Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
HARRISBURG \u2015 Pennsylvania\u2019s Judicial Conduct Board on Thursday urged a judicial disciplinary court to permanently remove a Philadelphia judge from the bench, saying he had displayed a pattern of unethical and \u201cboorish\u201d behavior that culminated in an effort to influence a colleague\u2019s decision in a criminal case last year. <\/p>\n
Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio showed \u201clittle respect for the court and little respect for the rules of the court,\u201d said Elizabeth Hoffheins, deputy counsel for the Judicial Conduct Board. <\/p>\n
DiClaudio had a history of disciplinary issues, she said, and he had not taken adequate responsibility for his actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything less than removal would fall short of restoring the public\u2019s trust,\u201d Hoffheins said.<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s request came after two days of testimony before the Court of Judicial Discipline, which is expected to determine DiClaudio\u2019s fate as a judge in the coming months. <\/p>\n
DiClaudio acknowledged Thursday that his remarks to fellow Common Pleas Court Judge Zachary Shaffer were improper, but insisted it was a complete misunderstanding and was never meant to tilt the scale of justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I never said it. I regret ever saying it,\u201d DiClaudio said of the comments to Shaffer. \u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaffer testified that he was on the bench in his courtroom on June 12, 2025, when DiClaudio\u2019s personal assistant, Gary Silver, walked in and said DiClaudio wanted to see him. <\/p>\n
Shaffer said he and his clerk, Nicole Vernaccio, had been in touch with DiClaudio that week about buying T-shirts from the cheesesteak shop owned by DiClaudio\u2019s wife. They assumed the request was to go pick them up. <\/p>\n
The two walked to DiClaudio\u2019s courtroom, then gathered in his robing room. They spoke for several minutes about various topics, he said, before DiClaudio asked Vernaccio to leave. Vernaccio also testified that she was asked to step out.<\/p>\n
Shaffer said DiClaudio then pulled out a piece of lined paper with \u201cDwayne Jones, courtroom 905, and Monday\u2019s date\u201d written on it.<\/p>\n
DiClaudio held it out at his side, he said, then looked at him and said, \u201cOK?\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaffer said he was confused, and hesitantly said, \u201cOK.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said DiClaudio ripped up the paper and threw it away. <\/p>\n
As Shaffer started to leave, he said, DiClaudio told him: \u201c\u2018You probably would have done the right thing anyway.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaffer said he was shocked and believed DiClaudio was suggesting he should give a favorable sentence to Jones, who was scheduled to appear before him in the coming days on charges of illegal gun possession connected to a fatal shooting.<\/p>\n
Shaffer reported the conversation to his supervisors the next morning, and they referred the matter to the Judicial Conduct Board. He recused himself from Jones\u2019 case.<\/p>\n
The board charged DiClaudio with multiple ethical violations last September. He was later suspended without pay. <\/p>\n
DiClaudio\u2019s testimony during a hearing last fall<\/a> and again this week clashed with Shaffer\u2019s in nearly every way.<\/p>\n All of this came to be, DiClaudio said, after he attended the Roots Picnic in June 2025 \u2014 where he said he hung out backstage with Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill. In the common area, he said, Jones approached him and said he had a forthcoming sentencing before Shaffer. <\/p>\n DiClaudio said he didn\u2019t know Jones, and told him only that his colleague was \u201ca good judge who would do the right thing.\u201d When Jones handed him his business card, he said, he put it in his wallet, not wanting to be rude. <\/p>\n DiClaudio denied that he later summoned Shaffer to his courtroom, despite an audio recording that showed<\/a> that shortly before his assistant went to retrieve Shaffer, DiClaudio asked: \u201cIs Judge Shaffer on the bench right now? Can you call down there and see if he\u2019s still on the bench please?\u201d<\/p>\n DiClaudio said he only asked about Shaffer because he had just addressed a case where a defense attorney Shaffer is dating did not appear in court. He said he wanted to ask Shaffer why she didn\u2019t show. (The courtroom audio confirmed that DiClaudio addressed the woman\u2019s case just before inquiring about Shaffer.)<\/p>\n He said he did not instruct Silver to visit Shaffer, and was surprised when the judge walked in.<\/p>\n Once inside the robing room, DiClaudio said, he, Shaffer, and the clerk discussed various topics. It was only as Shaffer went to leave, he said, that he picked up his phone and wallet holding Jones\u2019 business card, and remembered the concert exchange.<\/p>\n He said he took out the card and told Shaffer: \u201cI saw this guy at a concert. I told him you\u2019re a good judge and you\u2019d do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, he said, he tossed it into the trash.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was improper and wrong. There was no good reason to say that even though it wasn\u2019t my intention to influence the case,\u201d he said Thursday, adding: \u201cI never wanted him to do anything with that statement other than to say thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n The board had initially said that DiClaudio sought to sway the case because Jones was a friend of Meek Mill. Jones, in an interview last year, also said he was a friend of the artist\u2019s.<\/p>\n DiClaudio, too, is close to Mill.<\/p>\n But Hoffheins did not introduce evidence of that during Thursday\u2019s hearing. She said this week that the board still believed that to be true, but did not need to prove a motive in its case.<\/p>\n \u201cThis remark was not simply a compliment, not simply an off-the-cuff remark,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was calculated to occur three days prior to this man\u2019s sentencing.\u201d<\/p>\n DiClaudio was elected to Common Pleas Court in November 2015, and took the bench in January 2016. Before his suspension last year, he mostly heard cases filed by people seeking to have their murder convictions overturned.<\/p>\n He presided over many high-profile exonerations and wrongful-conviction cases, and approved the release or resentencing of dozens of people who had been serving life in prison.<\/p>\n DiClaudio was known for working long hours, moving cases efficiently, and thoroughly explaining his decisions to the families of victims and the defendants. But he was also unconventional in his at times brash communication style on the bench. <\/p>\n That was on display again Thursday. He often rambled in a stream of consciousness from the stand, breathlessly veering between accepting responsibility, disputing Shaffer\u2019s testimony, and even relaying his colleague\u2019s dating history. His attorneys, Samuel Stretton and George Bochetto, struggled to reel him in.<\/p>\n \u201cJust stop,\u201d Stretton interjected several times.<\/p>\n Hoffheins pointed to the display, as well as DiClaudio\u2019s previous disciplinary record, as proof of a pattern of misconduct.<\/p>\n Before becoming a judge, DiClaudio was censured by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court<\/a> for \u201cserial misconduct,\u201d including violating legal ethics rules. Shortly after he took the bench in 2016, Hoffheins said, the Judicial Conduct Board sent him a private disciplinary letter for engaging in \u201cboorish behavior\u201d toward his court staff.<\/p>\n Then, in 2020, the Court of Judicial Discipline determined that he violated the code of conduct<\/a> for judges when he failed to report debts on annual financial disclosure forms and repeatedly defied a judge\u2019s orders to pay thousands of dollars in overdue bills to a Bala Cynwyd<\/a> fitness club. He was suspended for two weeks, and placed on probation through 2026.<\/p>\n