Black leaders call for full investigation into justice’s remarks
Local Black leaders on Monday called for a full investigation into a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice who allegedly attempted to pressure a judge involved in a secret grand jury investigation and critiqued a former Black colleague’s “minority agenda.”
Chief Justice Thomas Saylor, while he was still an associate justice, made the alleged statements in 2012 to Judge Barry Feudale, who was involved with a grand jury investigation into the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal at Penn State University.
Chief Justice Saylor told Mr. Feudale that former Justice Cynthia Baldwin, who is Black, “caused us a lot of trouble on the Supreme Court with her minority agenda,” according to an affidavit signed by Mr. Feudale, whose seat on the bench was revoked in 2015.
He also told Mr. Feudale he expected information in support of a disciplinary investigation into Ms. Baldwin, according to the affidavit.
Chief Justice Saylor has acknowledged talking about the grand jury but called the discussion “entirely appropriate.” He said he denied saying anything of a racial nature and called the accusation “false and offensive.” Last Wednesday, he received an “informal letter of inquiry” from Pennsylvania’s Judicial Conduct Board in regard to the remarks.
Ms. Baldwin, 75, of McKeesport, said at a press conference called by local Black leaders on Monday she was “shocked” and “outraged” when she heard about the alleged remarks by Justice Saylor. “He’s never said anything like that to me before. But the fact is — what is so important about this — is sometimes people don’t say things to your face while they are doing things behind your back.”
Ms. Baldwin was Penn State’s general counsel, and she represented the university and three of its administrators in the Sandusky investigation.
She was verbally reprimanded in July by the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for legal errors in the Penn State grand jury investigation, despite a review panel saying she had not violated ethics rules.
But the board said she violated four rules of conduct by failing to investigate proper conflicts of interest before deciding to represent three administrators and by revealing the administrators’ confidences, which led to criminal charges against them that could not be prosecuted.
“Despite the enormity of the situation, you failed to prepare yourself or your clients for the grand jury testimony in even the most basic manner,” James C. Haggerty, chair of the disciplinary board, wrote in the reprimand.
Prior to the case going to the disciplinary board, two Common Pleas judges found no fault with Ms. Baldwin’s multiple roles, and initial complaints against her conduct were rejected.
Ms. Baldwin said going through the investigation was the hardest thing she has had to do. “Although I knew that this process was aberrant and corrupt, I believe in the rule of law.”
At the press conference, Pittsburgh NAACP President Richard A. Stewart Jr. said the scrutiny against Ms. Baldwin was “straight- up racism at its best — coldblooded racism.”
Esther Bush, president of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, pointed to Ms. Baldwin’s stature as an accomplished Black woman and compared her reprimand to the killing of George Floyd in police custody.
Before serving as justice, Ms. Baldwin spent 16 years as an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge and was the first Black woman elected to the county bench. Gov. Ed Rendell in 2006 appointed her to the state’s high court.
“I am hurting from the depths of my soul,” Ms. Bush said. “Because if you would do this to Cynthia, I don’t have a chance. We don’t have a chance.”