A few years later, Platt ran for judge of the Court of Common Pleas, where he served until 2010. After that, he was appointed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, where he served for another few years before retiring.<\/p>\n
In all but one of his elections he ran unopposed, which friends and family attributed to how well-liked and respected he was in the community.<\/p>\n
During his time as district attorney, many of his former colleagues at the public defender\u2019s office, including Martin, Common Pleas Judge Robert Steinberg and retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Picken, joined him. Many of those who worked under him went on to be judges or in two cases, the next DA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a pretty profound statistic,\u201d William Platt II said.<\/p>\n
Martin, Steinberg and Perkin all said their friend and former boss, who had an \u201cencyclopedic knowledge of the law,\u201d taught them how to try criminal cases.<\/p>\n
![\"Retired](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/TMC-L-WilliamPlatt07_245358540-1.jpg\")
Retired Lehigh County and Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge William H. Platt, seen here at a press conference in 1979, died Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, at the age of 85. (Burt Swayze\/The Morning Call)<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a great influence on me and many others in terms of how we practice law,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n
Perkin said Platt represented criminal defendants as a public defender and prosecuted them as DA \u201cvigorously and brilliantly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI give Bill an awful lot of credit for any successes that I may have had,\u201d Perkin said.<\/p>\n
Steinberg<\/a>, who was DA right after Platt resigned, said Platt gave him his first job at the public defender\u2019s office, and hired him again at the DA\u2019s office a few years after his appointment there. Steinberg affectionally called him \u201cboss,\u201d years after they stopped working together.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be where I am today without his guidance and friendship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Platt was known for his strong sense of morality and ethics, family and friends said.<\/p>\n Martin recalled a case in which the two of them, as public defenders, represented three of five people charged with murder. The other two suspects had not been arrested by the time trial started.<\/p>\n Some time later, after the trial had ended and Platt and Martin had moved to the DA\u2019s office, the final two people were arrested. Platt made sure a different prosecutor handled that case, and that he and Martin would have no discussion with them.<\/p>\n Maureen Platt said her husband liked how varied the DA job was. He wanted to give it a shot once he was offered the position.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just thought it was wonderful,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was his favorite position.\u201d<\/p>\n He always had his beeper on him while he was the DA, and he would run out to any major incident where he was needed.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the beeper went off, then that\u2019s where he was headed,\u201d his wife said.<\/p>\n One of the more notable cases during his time as DA was when his office seized a plane at the Lehigh Valley International Airport that had 1.5 tons of cocaine in it.<\/a> His office also seized Shorty\u2019s Cafe in Allentown, a restaurant that authorities said was home to a lot of drug activity over the years.<\/a><\/p>\n His time as the DA inspired his son, William Platt II, to pursue a legal career. His dad\u2019s career, he said, was the ideal one. He was respected by so many people and was great at his job, he said. The elder Platt, a soft-spoken man, would often shock people while he tried cases, during which he would be a \u201clitigation genius,\u201d\u00a0 his son said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a kid I always thought he was the best lawyer,\u201d William Platt II said.<\/p>\n At the time that Platt resigned in 1991 to enter private practice, he was the longest-tenured DA in Lehigh County. Martin would later beat that record at 25 years.<\/p>\n Fueled by a strong desire for public service, he ran for judge in the Court of Common Pleas in 1995<\/a>, a position he would hold until 2010, when he turned 70. Martin described him as an admirable judge, who would not insert himself into the presentation of evidence during a trial.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a judge who let the lawyers try the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Perkin said William Platt would always treat people in the court politely, and he never yelled at anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cHe always had complete control of his courtroom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Maureen Platt recalled numerous instances where people came up to her husband in public, saying he sent them to prison for a crime they committed. They thanked him, and told him they turned their lives around because of it.<\/p>\n During his tenure as a judge, he served as the president judge of the Court of Common Pleas for two terms, which Martin said it was a testament to how he was viewed within the legal community.<\/p>\n \u201cI think every judge had the ultimate respect for him, as well as the lawyers before him,\u201d Perkin said.<\/p>\n During his career he also served as chairman for the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association and was on the board of directors at the Lehigh County Bar Association.<\/p>\n At 70, which was the then-required retirement age for judges, the state Supreme Court picked Platt to be a full-time senior judge, and he served in that role for several years. During that time, he was tasked with reviewing transcripts and writing opinions on appeals from rulings in various court cases. He at one point ruled in an appeal filed in Jerry Sandusky\u2019s child sex abuse case<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perkin said Platt would turn out a legal opinion five days a week, and called his work ethic \u201cunbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe loved that job. He was excellent at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Maureen Platt said her husband loved working in the law and his job, which ultimately made him a happy man who was able to give their family a happy home.<\/p>\n![\"Pennsylvania](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/TMC-L-platt1-1.jpg\")
Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Honorable William H. Platt in a photo taken in 2013. Platt died Tuesday at age 85. (EMILY ROBSON \/ THE MORNING CALL )<\/p>\n