Luzerne County Judges

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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Michael Toole has submitted his resignation as a Luzerne County judge, according to the governor’s office.

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Gary Tuma, Gov. Ed Rendell’s spokesman, said the resignation was effective Friday. Rendell now has 90 days to appoint someone to the vacancy. The 90-day clock is already running for Rendell to appoint someone to fill the seat formerly held by Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. who failed to win retention in November.

Toole, 49, pleaded guilty last month to honest services fraud and a tax offense. Prosecutors say Toole deprived the public of his honest services when he failed to reveal that he had secret communication with an attorney, with whom he had a financial relationship, regarding an arbitration case the judge presided over.

Toole is also charged with tax evasion for failing to report on his income tax return a $30,000 fee he received for referring a case to a different attorney.

Tuma said the governor will send names to the Senate at the earliest possible date. A candidate must receive two-thirds majority approval in the Senate to sit on the bench.

“As in the recent past, (Gov. Rendell) is very sensitive to the need to appoint the most highly qualified people possible to these vacancies, people who are highly regarded both in the legal community and among the citizenry as a whole,” Tuma said. “He will be searching for those kinds of candidates.”

Luzerne County President Judge Thomas Burke Jr. said he is hopeful Rendell will act promptly to fill the vacancies.

“The court is in dire need of further assistance,” Burke said. “In addition to awaiting Senate confirmation on attorney Joseph Cosgrove, we still have (former judge Ann) Lokuta’s seat in a suspended state.”

Burke said the situation will become exasperated next week when newly sworn-in judges William Amesbury and Tina Polachek Gartley attend judge school at State College for a week.

“We are getting some valuable service from our senior judges and for that we are grateful,” Burke said.

Tuma did not know when Rendell intends to appoint someone to fill the district judge’s seat in Wilkes-Barre formerly held by Amesbury. Once an appointment is made by Rendell, the person must receive simple majority approval from the state Senate.

When Rendell appointed Cosgrove to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mark Ciavarella, he asked local leaders in the legal community to provide names of possible candidates. Rendell asked that to be considered for the position, attorneys must have extensive experience and with no desire to run for election to the post during the next judicial cycle in 2011.

“I’m not sure if the governor will use those same criteria for these positions,” Tuma said. “He will make a very serious effort to find the best possible candidates. The governor wants to appoint outstanding people to fill the seats; he will be sure to make a careful choice.”

Federal prosecutors say Toole used his position as a judge to improperly influence the appointment of a neutral arbitrator to hear an uninsured motorist arbitration case. Prosecutors say Toole secretly communicated with the attorney who had filed the case to ascertain whom that attorney wanted to have appointed.

Toole had vacationed at a New Jersey Beach home owned by the attorney on numerous occasions, prosecutors said.

Staff writers Jennifer Learn-Andes and Terrie Morgan-Besecker contributed to this report.