The Pennsylvania Supreme Court suspended Justice Seamus P. McCaffery on Monday amid allegations that he sent pornographic e-mails and threatened to entangle a fellow justice in the widening scandal after vowing not to go "down alone."
The court also ordered the state's Judicial Conduct Board to determine within 30 days if there is probable cause to file formal misconduct charges against the justice. The board handles judicial ethics complaints and has launched an investigation into McCaffery's e-mails.
McCaffery, 64, a former Marine and Philadelphia police officer, has apologized for sending sexually explicit e-mails, saying crude language and jokes were part of the vernacular of military and law enforcement. But he has described the messages as personal and private e-mails among friends, while condemning Castille, a longtime rival, for what he called a "vindictive pattern of attacks" against him, including the push for his suspension.
In a statement Monday night, McCaffery's spokesman, Frank Keel, said: "Today's action against Justice McCaffery should surprise no one, given Chief Justice Castille's relentless crusade to destroy his career and reputation. We will continue in our efforts to expose the malicious intent behind this effort to take down Justice McCaffery. We are confident that he will be cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to the bench soon."
The order followed a tumultuous two weeks for the high court that has included allegations of personal vendettas and stunning accusations. It also marked the latest chapter in a scandal over the sharing of sexually explicit e-mails that started in the Attorney General's Office and spread to the Supreme Court.
McCaffery and Justice J. Michael Eakin abstained from Monday's vote. Eakin last week accused McCaffery of threatening to leak to reporters pornographic and racially tinged e-mails that Eakin had received, allegedly telling Eakin he "was not going down alone."
Monday's order cited more than just the pornographic e-mails as the reason for McCaffery's suspension. It noted past allegations that he may have fixed a ticket on behalf of his wife; that his wife collected referral fees from law firms with cases before the court; and that he may have improperly made a call to a top court administrator critical of a judge handling a case involving a law firm that contributed to his campaign and also paid his wife a referral fee.
McCaffery has said he was vindicated on the ticket-fixing allegation and contends that he and his wife did nothing wrong regarding referral fees. A lawyer for McCaffery said federal authorities investigated those allegations about fees but chose not to pursue charges.
After the e-mail revelations surfaced about the justice this month, Castille urged his colleagues to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate.
In his statement Monday, Castille advocated bypassing the Judicial Conduct Board, which he said suffers from a lack of funds and other resources, and referring the matter to an outside fact-finder. The court, in its order, appointed Pittsburgh lawyer Robert L. Byer as a special counsel on the matter.
Justice Debra McCloskey Todd was the lone justice to dissent on the vote, saying she believed the matter was best left to the Judicial Conduct Board, given the acrimony in this case and the lack of any independent findings.
"Yet, today, based upon unvetted claims and allegations, a majority of our court, one of whom is deeply involved in this controversy, has suspended a fellow justice," Todd wrote. "No independent investigative body has made any findings regarding merits or credibility and . . . no formal criminal proceedings have been instituted.
"Every day this court is charged with according due process to litigants, and we faithfully carry out that constitutional obligation," she wrote. "Even a justice is entitled to due process."
Castille, a Republican, left no doubt about what he thinks of McCaffery, a Democrat who gained fame running "Eagles court" for unruly fans at Veterans Stadium, and how he has since responded to the e-mail allegations.
"The most telling pathology is that when a person is caught, or called out for his transgressions, that person does not accept blame, but instead blames others for his or her own misconduct," Castille wrote. "Those pathological symptoms describe a sociopath."
He wrote that among the pornographic e-mails that McCaffery sent, one depicted a naked 100-year-old woman and another had a video of a woman "in sexual congress with a snake."
McCaffery became the second judge in 21/2 years to be suspended by colleagues. In May 2012, Joan Orie Melvin was suspended after she was indicted on corruption charges. She resigned from the court a year later, after being convicted and shortly before her sentencing.
In calling for McCaffery's suspension, Castille has said that any judge who exchanged grossly pornographic material by e-mail, even from a personal account, might have violated the state's code of judicial ethics and could be subject to discipline.
Over the weekend, Castille also said he would have pushed for similar action against any judge who had sent graphic messages.
Castille last week released an accounting of more than 230 e-mails McCaffery sent or received between 2008 and 2012, including to at least one state employee, that contained graphic sexual images and videos. Those messages, sent from a private e-mail address, were among the messages sent or received by state employees and uncovered during Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane's review of how her predecessors handled the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse investigation.
McCaffery apologized for what he called a "lapse in judgment," but said Castille was raising a "cooked-up controversy."
The saga turned uglier when it emerged that Eakin, the appointed liaison to the Philadelphia courts, had received three pornographic and racially tinged e-mails on an anonymous private account.
Eakin blamed McCaffery for leaking the e-mails and all but accused McCaffery of blackmailing him because he did not help sway Castille's thinking. McCaffery has denied the allegations.
Castille wrote in his statement Monday that "that sort of threat borders on criminal conduct."
Those voting in favor of suspending McCaffery were three Republican justices -- Castille, Thomas Saylor, and Correale Stevens -- and one Democratic justice, Max Baer.
Relations between Castille and McCaffery, both Philadelphians, have been frosty since McCaffery joined the high court in 2008. By some accounts, McCaffery became upset when Castille did not name him liaison to the Philadelphia courts that year. Castille has also criticized McCaffery in connection with the referral fees paid to his wife.
McCaffery is suing The Inquirer over articles that explored those fees.
McCaffery has challenged Castille on issues that include development of the new Family Court center and his handling of the "Kids for Cash" juvenile court scandal in Luzerne County.
The pornographic e-mails scandal broke late last month, when Kane released the names of eight men who sent pornographic e-mails on state accounts and computers between 2008 and 2012, when her Republican predecessors, including Gov. Corbett, ran the office.
The eight included the head of the state police and a onetime chief of the state Department of Environmental Protection, E. Christopher Abruzzo.
Five have since resigned either their state or private jobs.
Castille wrote: "At least several of those individuals have had the decency to resign, whereas the instigator of the pornographic e-mails still draws a taxpayer's salary."
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