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Eyes locked on Lackawanna County judge race

Frank Castellano, Margie Bisignani-Moyle battling for new county judge seat.

STEPHANIE LONGO Times Leader Correspondent

On Nov. 3, voters in Lackawanna County will have the opportunity to elect a new judge to the Court of Common Pleas to fill a newly created position designed to reduce judicial workloads.

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Castellano

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Bisignani-Moyle

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At the beginning of this month, Lackawanna County President Judge Chester Harhut announced the position will serve the family court due to the retirement of Senior Judge Carlon O’Malley at the end of this year.

Margie Bisignani-Moyle and Frank Castellano are both vying for the new position, which was one of 12 new Court of Common Pleas judgeships created statewide. State Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Peckville, who was heavily involved with the establishment of the new position, explained there are several reasons for the creation of the new assignment.

“The workload for the judges has increased significantly and the complexity of the cases is much greater,” Sen. Mellow said. “Plus, we’ve changed a lot substantially on mandatory sentencing on various things, with regard to juvenile crime, also with regard to the illegal selling of drugs and their use. The workload now is pretty significant, more so than it was 15 years ago.”

Both Bisignani-Moyle and Castellano have years of experience in dealing with various legal matters. However, Castellano believes that his experience as deputy district attorney in the juvenile division and as one of the developers of the county’s nationally recognized juvenile treatment court, gives him a slight edge over Bisignani-Moyle.

“This is the work that I have been doing exclusively for the past seven years,” Castellano said. “These are the cases that I do… “in this race, I am the only person who has had that experience in family law; I am the only candidate who has ever handled a juvenile matter. My opponent has never handled a juvenile case in her career and she has said that on record many times.”

When asked to comment about allegedly never handling a juvenile case in her career, Bisignani-Moyle explained that she did not handle juvenile cases while working as assistant district attorney in Miami-Dade County, Florida, under Janet Reno, the former attorney general, because of her prior legal experience in Pennsylvania, where she did practice in family court.

“My opponent is correct when he says that in Miami I did not practice in family court. That is true,” Bisignani-Moyle said. “But I have practiced in family court in Pennsylvania. When I went to Miami, I had already been practicing law for three years and had had about 30 jury trials on very serious cases, like armed robbery, rape, and vehicular homicide. These are all cases I took to jury trial.

“In Miami, Reno’s office was broken up into four buildings – juvenile, DUI, misdemeanor and felonies,” she continued. “If you didn’t have prior experience, you were promoted gradually. I was able to bypass, or be promoted past, the juvenile division. Juvenile cases are less than felonies because the felony cases are more complex and the charges are more serious.”

Bob Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, explained that although prior experience in family court is helpful for a new judge, it isn’t necessary.

“It all depends on the person’s training, experience, and willingness to learn,” Schwartz said. “All new judges go through a training that the administrative office of Pennsylvania courts requires. Somebody who is experienced in representing children or parents in a range of family court matters will have a head start on that. I’ve also known lawyers who have stepped in to juvenile court who have trained and reached out and who have become very good at what they do. I think it all depends on the person. There are no guarantees in this business.”

Harhut echoed Schwartz’s sentiments.

“The experience doesn’t necessarily make you a better candidate,” Harhut said. “The first thing you have to learn when you come on is family dynamics, child development and the nuances related to families and children but we do that right away. As you’re with something, you get better with it and understand some of the situations you get into better than you would if you were just brand new. It takes empathy in the family court.”

Both candidates also differ in terms of whether the position is permanently on the county’s family court.

“At this point, in my mind, it is perfectly clear. This is the position we are running for,” Castellano said. “It is not a question of if it will be civil, criminal, or family or a little of all. It’s not. This is the job it is going to be.

“We know specifically what this new judgeship is going to be about,” Castellano continued. “We know specifically what the role of this judge is going to be and the types of cases that will be handled. “

Bisignani-Moyle believes that the position, although initially on the family court, is subject to change.

“It is a misnomer to say that this is a family court position, because in Pennsylvania there is no such thing,” she said. “The voters cannot go out there and say they are electing a family court judge. They are electing a judge on the Court of Common Pleas. Tomorrow, the decision could be reversed because we have an increased caseload across the board. I have a feeling that down the road Judge Harhut will move the position to civil court. In Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County is unique because it is the only county that does that. In the rest of the state, the judges do a little bit of everything.”

Art Heinz, a spokesperson for the Administrative Offices of Pennsylvania courts said that every county in Pennsylvania is different with regards to how it handles judicial assignments.

“Pennsylvania is such a vast state and it differs greatly,” Heinz said. “Lackawanna County is different than, say, Cumberland County, Bedford County, and Carbon County in that in the smaller areas in terms of population and caseload you may find judges doing a little of everything. In some counties you only have one judge. There will be differences as you go from county to county.”

Harhut explained that judges are assigned to a specialty in Lackawanna County for consistency’s sake.

““The specialized assignments give more consistency. As you learn about what’s going on, you can better deal with it,” he said. “On the criminal end, for instance, we have lots of increasing criminal cases. When we had everybody doing it, the sentences were all over the place. There was no consistency. Now there is more consistency.”

“Not all the counties have everyone doing a little of everything,” Harhut continued. “In large counties, like Philadelphia, there are judges that just do dependency, or juvenile delinquency, or any particular part of it. Allegheny County is like us where if you’re in the family division, they try to do one judge one family. This concept is catching on in the state and it is actually recommended as a good practice. We’ve really changed and are moving cases much more effectively than we did 10 years ago. We’ve improved vastly.”

Harhut also explained that the family court position could very well be changed, although it will be in the family court for the foreseeable 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 O’Malley has been and that’s where we’ve had the gap.”

Schwartz said that, above all, voters need to closely examine the candidates running, not the position they are running for.

“I think you have to look at all the other issues: How has this person performed? What is their reputation for empathy, for fidelity to the law?” he said. “And to make sure that children and parents are and know they are being treated fairly by the system. What you really want is a Solomon in there.”