Judge suspended for blatant and inexcusable conduct
June 4, 2021
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) A Philadelphia judge will be suspended for six months after a state judicial panel ruled that her “repeated, clearly improper conduct” in Family Court was “blatant and inexcusable.”
The ruling issued late Wednesday by the Court of Judicial Discipline also mandates that Common Pleas Court Judge Lyris Younge serve a probationary term for the rest of her tenure, which extends to 2026. She also will be barred from serving in Family Court and must write apology letters to the people the panel said she wronged.
Younge was cited for illegally jailing parents, having parents handcuffed in her courtroom and insulting and belittling people who appeared before her. The court said the discipline was the harshest it had ever imposed without ordering a judge dismissed.
A Philadelphia Family Court judge was suspended for six months without pay after a state disciplinary tribunal issued an opinion concluding that her “repeated, clearly improper conduct,” which included wrongfully jailing multiple people and failing to be impartial, was “blatant and inexcusable.”