Overruled once again

Judge McDaniel should face sanctions for bias

The state Superior Court repeatedly reminded her to hew to sentencing guidelines, but Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel continued meting out punishments to sex offenders as she saw fit.

Now, the appellate court has kicked her off of a case and ordered that the defendant, Anthony McCauley, be resentenced by a judge who will follow the law. That ought to be just the start. Judge McDaniel should be barred from hearing any sex crimes cases at this point, and her unprofessional conduct warrants sanctions from the state Court of Judicial Discipline.

No one likes sex offenders. They are vile. However, Judge McDaniel must impose sentences consistent with the law, not tack on extra years just for spite, deny defendants their rights, harass defense attorneys for doing their jobs or thumb her nose at the appellate judges who order her to knock it off.

Her handling of the McCauley case was so blatantly biased that the prosecution and defense both requested her removal. That’s virtually unheard of.

After Judge McDaniel initially sentenced McCauley to prison for 20 to 40 years, the public defender’s office appealed, asking whether the sentence was mandatory or discretionary. Superior Court sent the case back to Judge McDaniel, but she never answered the question.

Instead, she tweaked the sentence — to 20 years minus two days on the lower end and 40 years minus four days on the upper end — while denying McCauley the opportunity to speak during his resentencing and violating other due-process rights. She also assailed the public defender’s office for its zealous advocacy of McCauley, warning there could be repercussions in other cases. All of that generated another appeal.

In an order Wednesday, Superior Court tossed Judge McDaniel from the McCauley case, accused her of bias once again and took her to task for her written opinion in the case, saying it was unnecessarily caustic and violated state law by identifying an underage victim by full name.

If this were an aberration, Judge McDaniel’s litany of offenses would be bad enough. But in at least two other cases, she has given defendants in sex cases excessively long sentences and defied Superior Court orders to modify them. Nearly two years ago, Superior Court first expressed concern about a pattern of bias in her courtroom.

On Wednesday, Common Pleas President Judge Jeffrey A. Manning said Judge McDaniel for many years has protected the rights of defendants and victims in tough cases. But that isn’t true now. She is a rogue judge who has brought disrepute to a court she swore to honorably serve.