Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Chief Justice Ralph Cappy Click photo for larger image.

HARRISBURG -- The state Judicial Conduct Board has dismissed a complaint that Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ralph Cappy violated ethics rules last summer when he advocated for a plan to raise salaries in all three branches of government.

The board announced yesterday that it has thrown out a complaint filed in August by Harrisburg political activist Gene Stilp. He claimed Justice Cappy violated conduct rules when he held secret meetings to discuss the raises with unidentified members of the state's legislative and executive branches.

The 12-member board did not explain its unanimous dismissal, which was reached Dec. 6 but disclosed yesterday. The dismissal was made public at the request of Justice Cappy, said Joseph A. Massa, chief counsel to the Judicial Conduct Board.

By policy, the board, which acts as a prosecuting body, does not acknowledge whether a complaint has even been filed unless either it files charges with the Court of Judicial Discipline or the subject of the complaint requests that information be released, Mr. Massa said.

Justice Cappy did nothing wrong and wanted the decision released because the complaint was widely publicized after Mr. Stilp distributed press releases, said the chief justice's attorney, W. Thomas McGough Jr. of Reed Smith in Pittsburgh.

Part of the chief justice's job is to advocate for a better judiciary and higher salaries attract judges who might otherwise take lucrative jobs as private attorneys, he said.

"As Chief Justice Cappy discussed his proposal with representatives of the sister branches of government, it became clear to him that its best chance of success would be as part of a broader reform of compensation for all three branches," Mr. McGough said in letter to the Judicial Conduct Board in November and also released yesterday.

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"He therefore developed and began to discuss scenarios that would tie pay in those three branches to counterparts in the federal system."

Mr. Stilp said the chief justice went too far.

"You can advocate for whatever you want, but he became the main point man. He was one of the chief instigators of the pay raise and then he was one of its chief defenders. He was writing [newspaper opinion pieces] in defense of the pay raise," Mr. Stilp said.

Mr. McGough said the chief justice's aim was to remove the compensation issue from the political arena by tying future increases to raises in the federal government.

Instead, the effort backfired and incited a repeal of all the raises in November. Also this year, an unprecedented number of incumbent legislators will face challengers, most running on anti-pay-raise platforms.

Pay raise fallout caused one Supreme Court justice, Russell Nigro, to lose his seat last November.

Another incumbent justice, Sandra Schultz Newman, narrowly retained her seat.

"No matter what the Judicial Conduct Board says, people will not forget" Justice Cappy's role in the pay raise debacle, Mr. Stilp said.

"He turned the Supreme Court into a joke, maybe not in the eyes of the Judicial Conduct Board, but in the eyes of 12 million Pennsylvanians," he said.