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Wednesday, March 27, 2002

By Marylynne Pitz, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

H. Patrick McFalls Jr., the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge who has admitted having a second alcoholic relapse, should be monitored in five different ways if he is allowed to return to work.

Lawyers for two judges who are McFalls' bosses, President Judge Robert A. Kelly and Judge Joseph M. James, made that assertion yesterday in a brief filed with the state Supreme Court in Philadelphia.

If McFalls returns to the bench, he should abstain from alcohol, submit to and pay for weekly random blood tests, attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings twice a week, attend "relapse prevention therapy" sessions once a week and participate in an "aftercare" program. A similar program was prescribed for a judge in Idaho, according to the brief.

McFalls, 58, of Shadyside, is on administrative leave and continues to draw his $119,315 annual salary while staying at an alcohol rehabilitation center.

Lawyers for McFalls filed a brief yesterday, too, claiming that their client's case should be heard first by the Judicial Conduct Board so that all charges are kept confidential.

Robert O. Lampl and John R. Orie Jr., lawyers for McFalls, claim their client did not defy his bosses but willingly submitted to an evaluation by a psychologist, who pronounced him fit to return to work.

The state Supreme Court has scheduled an oral argument for April 9 in Philadelphia and ordered both sides to submit briefs by yesterday.

Last month, in an unprecedented move, Kelly and James filed an emergency petition Feb. 12 and asked the state Supreme Court to suspend McFalls after he promised but failed to meet with them on five separate occasions to discuss the conditions of his return to the bench.

Lawyers for McFalls claim his failure to attend meetings with his superiors was solely due to "travel problems beyond the control of Judge McFalls" and that he tried, unsuccessfully, to schedule a meeting after missing two.