Family Court

Officials will cut the ribbon today on the new home for the Gloucester County family court, although court will not convene until Wednesday. The structure will relieve cramped chambers at the Gloucester County Courthouse at Broad and Delaware Streets. The move to the former site of a First Union Bank at Broad and Cooper Streets will increase security for the family-court system, which handles divorce, custody, juvenile-delinquency and domestic-violence cases. The 40,000-square-foot, three-story building will contain five courtrooms.

ELECTIONS are about a great many things. They are about party loyalty, about a vision for the nation, state or city and, in the case of Municipal Court Judge (the office I am seeking) they are about justice and the application of it. We live in a time where there are more opportunities for minorities than ever before. As a lifelong Philadelphian who came of age in the '60s, I have lived through this paradigm shift. I was a delegate candidate for Shirley Chisholm when she ran for President in 1972, and I worked tirelessly for Barack Obama when, 35 years later, he sought election.

After nearly two years and more than $10 million, Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille has killed the no-bid development deal for a new Family Court building. Castille decided to dismiss developer Donald Pulver after The Inquirer disclosed that Pulver had made lawyer Jeffrey B. Rotwitt a partner in the project - at the same time that Rotwitt was being paid as Castille's representative. Castille said Rotwitt had never told him about what he called a possible conflict of interest.

The contest for the Democratic nomination to the state's busiest appellate court is between two lower-court judges who preside at opposite ends of Pennsylvania, and whose resumés differ almost as much as the state's east and west. The winner of the May 21 primary election will run in the fall against Harrisburg corporate attorney Victor P. Stabile, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination. At stake is a seat on the 15-member Superior Court, which handles all state criminal and civil appeals not involving governance issues.

In the courtroom of life, there's not much order for Philadelphia judge Lisa Richette. She's been beaten and robbed on the streets of Center City - twice. She's been punched in the head while sitting in her car. She's had her chambers taken over by a deranged woman who donned her judicial robes. And now, at almost 79, the senior Family Court jurist has been assaulted by her own son, police say. Moreover, the day after his arrest, he exposed himself on camera to a TV reporter. It's a monster hit on YouTube.

I owe the architects at EwingCole an apology for trashing their Family Court building, planned for an empty lot across from JFK Plaza, at 15th and Arch Streets. It's not the designers' fault that the bulky, 14-story building, a clone of the original, mediocre Penn Center slab towers, will be a mean and frosty rendition of America's most noble architectural form, the courthouse. Thanks to Friday's Inquirer article on the Pennsylvania courts' casual oversight of the $200 million project, we now know that the real architect of this affront to democracy is Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, who presided over the project while it was milked for fees by a pair of political insiders, lawyer Jeffrey B. Rotwitt and developer Donald W. Pulver.

In the latest state Supreme Court onslaught against city court spending, 88 Family Court employees have received layoff notices and Traffic Court President Judge George Twardy has been threatened with contempt of court. Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Papadakos, in charge of the budget cuts, said the Family Court layoffs, combined with the elimination of 22 vacant positions, will save more than $3 million. Family Court currently has about 650 employees. The layoff notices, the first in Family Court, were received over the weekend and take effect July 1. Family Court Administrative Judge Jerome Zaleski is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

Your Dec. 30 editorial on the crisis in the Family Court was most welcome. For years I have watched the court atrophy. Instead of serving children, families and the public with the best judges and most efficient operations, the court was left to languish like a lost child. Your editorial must be heeded. The court needs an adequate staff of well- trained, compassionate and learned judges. And, as you correctly noted, the court must also be staffed appropriately. The court currently has a critical shortage of probation officers and clerical staff.

One of the first tests facing Judge Esther Sylvester, the new administrative judge of the Family Court, will be a choice between patronage and reorganization. At the center of controversy is the court's medical branch. Its top two employees have been targeted for removal by the city's court czar. Executive Court Administrator Geoff Gallas issued a report that describes as "counter-productive and superfluous" the $53,331 job held by branch chief John J. Fitzgerald and the $51,961 job of his assistant, Margaret J. Sosnowski.

