HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has asked for the names of any judges involved in the exchange of hundreds of emails containing pornography that the state attorney general’s office said were sent or received by numerous state officials and employees.
Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille made the request Friday, officials said. Castille has not said why he believed that judges may have been involved, and a spokesman for Castille said Saturday that he did not know, either.
Castille told The Philadelphia Inquirer in an interview Friday that any judge exchanging grossly pornographic emails might have violated ethical rules over the use of court equipment or the state’s code of judicial ethics.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Saturday that the office received Castille’s request. Asked for the names of any current or former judges involved in the exchanges, spokeswoman Renee Martin supplied none.
“The information wasn’t collected in a way that we can readily identify anyone by their jobs so I can’t answer your question about judges,” Martin said. “In some cases emails came from outside the (attorney general’s office) ?and were sent to others outside.”
Kane’s office has said hundreds of inter-office pornographic emails sent or received between 2008 and 2012 were discovered during its review of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse prosecution. On Thursday, Kane, a Democrat, set off a political firestorm when her office disclosed the names of eight former employees of the attorney general’s office who it said had sent or received some of the emails.
Kane released information about the emails after initially denying right-to-know requests from news organizations that had sought their release.
The eight men were hired by Republican administrations before her and worked under Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, when he was the attorney general from 2005 to 2011. Most of the men went on to work for Corbett as governor, and four still do, including Environmental Protection Secretary Christopher Abruzzo and State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan.
Noonan sent none of the emails in question, and Kane’s office is unable to say whether the men opened the emails they received.
Beyond the eight who were identified, more former employees of the attorney general’s office were involved in the exchanges, while about 30 current employees of the office were involved, Martin said.
The office did not name more former employees because it has “restrictions upon which we cannot elaborate,” Martin said.
The current employees have been or are in the process of being disciplined, Martin said. Due to union contracts and human resources rules, the office cannot discuss those individuals, and there is no evidence that the practice continued after 2012, Martin said.
Kane has said she released the names because she believes it is in the public’s best interest and can help discourage such activity on state-owned equipment during official work hours.
This is not the first time that Kane, a former Lackawanna County prosecutor, has feuded with former employees of the attorney general’s office. Some left the office after she was elected in 2012, in part thanks to a campaign pledge to investigate how the office handled the Sandusky prosecution.
Corbett has said he was not aware of the emails and called them inappropriate. His office has asked for records of the emails to get more information before determining if the men still employed by his administration should keep their jobs. The attorney general’s office had a policy in force at the time prohibiting the use of state computers to access or view obscene or pornographic material.
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