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Judge O’Dell Seneca to retire

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Washington County President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca will retire from her position effective Monday, according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

The AOPC provided the Observer-Reporter with a retirement letter dated Dec. 23. The letter is addressed to Gov. Tom Corbett and does not provide a reason for O’Dell Seneca’s retirement.

“It has been a great privilege to serve the citizens of our commonwealth not only as a state trial judge for 23 years, but also to have served a four-year term on the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline,” O’Dell Seneca said in her letter.

The announcement comes weeks after she was relieved of her administrative duties Nov. 5. Senior Judge Joseph M. James, a former administrative judge and president judge of Allegheny County, was appointed as interim administrative judge of Washington County.

O’Dell Seneca did not return calls for comment, but did release a brief statement Tuesday afternoon confirming her retirement.

“I want to thank the voters of Washington County for electing me on three occasions, and entrusting me with the honor of serving our citizens for the last 23 years,” she said. “After thousands of cases, these citizens have continually inspired me with their commitment to their role in the jury system. It has been a rewarding and enriching experience every day, and I look forward to new professional challenges.”

O’Dell Seneca held the position, which pays $175,306, for the last 10 years. The president judge is responsible for overseeing the operation of the court and related offices. In 2011, O’Dell Seneca won retention for a third 10-year term by a margin of nearly 2 to 1. Her tenure was supposed to end in 2021.

Tom Darr, the deputy state court administrator for the AOPC, said in November that the AOPC was merely providing assistance in appointing an administrative judge, and could not comment on whether O’Dell Seneca requested the help or if the AOPC determined it needed to intervene.

A little more than a week later, O’Dell Seneca’s fellow judges revealed they contacted the AOPC about long-standing concerns over her court administration and managerial decisions.

Judges Katherine Emery, John DiSalle, