Judge Toole takes break for November

Luzerne County Judge Michael Toole has unexpectedly postponed all of his November cases and decided to take a vacation for a few weeks.

County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Chester Muroski said Toole advised him Wednesday morning that he would be using accrued vacation time and has rescheduled all his pending November cases until December.

Toole followed up with a memo to Muroski shortly before lunch indicating that he will be on vacation for the next few weeks. Toole said his November cases will be put on his December and January calendar, and he thanked Muroski for his cooperation.

The courthouse was abuzz with talk that the sudden vacation has something to do with the ongoing corruption scandal, but Toole did not respond to several requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday.

The judge has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but a source familiar with the investigation previously told The Times Leader that federal authorities have been investigating Toole for several months.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said agents are looking into Toole’s relationship with Robert Powell, who pleaded guilty in July to federal felony charges for failing to report alleged illegal activities by former county judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan. Powell’s law license has been temporarily suspended as a result.

The source said authorities are investigating whether money Powell allegedly paid to Toole was for a legitimate purpose. The source did not know the amount of the money involved, but said it’s believed to be thousands of dollars.

The judge has acknowledged that he was friends with Ciavarella and said he was a guest in 2006 at a condominium in Jupiter, Fla., owned by the wives of Conahan and Ciavarella.

Toole’s relationship with Powell was previously questioned after it was revealed he issued a court ruling in 2004 that blocked a marina association from terminating Powell’s lease of a dock slip at that condo.

Attorneys for the marina questioned if Toole had jurisdiction over the matter because the dock was located in Florida. The case was later resolved informally.

Toole’s tipstaff, Tom Marino, has been interviewed by a federal grand jury in Scranton that continues to hear evidence about alleged corruption in Luzerne County.

Unlike other court employees paid by the state, county judges do not have a set number of vacation days because they are elected officials, said Art Heinz, spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts in Harrisburg.

“That doesn’t mean that it’s wide open. The generally accepted practice is about four weeks of vacation a year,” Heinz said.

County judges are not required to seek the state’s approval to take vacation time, Heinz said.

He raised $280,000 for his election campaign, including $116,266 in contributions from lawyers.

During the campaign, Toole touted his 18 years of legal experience and his work as a longtime law clerk for his father, Patrick, who is highly respected within the legal community.

Patrick Toole retired at the end of 2003 after 26 years on the bench, and he still serves as a senior judge in the county. The elder Toole was also county district attorney in the 1970s.

Michael Toole has also served as a solicitor for the Wilkes-Barre Area School District and the Wilkes-Barre Area Vocational-Technical School, now known as the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center.