If Judge Edward Smith in Pennsylvania's Northampton County isn't unseated now, he will be sitting on the Federal bench soon. He received large contributions from a defendant but refused to recuse himself from hearing the case.
Wouldn’t it be great if all judges were honest? Well in Northampton County we have Judge Edward G. Smith. He went from a county Solicitor to a Court of Common Pleas judge. And he is destined for the federal bench. He spends a great deal of time playing JAG and actually spent some time in Iraq setting up a Dewey decimal system of sorts and earned himself a bronze star. He is a Republican so he has to wait for a Republican president to get into office before he gets a shot at the federal bench.
So the argument I will make today is that this judge is not worthy of the bench he sits on today and should he be voted off in November.
So let me see if I can simplify the problem. Palmer Township which is part of Northampton County in Pennsylvania is loved by developers. All the builder has to do is pay someone off and they can make tons of money building in Palmer Township. And the common problem that smacks you in the face is all the flooding that takes place in Palmer Township and other areas of the county. It was stated by one official if they made the developers build the developments according to code they would not build. But the problem they create by not building to code is that they cause or exacerbate most of the flooding that occurs in America today.
So in simple terms the developers get together and put into office a select bunch of folks and judges and they build and make millions of dollars on each development while the country gets flooded. And you could be the dumbest person on the planet and realize that if the oceans are rising maybe this is the cause of it.
You call the AG’s office and the DEP office and they do absolutely nothing. So the author bought the developer to court before Judge Smitty. Right from the beginning things didn’t smell right. He placed stays on certain cases. But the judge was informed that he had received thousands of dollars from a Mr. Chrin when Judge Smith was elected to the bench almost ten years ago. Mr. Chrin is a developer in the area and a defendant in the lawsuit.
When the judge was confronted with a motion of recusal because of these contributions and other non-partial activity, he refused to recuse himself from these cases. One case started in 2005. Since then he has been asked to recuse himself several times and each time he denies the motion.
Now it gets interesting. The author had a great deal of evidence against the developer. He knew since the 1990’s that the developers and the Township are led by a bunch of crooks. To clarify the developers made lots of money while they flooded innocent property owners and the township did absolutely nothing to fix the problem. The engineers like Pidcock Company are paid to oversee the developments for the township. They admitted under oath they didn’t have the resources and didn’t know where the largest drainage swale in the area drained in the watershed. Yet they have final say on the approval for the development?
But at trial the developer’s engineer admitted under oath that the development in its present state could not handle the storm water. Any reasonable person would think the case was over. But not Judge Smitty he made up some new laws and new facts as well.
The problem with all of this was that the author had meticulously taken measurements of his land and the adjacent developer’s land. With a series of strings and levels and measurements and photographs the author was able to prove that all the water from the adjacent neighbor’s property flowed directly into the developer’s property. There was no flooding before the development went in.When the township saw this information, the township solicitor Mr. Bruno from the law firm of Pfeiffer and Bruno couldn’t believe that the author had taken the time and energy to document how the land was situated before the developer disturbed the land.
So the township with this damaging evidence demanded that the developer fix the problem. So the developer had to come up with a plan called the bypass swale. Basically it was suppose to make a large swale between the properties so that the storm water would stop flooding the properties, the same flooding caused by the developer. Before the development was there, all the water flowed into the farmer’s field hundred of yards from the adjacent properties. The first thing the developer did was totally block the water from coming into the farmer’s field. It immediately caused massive flooding to the adjacent properties in 2004. And it continues to do so.
So the lawyer for the developer Jack Seitz from Lesavoy Butz and Seitz told the judge that this bypass swale plan was nothing but a settlement offer and should not be admitted at trial. So Judge Smitty did not allow it in. Your guess is as good as mind, but did Judge Smith know that this was actually an amendment to the site plans? If he did, he should have ruled immediately against the developer! The case would have been over for an honest Judge!
So many cases followed and all were heard by Judge Smith for the most part. And the last case was very specific. It was a case to enforce the construction of the Bypass Swale. By the way until 2008 Palmer Township conspired to keep this fact a secret that the bypass swale plan was an amendment to the site plans. It was also found that Palmer Township decided without any public meeting or conceivable record of one not to demand the developer to install the bypass swale. By not installing the bypass swale they knew this would cause more and continuous flooding to the neighbors of the development. They also arranged for payment of thirty or forty thousand dollars to be paid to Mr. Bruno by the developer.
So Judge Smitty dismisses the latter case and deems the case frivolous. To be clear for a case to be frivolous the case has to be the same matter and the same defendants. The first case only had the developer as a defendant and it was for injunctive relief. The later case had the developer as well as Palmer Township and others as defendants.
It is almost 2012 and Palmer Township screwed up when they approved this development. Why wouldn’t Palmer Township have the developer correct the error in the development? Was the payment to Mr. Bruno a payoff? You make that call. If not who was paid off to look the other way? By the way Mr. Bruno refuses to clarify what specifically the payment by the developer was for?
But in reality, it all comes down to Judge Smith. So how did the developer and the Township know that Judge Smith would be so corrupt that he would rule the way he did? The case was simple. In 2004 the developer presented a plan to the Township and they approved it in record time. By the way the property for the development was sold by Mr. Chrin to the developer. Do you think maybe that helped to grease the wheels? Almost forgot, the community center in Palmer Township is named after Mr. Chrin’s company. And each and every month the Township advertises for Mr. Chrin’s company.
It is undisputed that the development in Palmer Township blocked a major swale and caused and still causes flooding to the neighbors. We know that because the swale never appears on the approved site plans. Judge Smith should know that as well. And Judge Smith also knows that Palmer Township made the developer amend the site plans in 2005 to include a bypass swale to resolve the flooding issues caused by the developer. This is all undisputed. So for what good and constitutional reason would Judge Smith rule against fixing the problem! And why would Palmer Township not order the developer to stop the flooding!
Let’s give Judge Smith the benefit of the doubt. If he is not a crook, maybe he is just incompetent. But why would he dismiss a case to force the Township and the developer to install a bypass swale. They agreed to install it in order to make the development compliant with the present laws?
So my request to you is: If you know anyone in Northampton County or Pennsylvania, Please send them this commentary. You see Judge Edward Smith is up for re-election this year. In November the folks get to vote a yes or no vote to retain Smitty on the bench. If you don’t unseat him now, he will be sitting on the Federal bench soon, and you will have no recourse to remove him. It is now or never!
My question is would you want someone of this character sitting on a bench when your case is being heard. If your vote is no, then tell everyone in Northampton County to vote “NO” in November for Judge Edward Smith! If one person sends this message to two people and so on and so forth we can win back some level of non-corruption in Pennsylvania! Are you ready for that kind of change?
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