Self-taught South Hills judge who fell into trouble

JULES C. MELOGRANE Sept. 19, 1927 - May 2, 2017

For some time in the 1960s, Jules Melograne worked as a parking lot attendant in Pittsburgh, at one time being stationed across the street from the City-County Building in Downtown.

He became friendly with the lawyers and judges who entered the building each day, and his friends and family urged him to try out law.

But Mr. Melograne, in his 30s at the time, did not have the money to afford law school. His father had passed away when he was 6 years old. The oldest of four siblings, he had grown up supporting his family by delivering milk before school. He had joined the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and earned his education at the University of Pittsburgh through the G.I. Bill.

So he decided to take the bar exam without the law degree. Remarkably, he passed.

“I find it extraordinary that anyone could pass a bar exam and not attend law school,” said Robert Del Greco Jr., Pittsburgh defense attorney and a close friend of Mr. Melograne’s. “It is a testament to his natural insight and intellect.”

Mr. Melograne, who wound up practicing law in the South Hills for nearly 40 years, died last week at the age of 89.

He suffered public notoriety when his long career as a district judge abruptly ended with a 1996 conviction and a 27-month sentence in prison for fixing hundreds of cases involving minor offenses where he presided in Whitehall, Castle Shannon and Baldwin Township. It cost him his law license and, despite efforts to get it back following his sentence, he remained disbarred.

Friends and family regarded his conviction jail time as an unfortunate blemish for jurist they saw as fair kind.

“In my mind and those of us who knew and respected him, that was an aberration and a deviation from who I believed to have been a loyal and honorable man and friend,” said Mr. Del Greco, 62, who lived just blocks away from the Melograne family in Whitehall.

“I think it took a little bit of steam and vitality out of him,” he added. “He didn’t become jaded or angry or hateful, but I think it did take a toll on him, as it would anybody.”

After admission to the Pennsylvania bar in 1969, Mr. Melograne served as assistant district attorney and opened his own practice. He was remembered for cutting through arcane legal proceedings to achieve fair outcomes.

“He was a good guy, fair, and tried to come to a reasonable resolution on things,” said Ralph Karsh, a Pittsburgh defense attorney. He was “very wellliked by both the prosecution and the defense, and his community. He ran a good courtroom.”

Mr. Del Greco recalled representing before Mr. Melograne a young man caught with a small amount marijuana. As the case was devolving into arguments over search-and-seizure statues, Mr. Melograne suspended the case and told the defendant he would give him 90 days to get clean or he would tell young man’s grandfather.

“He seemed to have the ability to cut through the legalese,” Mr. Del Greco said.

Mr. Melograne’s son, Phillippe A. Melograne, who is running for a judge position in Washington County, said he has been overwhelmed by the number of people who have paid respects to his father.

“I loved him as a father, and I respected him as a man,” he said. “He had a common-sense attitude that I believe a lot of lawyers and judges have learned from.”

Mr. Melograne is survived by Phillippe and grandchildren Anthony and Nicholas Melograne. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Clelian Heights School for Exceptional Children.