Municipal Court Judge Dawn A. Segal, an open lesbian, is challenging a state disciplinary panel’s findings that she’s liable for seven ethics violations.
Last month, the state Court of Judicial Discipline found Segal liable for the violations, which stem from improper conversations Segal had with then-Common Please Judge Joseph C. Waters.
During the conversations, which took place in 2011-12, Segal indicated to Waters that she’d rule consistent with his wishes on three cases, and later informed him that she did so. In one case, Segal granted a continuance. In another, she granted a petition for reconsideration. And in a third, she downgraded a gun offense from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Segal isn’t charged with any criminal wrongdoing. But she faces discipline ranging from a reprimand to permanent removal from the judiciary.
The panel is expected to hold a sanctions hearing within the next several weeks to determine Segal’s fate.
In an Aug. 1 filing, Segal conceded she’s liable for three ethics violation but that she’s not liable for four other violations, including bringing disrepute to the judiciary.
Segal doesn’t dispute she gave Waters the impression he influenced her rulings, and that she failed to initiate disciplinary action against him. But she denies Waters actually influenced her rulings, that she ruled in an impartial manner, that she hindered the administration of justice and that she brought disrepute to the judiciary.
Regarding a continuance she granted in one case at issue, Segal’s filing emphasizes she would have granted it regardless of Waters’ input.
“[The panel] ignored uncontested testimony that granting that continuance was consistent with Segal’s standard practice in similar circumstances,” Segal’s filing states.
Segal marked the case as “must be tried” at the next court proceeding, thus demonstrating that Segal wasn’t unduly stalling the litigation, according to her filing.
As for granting a petition for reconsideration, Segal states that the ruling also would have been rendered, regardless of Waters’ input.
In the third case — downgrading a gun offense — Segal’s filing blasts the panel for improperly relying on the testimony of an FBI agent. The agent claimed Segal admitted that Waters influenced her ruling.
Segal never made such an admission, and the FBI agent relied on memos written by other FBI agents when giving his testimony to the tribunal, according to Segal’s filing.
She concedes that she incorrectly downgraded the gun offense, but emphasizes she would have made the mistake, regardless of Waters’ input.
“[T]his incorrect decision was a common mistake made by other Philadelphia Municipal Court judges, some with more experience than Judge Segal,” the filing states.
Additionally, Segal’s filing faults the panel for failing to give proper weight to character testimony on her behalf and failing to take into account that she reported Waters’ conversations in a timely manner.
Since February, Segal has been suspended without pay, though she and her wife continue to receive workplace health-care benefits.
Prior to her suspension, Segal had been on limited duty.
Segal wishes to return to the bench, but she’s not seeking to be compensated for her withheld wages.
Her attorney, Stuart L. Haimowitz, had no comment.
Waters, 63, is currently incarcerated in a federal prison due to a fraud conviction. His scheduled release date is Nov. 27.