Daily News | A Philly judge took a trip to Florida but tried to mark people ‘guilty in absentia,’ judicial board says
ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff PhotographerA Philadelphia judge this year tried to devise a way to make it appear as if she’d ruled on traffic citations in her courtroom when she was actually on a trip to Florida, according to Pennsylvania’s Judicial Conduct Board — including by reviewing case files in advance and marking some of them “guilty in absentia.”
Melissa L. Norton, the Judicial Conduct Board’s interim chief counsel, wrote in court documents that Brumbach’s alleged actions “undermine both public confidence in the judiciary and the reputation of the judiciary.” If found guilty, potential penalties include suspension or removal from office. Nevertheless, in the days leading up to Jan. 7, Brumbach asked the assistant district attorney working in her courtroom to review the files scheduled for that day and determine which cases, if any, might be withdrawn.
In an attempt to figure out what that meant, her supervisors — who are not identified by name in Brumbach’s charging documents — obtained the 95 case files scheduled for Jan. 7, and saw they’d been signed and marked by Brumbach. Some said “guilty in absentia,” others “not guilty in absentia” or “withdrawn,” while 20 had an adjudication that was crossed out.
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