Judicial fill-in set for Toole

WILKES-BARRE – A replacement will be named for Luzerne County Judge Michael Toole, who took an unexpected vacation as the trial deadline approaches for a death penalty case he has been handling.

Toole had presided over pre-trial proceedings for Donnell Buckner, charged with the March 29 shooting death of his estranged wife, Kewaii Rogers Buckner, in Wilkes-Barre.

The District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty in the homicide case that must be brought to trial within a year of Buckner’s March 30 arrest.

County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Chester Muroski said Thursday that was the only one of Toole’s cases that needed immediate attention.

Muroski said the county has the services of retired Judge Joseph Rehkamp who will be given the Buckner case.

Rehkamp had presided in Perry County before moving to Luzerne County, Muroski explained.

“He has some commitments through November,” Muroski said, and a limited workload next month.

Rehkamp’s schedule is “pretty wide open in January and going forward,” Muroski said.

A pre-trial conference on the Buckner case will be held next month, Muroski added.

Toole notified Muroski Wednesday that he would be using his accrued vacation time to take off for a few weeks and arranged to move his November cases to December and January.

Toole’s temporary hiatus heightened speculation that he could be the next to face criminal charges in the federal investigation of corruption at the courthouse. A source told The Times Leader federal authorities have been investigating Toole for several months regarding his relationship with former attorney Robert Powell.

Powell pleaded guilty in July and has cooperated with authorities in the probe that has netted 19 people this year, including former judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan.

The pair face racketeering charges for their alleged roles in a $2.6 million kickback scheme related to the construction of two juvenile detention centers and the placements of youths in the facilities in Pittston Township and Butler County.

Powell, who had been a co-owner of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care centers, said the former judges extorted payments from him. He admitted that he concealed the activities of the judges.

With Toole taking time off, the county bench is further reduced. It is supposed to have 10 judges, but Conahan retired and Ciavarella resigned, plus Judge Ann Lokuta was removed by the state Court of Judicial Discipline in December 2008. Muroski reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 late next month. And Judge Peter Paul Olszewski lost a retention bid and will not return in January.

The bench will have two new judges next year with the election of Tina Polachek Gartley and William Amesbury. They will fill the spots left open by Muroski and Conahan. Attorney Joseph Musto was appointed to the bench and has been serving out the unexpired term of Conahan.

Muroski said attorneys have been very cooperative and understanding of the situation.

The court gets a break in December because there are no criminal trials. Muroski said that has been a tradition.

“Even with the limited number of judges we have now we’re doing pretty good,” Muroski said.