A Supreme Court Justice's Offensive, Racy Emails
A cache of offensive emails sent and received by a member of a state's high court remind us how broken this court system really is.
What the hell is wrong with Pennsylvania’s justice system? You’d have thought the Keystone State would have pumped the brakes after sending a judge to prison for taking kickbacks from private prisons, but it turns out they were only getting warmed up. And now we have one ethically embattled officer of the court publicly shaming an embattled Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice with documents he already was blackmailed with by another embattled justice.
But there are off-color jokes and naked women in these emails, so let’s check those out.
It was almost exactly one year ago when we pulled back the curtain on the mess that is Pennsylvania’s high court. Back then, the internal investigation into why the AG’s office ignored a panoply of red flags about Penn State coach/child molester Jerry Sandusky (oh right, remember when Pennsylvania f**ked that up too?) revealed that the state’s top lawyers and judges just swap hardcore porn all day. Justice Seamus McCaffrey got the boot for trafficking in these emails… and seemingly funneling improper kickbacks through his wife. Worse, Justice Michael Eakin revealed at the time that Justice McCaffrey was blackmailing him on this decision lest Justice McCaffrey unveil compromising emails from Justice Eakin.
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Yesterday, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kathleen Kane — who is practicing without a license because she faces criminal charges for leaking sensitive grand jury materials to embarrass a rival — released sensitive materials to embarrass a rival. In this case, it’s Justice Eakin, who was already cleared of ethical wrongdoing but is getting dragged back through all this over the very emails he once got blackmailed over. Seriously Pennsylvania, just blow up the whole system and start from scratch.
While Justice Eakin was cleared in an earlier inquiry by the Judicial Conduct Board, AG Kane argues that the board gave Justice Eakin a sweetheart deal, clearing him without reviewing hundreds of emails — sent and received on government systems — that reveal all manner of potential prejudice toward a number of groups including “blacks, Latinos, Muslims, and domestic-violence victims.” Not exactly sound judicial temperament. And yet, none of the emails available online include attacks on any of these groups, making it hard to join Kane’s ire.
Let’s review some of the emails Justice Eakin either sent or received on the taxpayers’ dime:
This is one of the emails Justice Eakin actually sent — he used the pseudonym John Smith because that’s a foolproof means of shielding an identity — showing a young boy heroically putting a female authority figure in her place as a sexual object. It’s a kneeslapper.
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I’m noticing a trend: little boys and sexual acts. I repeat: what the hell is wrong with Pennsylvania?
Apparently this is from a video where Little Red Riding Hood forces the Big Bad Wolf to perform a sex act on her at gunpoint. So never let it be said that Justice Eakin’s emails don’t make room for strong, assertive women.
These are the more tame pics. The next page is still safe for work (there are black boxes), but contain some of the racier offerings…
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