HARRISBURG, April 21, 2016 — More than five months after he filed a complaint with the state’s Judicial Conduct Board “alleging a conspiracy to cover up the racist, misogynistic, religiously offensive, and homophobic emails” of now former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Eakin, Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams said today he has received a letter indicating that his protest has been dismissed.

“The April 19 letter from JCB Chief Disciplinary Counsel Paul Killion lasts six pages,” Sen. Williams said. “Yet it would take just one newspaper story to understand that his decision is just another example of the system protecting itself.”

Sen. Williams wrote to Killion Dec. 3 asking for him to investigate a series of events from late 2014 to early 2015 that involved Eakin and members of the JCB and the state attorney general’s office.

Sen. Williams told Killion he believed the cover up triggered Rule 8.3 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

In the April 19 response received by Williams, Killion said he was rejecting the senator’s complaint because it was based on a “premise” that “is not supported by evidence.”

Williams said Killion’s decision is one more example of how Pennsylvania’s judicial system oversees and protects itself, and is in need of long-overdue reform.

Sen. Williams has co-authored Senate Bill 1083 to remove the state Supreme Court from the judicial discipline process, and to revitalize the conduct board and disciplinary court by transferring the Supreme Court’s power to appoint members to those panels to the governor and legislature; reduce the number of judges allowed to sit on the panels and increase the number of public citizen members; make the JCB and disciplinary court fiscally independent of the Supreme Court; and prohibit the Supreme Court from inserting itself in these cases.

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