Perhaps my romanticism of anyone who dons the robe has something to do with our own history. Philadelphia has given the nation an all-star lineup of jurists. That scorecard includes the legendary scholar and civil rights pioneer Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham<\/a>, who, in partnership with Penn Carey Law School and Mural Arts, we honored in 2022 with a mural at 46th and Chestnut<\/a>; reformer Curtis Bok; Owen Roberts, who, appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, stood up to FDR\u2019s court-packing plan; and Juanita Kidd Stout, the first Black woman to serve on any state supreme court in the nation.<\/p>\n These times we\u2019re in, when institutions are falling by the wayside all around us every day? They call for men and women of substance, leaders of moral rectitude.<\/p>\n The current roster of our Eastern District federal bench is impressive, as well. Jurists like the Hon. Wendy Beetlestone and the Hon. Gerald Pappert have long comported themselves in accordance with Socrates\u2019 long-ago definition: \u201cFour things belong to a judge: to listen courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly and to decide impartially.\u201d<\/p>\n But there is one voice bellowing from 6th and Market that has long served as a moral beacon. He\u2019s been in the news of late and just may be instrumental in toppling a district attorney.<\/p>\n A hero for our times <\/p>\n Judge Paul S. Diamond was once law clerk to the venerable former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Bruce Kauffman and served as treasurer and counsel for then-U.S. Senator Arlen Specter\u2019s 1996 presidential campaign. Last month, Diamond made national headlines with his order removing Larry Krasner and Matthew Stiegler, the chief of the DA\u2019s Conviction Integrity Unit, from the case involving Dennis Johnson, who is contesting his 2009 murder conviction. It was a prime example of judge as akin to umpire, calling balls and strikes without fear or favor.<\/p>\n Diamond ruled that both Krasner and Stiegler acted to protect their own interests rather than those of the Commonwealth, and he referred the case to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation, citing possible acts of perjury and obstruction of justice on the part of an elected official sworn to uphold the law.<\/p>\n It was a bombshell, but the 40-page order isn\u2019t incendiary. It is, in fact, in keeping with Socrates. It\u2019s sober, careful, and fact-laden. It tells a damning story of ethical \u2014 and maybe legal \u2014 breaches, without jumping to conclusion. Diamond conducted his own investigation and laid out a damning fact-based timeline. I dare say, it\u2019s clearer and better written than anything in the public realm about these latest Krasner contretemps, and that includes anything done by this reporter.<\/p>\n We\u2019re publishing Diamond\u2019s order<\/a> because it is that good. He lays out not only the facts, but also a narrative laced with moral righteousness. Here\u2019s just one snippet, laying out the appearance of a cover-up regarding the DAO\u2019s Concession of Johnson\u2019s murder conviction:<\/p>\n Mr. Krasner\u2019s actions are more troubling. He did not simply learn of the [head of the Conviction Integrity Unit] Stiegler\u2019s proposal; he urged the Law Division supervisors \u2014 who serve at Mr. Krasner\u2019s pleasure \u2014 to implement it and to present a false narrative to the Court. Mr. Krasner directed that the DAO stay involved in Johnson \u2018to protect the office\u2019 \u2014 which Napiorski believed also meant protecting Mr. Krasner himself \u2014 and that the Four \u2018not do any investigation\u2019. He thus sought to direct the very lawyers obligated by law to correct the Concession\u2019s errors to do just the opposite. Even worse, when told that the Four believed they had to alert me, Mr. Krasner responded that \u2018there would be consequences for Ms. Ernst if she alerted the Court to the conflict issue\u2019 and that there would be consequences \u2018if anyone did.\u2019 Both Wildberger and Napiorski understood Mr. Krasner to be threatening their jobs. Lin confirmed this when she told Napiorski that their \u2018jobs may be salvageable.\u2019 Mr. Krasner\u2019s threat thus could amount to obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n Krasner\u2019s response to Diamond\u2019s order? \u201cWhen it comes to all of these nominally serious but actually wafty accusations of criminal conduct, tempered by \u2018coulds\u2019 and \u2018mights\u2019 and \u2018may haves,\u2019 [Diamond\u2019s] analysis rests on nothing of substance,\u201d Krasner said upon appealing.<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s Krasner, unintentionally revealing. What Diamond did was to lay out a story \u2014 and signal to the feds that a legal process ought to decide its outcome. In that, Diamond was keeping faith with Socrates and Madison.<\/p>\n Krasner\u2019s objection illustrates the fault that has brought him and his career to this precipice; he is ever the true believer. Think of it: A devout ideologue like Krasner only cares about the outcome, not the process of searching for truth wherever it may lead.<\/p>\n Shanin Specter, the acclaimed trial attorney and son of former DA and U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, has known Judge Diamond for 40 years. His father recommended Diamond to President George W. Bush for the federal bench. Shanin says criminal law classes should study Diamond\u2019s order, for some of the very reasons Krasner has criticized it: Its moral rectitude, and yet its humility and refusal to rush to judgment.<\/p>\n \u201cJudge Diamond is not a person to be crossed. If he feels people are not living to the standard he thinks they should, that will weigh heavily on his mind. I\u2019ll say that diplomatically.