A third judge in Luzerne County has been charged with violating federal crimes, becoming the 20th person charged since the federal investigation of corruption in the Northeast PA county began.  Judge Michael Toole signed an agreement on September 25th, 2009 to plead guilty to at least two federal charges, honest services fraud and filing a false income tax return, according to this Times-Leader report.  The L egal Intelligencer (subscription required) reported that Toole was alleged to have “concealed a financial relationship with an attorney who appeared before him and ‘improperly’ ruled in that attorney’s favor in civil litigation cases.”
 
According to The Legal, “[t]hat charge against Toole marks the first time during the Luzerne County corruption probe that authorities have charged anyone related to the alleged case-fixing in UM/UIM arbitration cases. The Legal first reported in February that federal investigators were looking at how those arbitration cases were handled in Luzerne County.
 
The news is no surprise to those following the ongoing investigation. Judge Toole abruptly left for a vacation on November 18th, 2009, raising suspicions that he was next to be charged. These suspicions were confirmed yesterday.
 
These dates indicate that Judge Toole continued to hear cases for almost 8 weeks after agreeing to plead guilty to federal charges. The President Judge of Luzerne County expressed dismay at the fact that he did not find out about this plea in September, according to this report from the Times-Leader.