ALEXANDER P. BICKET PRESIDING JUDGE
The judge who will preside over the criminal trial began his professional career in the Pittsburgh area not in the court system, but instead in the school system.
Judge Alexander P. Bicket, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, spent several years teaching both Latin and English at Fox Chapel Area High School while going to law school part time at Duquesne University.
He graduated in 1988 — the same year he became a U.S. citizen — and began his law practice a year later.
Judge Bicket, 62, came to the United States in 1982. He earned a master’s degree in psychology at Columbia University in New York and then came to Pittsburgh, following a former girlfriend.
During his law practice, Judge Bicket did insurance defense litigation for 23 years. He was elected to the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in 2011, assuming the bench in January 2012.
He spent four years serving in the court’s family division before moving to criminal court in 2016.
During that time, Judge Bicket has presided over several homicide cases. He also currently is assigned the case of the two men accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare and collectible books from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s rare books room.
Judge Bicket was assigned the Rosfeld case in September after the judge originally assigned — Anthony Mariani — removed himself from the case citing an “appearance of impropriety.” Judge Mariani had appeared on a cable television news program two days after the shooting making comments about it.
Judge Bicket lives with his wife, a real estate lawyer. They have two children, ages 20 and 25.