\u201d \u2014 Former District Attorney Seth Williams<\/p>\n \u201cThe people who live and\/or work in Philadelphia can take a lot of solace in the fact that we have a guardian of the people in our community,\u201d he told me. \u201cI\u2019ve read Judge Diamond\u2019s order twice. It is a model of understated brilliance. He was able to marshal together a tremendous number of facts, each one with a citation to part of the record. It\u2019s as easy to read for a layperson as a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been on the Diamond bandwagon before, because he\u2019s a justice (like my hero, Higginbotham) who marries Madisonian deliberation with indignation whenever the social contract gets trampled upon. Nearly a decade ago, some of us cheered, and others jeered, when Diamond sentenced District Attorney Seth Williams after Williams pled guilty<\/a> to bribery charges. Diamond struck the same notes of moral rectitude we used to hear from Specter, a cut-and-dried view of right versus wrong that is too often in short supply these days.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a guilty plea from the highest law enforcement officer in the city,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cHe betrayed his office and he sold his office. I am appalled by the evidence that I have heard.\u201d<\/p>\n Legal insiders were aghast that Diamond had Williams handcuffed and carted away immediately, granting the defendant no time to get his affairs in order. Other corrupt pols like Vince Fumo and Chaka Fattah had been given such leeway; not so Williams.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t kill anyone, for Christ\u2019s sake,\u201d legendary defense lawyer, and one-time prosecutor, Jack McMahon told The Inquirer after Diamond\u2019s decree. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was necessary to jail him now, and to be honest, I thought it was harsh.\u201d<\/p>\n But by surprising everyone and sending Williams away without delay, Diamond seemed to be sending a much-needed message. Diamond\u2019s nature is not to suffer fools, whether they be highfalutin\u2019 DAs with the chutzpah to argue that campaign funds are rightly spent on a Sporting Club membership because getting buff is critical to getting elected \u2014 seriously \u2014 or grandmas who commit decades of fraud.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a reference to a case involving Doris Whitfield Richardson, a 60-year-old wheelchair-using defendant, who came before Diamond. She had carried on a two-decade scheme to collect her late grandmother\u2019s veteran survivor benefits to, she testified, care for two young adult grandchildren, one of whom was disabled. Let\u2019s listen in:<\/p>\n Judge Diamond: Did it ever occur to you to go out and get a job?<\/p>\n Whitfield Richardson: I did want a job.<\/p>\n Judge Diamond: You stole close to a quarter of a million dollars. Did it ever occur to you that the way to help your grandchildren was to not commit an endless series of federal frauds?<\/p>\n Whitfield Richardson: I see that now.<\/p>\n Judge Diamond: Now?<\/p>\n Whitfield Richardson: I see it. I didn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n Sentencing Whitfield Richardson to nearly three years in jail, Diamond ordered her taken into immediate custody. He treated the high-flying, jet-setting DA and the wheelchair-using grandma the same in his courtroom. Isn\u2019t justice supposed to be blind?<\/p>\n Williams, who deserves immense credit for turning his life around<\/a> since his time in prison, is naturally mum when it comes to Diamond, if not Krasner, who he maintains has always been about sowing chaos: \u201cThe best way to take down the DA\u2019s office is by taking it over from the inside and blowing it up, which is what Larry has done,\u201d he told me this week. Of Diamond, Williams concedes: \u201cJudge Diamond is not a person to be crossed. If he feels people are not living to the standard he thinks they should, that will weigh heavily on his mind. I\u2019ll say that diplomatically.\u201d<\/p>\n And now \u2026 the anti-Diamond <\/p>\n Which brings us to our other judge, object lesson number two. Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio is the anti-Diamond, a jurist who hits all the wrong notes in his deportment and judgment. I first became aware of him back in the Williams era; DiClaudio was Williams\u2019 longtime best friend. When the Board of Ethics hit Williams with the largest ethics fine in city history in 2017<\/a> \u2014 $62,000 \u2014 many of the improper gifts the DA had accepted were from his buddy, sitting Judge DiClaudio. DiClaudio may have been the type Tammy Bruce was thinking about; before even ascending to the bench, he\u2019d come under fire from the State Supreme Court<\/a> time and again for ethical legal breaches.<\/p>\n Last year, DiClaudio angrily refuted ethics board complaints that he was, in effect, moonlighting as a cheesesteak purveyor.<\/a> You read that right. Now comes the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board calling for DiClaudio\u2019s removal<\/a> from the bench for a pattern of questionable and \u201cboorish\u201d behaviors that culminated in what appears to be an attempt to influence the disposition of another judge\u2019s case on behalf of the interests of his friend, rapper Meek Mill. You read that right, too.<\/p>\n DiClaudio calls it all a misunderstanding. But here\u2019s the thing. Paul Diamond ain\u2019t hanging with Meek Mill, let alone doing favors for him. He\u2019s not footing the bill for tropical vacations with those who appear before him in court. He\u2019s not slinging cheesesteaks in his free time, as DiClaudio recounted having done on a podcast.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t seem like DiClaudio has broken any laws, but that\u2019s not really the point, is it? These times we\u2019re in, when institutions are falling by the wayside all around us every day? They call for men and women of substance, leaders of moral rectitude.<\/p>\n There has been a lot of highbrow talk this last decade about how low American culture has sunk and how we can get it back. In the uplifting case of Diamond and the cautionary tale of DiClaudio, we have a simple answer: We need men of better character, now more than ever.<\/p>\n MORE FROM LARRY PLATT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[336,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-303060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-larry-krasner","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}District Court Judge Paul S. Diamond (left) and Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio (right). <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n