A Page One article in today’s Erie Times-News reports that Erie Insurance, the largest insurance company in Pennsylvania, is undergoing an internal review to clear up questions about its controversial handling of State Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce’s allegedly fraudulent insurance award of $390,000 based on claims arising from an auto accident several years ago, for which he has been indicted by a federal grand jury.
The judge has pleaded innocent to all charges, and is presumed innocent unless and until proved guilty in court. The key issue under review by the insurance company is whether Joyce got special treatment from Erie Insurance when it speedily approved his claim without an investigation into it merits because of his official position, from which he sometimes presided over litigation involving Erie Insurance.
While the Times-News has pursued this issue with alacrity, it has ignored a couple equally important ones. First, whether the judge got special treatment at his arraignment on the charges in federal court by being allowed to plead in absentia, rarely granted except in cases of illness or incorrigible behavior.
Unlike any other defendant, the federal court allowed Joyce’s high profile attorney, David Ridge, to enter his high profile client’s innocent plea, thus sparing the judge the humiliation of going to and appearing in open court, where he would be susceptible to news media coverage and public observance, a privilege unavailable to ordinary citizens.
Second, whether that advantage was obtained because of Attorney Ridge’s exalted connection with his famous brother, Tom Ridge, a paragon of Erie’s and Pennsylvania’s political establishment.
The other issue the Times-News has ignored in this context is why the driver of the Ford Explorer with which Judge Joyce’s vehicle collided has never been identified and interviewed for his or her input into the circumstances pertaining to the accident, which may or may not corroborate Judge Joyce’s version of events, a compelling evidentiary scenario.
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