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Lackawanna County judge candidates challenge each other’s experience

Contest between Castellano, Bisignani-Moyle turning aggressive as election nears.

STEPHANIE LONGO Times Leader Correspondent

On Tuesday, voters in Lackawanna County will choose a new judge for a newly created position in the family court division of the Court of Common Pleas.

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Castellano

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Moyle

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Candidates Margie Bisignani-Moyle and Frank Castellano both bring years of courtroom experience to their respective campaigns; however, both candidates have differing opinions when it comes to how their jury trial experience will transfer to the judge’s bench.

“A lot has been said throughout the campaign about jury trials but that is just one part of what a judge does,” Castellano said. “On a general scale, presiding over a jury trial is less than 5 percent of what a judge does. For instance, in 2008, there were 3,600 criminal cases in Lackawanna County. Only 25 of those went to trial.”

“This new judge in this position as a family court judge is not going to be presiding over jury trials. Period. Jury trials do not take place in the family law division. There aren’t even jury boxes in the courtrooms in family court,” he added.

Bisignani-Moyle said that in terms of experience, she has had more than 100 jury trials compared to Castellano’s 90 juvenile adjudication hearings. A juvenile adjudication hearing is the term for a hearing that takes place in the juvenile court.

“The cases that I handle are the most complex kinds of cases that there are in criminal court; for example, armed robbery, murder, and child molestation,” Bisignani-Moyle said. “I take these cases in front of a jury. There is no similarity between a jury trial and a juvenile adjudication hearing. A juvenile adjudication hearing lasts about an hour. A jury trial can last more than three days. There is a big difference.”

Lackawanna County President Judge Chester Harhut, who made the decision that the position will be on the family court, explained that jury trials generally aren’t part of that division.

“Jury trials are not an issue in family court and we don’t have jury trials for juvenile cases in Pennsylvania or for divorce cases. It doesn’t become an issue,” Harhut said. “In paternity cases, you can still have a jury trial.”

Bob Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, explained that jury trials aren’t an issue in family court and that the new judge will learn about jury trials in the mandatory judicial training program provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

“There are no jury trials in family court. What you want is somebody who understands the rule of law and evidence,” Schwartz said. “The county will want someone who will know or learn about jury trials because, my guess is, that this is not an exclusive appointment to family court. There is no guarantee that the judge will stay there.

“You want someone who won’t be a bully,” Schwartz continued. “You want someone who will treat others with sensitivity. You want someone who will treat others fairly; in the case of kids you’re teaching them that the rule of law matters. Those are the kinds of things I would be looking for if I were a voter.”

Castellano claims that, prior to his appointment as deputy district attorney for the juvenile division of Lackawanna County, he amassed seven years’ worth of jury trial experience while working as an assistant district attorney in the homicide by motor vehicle and DUI division.

“If my opponent or her supporters want to make a big deal out of the fact that she has done more jury trials than I have, then that is fine, but that’s irrelevant to the position that we’re running for,” Castellano said. “The job we’re running for, that we know now specifically, is to be a family court judge. Yes, jury trial experience is important; you have to have had experience in all aspects of the law. For seven years of my career I did jury trials. Quite honestly, trial experience is a moot point at this point because we’ve both had it.”

Bisignani-Moyle challenges that this position is not exclusive to the family court division.

“In my opinion, the new judge position in the family court is an initial or temporary assignment. It is not a permanent or exclusive assignment,” she said.

“The voters need to elect someone who is able to do anything at any given time,” Bisignani-Moyle added. “That is why this is important. I think you need to be practicing law for a certain number of years. You need to have that length, depth, and breadth of experience. You can’t just be coming out of law school.”

Harhut explained that, for now, the position is in the family court, but acknowledges it could be moved in the future.

“We could move the new position around. We have a judges’ meeting coming up and we’ll talk about that, but I am pretty sure that the newest person will be assigned to family for a while, at least a couple years, and then maybe moved,” he said. “It depends on expertise and where we think somebody could do a better job. We don’t force anyone into a new position but right now it looks like that is where the new person will go. That’s where Judge (Carlon) O’Malley has been and that’s where we’ve had the gap.”