The contest for the Democratic nomination to the state's busiest appellate court is between two lower-court judges who preside at opposite ends of Pennsylvania, and whose resumés differ almost as much as the state's east and west. The winner of the May 21 primary election will run in the fall against Harrisburg corporate attorney Victor P. Stabile, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination. At stake is a seat on the 15-member Superior Court, which handles all state criminal and civil appeals not involving governance issues.

The remaining children of the Northeast Philadelphia faith-healing couple who chose prayer over medicine in two child deaths are receiving court-ordered medical care, defense attorneys said Monday. Herbert and Catherine Schaible's seven children were placed in temporary foster care after the couple told police they did not bring their 8-month-old, Brandon, to a doctor when he showed serious signs of illness last month. The Schaibles - members of a church that shuns medical care - are on probation for the 2009 death of their 2-year-old son, Kent.

From Family Court to elegant hotel? With 15 stories' worth of steel beams in place for a new Family Court building at 15th and Arch Streets, city development officials can shift more attention to another major project - turning the old Family Court at 18th and Vine Streets into something more than another vacant building when the court moves into new quarters next year. Former Gov. Ed Rendell had no doubt what would happen to the old court building when he committed $200 million in state funds for the new courthouse in 2010.

PENNSYLVANIA Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille lost his right leg in battle in Vietnam, but it was the scars he's received as an advocate for the new Family Court building that were highlighted at a ceremony at the construction site yesterday. "This is a reality because of you, sir," Family Court Administrative Judge Kevin Dougherty said to Castille. "The hard work and scars our chief justice bears [occurred] so everyone can seek justice in this building. " Castille, Dougherty and other area officials were on hand for a "topping out" ceremony of the building on Arch Street near 15th.

ELECTIONS are about a great many things. They are about party loyalty, about a vision for the nation, state or city and, in the case of Municipal Court Judge (the office I am seeking) they are about justice and the application of it. We live in a time where there are more opportunities for minorities than ever before. As a lifelong Philadelphian who came of age in the '60s, I have lived through this paradigm shift. I was a delegate candidate for Shirley Chisholm when she ran for President in 1972, and I worked tirelessly for Barack Obama when, 35 years later, he sought election.

IN HIS PROPOSED BUDGET, Mayor Nutter did not seek any additional money for the Sheriff's Department despite its expanding responsibilities, but Sheriff Jewell Williams on Tuesday asked City Council for a 30 percent increase. That increase amounts to $4.1 million for 100 new deputies, a budget director, a computer-support employee and a clerical position. Williams said there were 230 deputies in 2008 compared with 194 now. "We get downplayed because we don't get the manpower we deserved," Williams said.

A powerful and politically connected Philadelphia law firm agreed Tuesday to a $4 million payment to resolve a lawsuit contending that a former partner hoodwinked the chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court while helping find a site for a new Family Court building. The firm, Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel, will pay $2 million to the Philadelphia courts. Its insurer will pay the rest. Jeffrey B. Rotwitt, the former Obermayer partner at the center of the controversy, agreed to the settlement but did not have to pay any money.

The eventual ribbon cutting for Philadelphia's new Family Court will be a relief to many troubled families and children - providing them a modern, accessible setting where broken lives stand a better chance of being put back on track. But the project's bungled and costly path to completion in mid-2015 will be anything but cause for celebration by Pennsylvania taxpayers footing the bill. The final chapter in that saga may have played out Tuesday, with the $4 million settlement of a lawsuit concerning the role of a former project adviser to the state courts, an attorney who later signed on as codeveloper of the courthouse under construction at 15th and Arch Streets.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has settled its lawsuit against the law firm of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel over its role in the selection of the site for the new family court building in Center City, Chief Justice Ron Castille said Tuesday. Castille disclosed the settlement during a speech at the annual meeting of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Castille said the lawsuit, filed over the role of former Obermayer partner Jeffrey B. Rotwitt, had been settled for $4 million.

A LAWSUIT filed last year by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court against a law firm for its role in planning a new Family Court building has been settled, Chief Justice Ronald Castille announced Tuesday. Castille made the announcement during the annual luncheon of the Philadelphia Bar Association. The law firm of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel has agreed to pay $4 million for the role its former partner, Jeffrey Rottwit, played in selecting a new Center City Family Court site. The deal became an embarrassing debacle after the Inquirer revealed that Rottwit was not only being paid by the court to put together a deal to build the new courthouse, but was also working as a co-developer on the project.