Caffrey, Shields and Cohen hold narrow leads in Lehigh Co. judge race

Republican Tom Caffrey and Democrats Maraleen Shields and Zachary Cohen held narrow leads in the six-way race for three seats on Lehigh County Court about 2 hoursafterpollsclosed Tuesday.

Caffrey led the pack with more than 17.5% of votes cast while Sheilds and Cohen each had about 17%. Republicans Tom Capehart and David Ritter and Democrat Rashid Santiago followed close behind each with about 16% of the votes at 10:30 p.m. when nearly half of the county’s precincts had reported.

The new judges will take seats vacated by two seasoned criminal court judges who retired last year and a civil and family court judge whose term expires at the end of this year. In January they will join a 10-judge bench working through a backlog of cases caused by the 15-month halt in jury trials as the Lehigh County Courthouse largely closed to the public during the pandemic.

When jury trials resumed in June, priority was given to criminal defendants in jail and then criminal cases in general, so a backlog of civil cases remain. In August, Lehigh County had more than 2,300 pending cases.

Caffrey, 59, of Whitehall Township, is Lehigh County’s top legal officer and has served as a lawyer for the county in different roles for 33 years. As solicitor, Caffrey oversees a staff of 13 and advises county administrators on legal matters. He has also worked as a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office, an assistant solicitor and a juvenile master, presiding over juvenile delinquency and dependency cases. Additionally, Caffrey has also practiced law privately with law firms Fitzpatrick

Lentz & Bubba and Norris McLaughlin & Marcus handling insurance defense, product liability and business matters.

Shields, 43, of South Whitehall is an attorney at Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba where she is the first person of color to become a shareholder and a member of the firm’s health care and litigation and trial practice groups. She has also worked at Post & Schell, Stevens & Lee handling medical malpractice litigation and the Philadelphia offices of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr and Reed Smith where she worked in mass tort defense and commercial litigation. She had two congressional internships with Rep. John Larsen, (D-Conn.) and former Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).

Cohen, 44, of Upper Macungie, is a partner at Lesavoy Butz & Seitz where he conducts business and general litigation and represents stakeholders in company mergers and acquisitions. In addition to his work as a litigator, Cohen served for 15 years as an arbitrator in state and federal court and represented children in juvenile court.

Capehart, 57, of Upper Milford Township, is a partner at Gross McGinley in Allentown and has practiced law in Lehigh County for 32 years. Santiago, 37, of Allentown is a magisterial district judge whose court covers parts of Center City and west Allentown where he has served since 2014. Ritter, 50, of Lower Macungie is a criminal defense lawyer with a private law practice in Allentown who has handled cases ranging from minor drug offenses to largescale financial fraud and capital murder.