Now-retired justice's pornographic emails were only impropriety found in special counsel's report
Now-retired Justice Seamus McCaffery. Image from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Raunchy emails between the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office and the state’s top court involved only messages sent by one justice on a personal account to at least one OAG employee, an appellate lawyer appointed as special counsel to look into the matter has found.
Seamus McCaffery was that one justice. McCaffery acknowledged and apologized for the 200-some sexually explicit messages sent from his personal email account and announced his retirement in October.
A review was ordered of all emails whose recipients included employees of the AG’s office and state supreme court justices between January 2008 and December 2012, after the McCaffery emails became public in October. There was no improper communication concerning court cases and the only “problematic” emails were the “pornographic” emails sent by McCaffery from his Comcast account, wrote Robert L. Byer of Duane Morris, who was appointed as special counsel by Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille.
McCaffery’s wife, Lisa Rapaport, who worked for him, may have violated court policy by sending personal email on work accounts to numerous recipients, including judges and OAG employees. But emails sent by Rapaport and McCaffery to larger lists of people were generally innocuous, according to a special counsel’s report (PDF) released Friday.
“These email ‘blast’ messages consisted of such things as jokes and humorous stories, including some ‘adult humor’; inspirational stories; items with respect to the military, veterans or the police; stories about pets and animals; sports; and similar types of topics,” the report states.
McCaffery declined to comment on the report, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Tribune-Review also has a story.
