Letters to the Editor

Chief justice says coverage was unfair

However, your publication crossed the line in its inaccurate, unfair, and biased coverage of me during the past year, the most egregious example of which was your Boss Tweed-style cartoon depicting me as a corrupt judge with cash, watches, and other bribes concealed in my clothing. The clear intent of the coverage and cartoon was to paint me as a person of little integrity who sells his judicial decisions for as little as a round of golf - a claim that is false and outrageous and that dishonors my nearly 40 years of public service.

The coverage also included numerous factual errors and innuendos that do a disservice to readers as well as to me. By falsely characterizing as a "longtime friend" a professional adviser on the Family Courthouse project hired by another Supreme Court justice, and reporting that my present salary allows me to pay taxes on a Jersey Shore property that I sold more than 10 years ago, The Inquirer supplemented biased coverage with shoddy journalism. It is small consolation that, despite the accusatory tone of your coverage, you accurately reported in the fourth paragraph of your article that "A review of cases shows no pattern of favoritism in [Castille's] decisions."

While it is all but impossible for me to counter the false impression painted by this newspaper, I ask those who know my character and integrity to view me in the context of my career serving the public. As a young man, I served my nation on active duty in the Marine Corps in a combat battalion. After I came to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital from Vietnam severely injured, I made Philadelphia my home and later served as a career prosecutor in the District Attorney's Office, before being twice elected district attorney of Philadelphia. I continue to serve the citizens of Pennsylvania on the oldest Supreme Court in the nation with honor, and I now have the great privilege of serving as chief justice of that court.