in
the public in a professional manner, and the public appreciates that."
Pa.: `The magistrate suspended for six months for
dropping his drawers to moon a woman in a bar and drinking during working
hours can't wait to get back on the bench.
email: clr@clr.org