Pa. Judge Seamus McCaffery steps down from state supreme court amid pornography scandal

HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery will step down and permanently retire from the bench amidst multiple allegations of wrongdoing, including sending and receiving over 230 sexually explicit emails.

The 64-year-old judge was suspended with pay on October 20, after the state launched a probe to address four seperate scandals involving McCaffery.

In addition to sending and recieving 234 pornographic emails, McCaffery is accused of trying to use his political clout to get out of a traffic ticket, manipulating plaintiffs into paying referral fees to his wife's law firm and attempting to "exert influence over a judicial assignment on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas bench outside the scope of his official duties" according to the Leghigh Valley Express Times.

"His resignation followed a weekend of intense and secret negotiations in which McCaffery, a former Philadelphia police officer and municipal court judge, was able to guarantee his government pensions and agreed not to seek another elective office, court sources said," reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"In return, the Judicial Conduct Board agreed to halt an ethics investigation the Supreme Court had ordered into his conduct."

"Since Justice McCaffery has retired and has agreed not to seek senior judge status and not to again seek elective judicial office, the Board has concluded that it is in the best interest of the judiciary and the judicial system of the Commonwealth to dismiss its investigations."

Despite essentially being forced into retirement, the founding judge of in-stadium Eagles court went down swinging, publicly accusing Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Roland D. Castille of having a vendetta against his career -- an accusation Castille seemed to embrace.

"Justice McCaffery is correct in one of his allegations against me," Castille countered.

"I have been attempting to remove Justice McCaffery from this court. In my two decades of experience on this court, no other justice ... has done as much to bring the Supreme Court into disrepute."