Well, just when we thought it was going to be a humdrum campaign with the usual sultry appeals from candidates offering up leagues of experience and a plethora of professionalism - we came upon today a mailing that apparently has been distributed far and wide around the candidate's home base and beyond.
The focal point?
Defense Attorney Brian Monahan,
Candidate for Magisterial District Judge
The subject?
Someone's peek into the professionalism of this candidate's past experience.
Clearly, someone did a little research and went to impressive lengths to share their information. A flyer with the letters:
"W A R N I N G: IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BRIAN MONAHAN"
"Brian Monahan prevented the prosecution of a heinous double murder..."
And then a quote from a Morning Call article dated December 10, 1995:
"Dorney, 18, said he met with Monahan in July to discuss what he knew about the June 29 shootings of his girlfriend, Mary Orlando, 15, and her best friend Jennifer Grider, 17. Dorney maintains Monahan believed he was a 'prime suspect' and told him to 'keep every thing to myself'."
"I don't have a problem with a lawyer explaining options, " said Edward Ohlbaum, a former Philadelphia Public Defender and a professor at Temple University School of Law. "I do have a (personal) problem with a lawyer advising a client not to come forward."
...it continues...
"Bethlehem police Commissioner John Yerk on Friday said that because of Dorney's delay in coming forward with the information, it took investigators more than five months to charge Christopher Bissey, 18, of Salisbury Township with shooting the girls at the Lookout on Bethlehem's South Side. Police charged Bissey with criminal homicide early Thursday, two days after he met with detectives."
All we can say is: Wow. Whatever this means, apparently this was already publised in the Morning Call during the event. And if the reporting was accurate, we're not talking misdemeanor here. Holding back information in a murder trial. Don't they disbar you for something like this? Not to mention, leaving the shooter out on the streets for an additional five months?
I'm no Barry Scheck, (you remember, OJ Simpson's Sidekick Defense Attorney?) but somehow this doesn't strike me as distinguished or honorable in the least. But, then again, we don't see a Barry Scheck running for Supreme Court Justice...
...or for that matter ....
MAGISTERIAL DISTRICT JUDGE. Let's take a look.
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mag·is·te·ri·al / Pronunciation Key - [maj-uh-steer-ee-uhl]
–adjective 1. of, pertaining to, or befitting a master; authoritative; weighty; of importance or consequence: a magisterial pronouncement by the director of the board.
2. imperious; domineering: a magisterial tone of command.
3. of or befitting a magistrate or the office of a magistrate: The judge spoke with magisterial gravity.
4. of the rank of a magistrate: magisterial standing.
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Aren't these the qualities we're looking for in a Magisterial Judge? ...with maybe a little honesty and integrity thrown in for good measure?
BRIAN MONAHAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY.
....NOTHING MAGISTERIAL ABOUT IT.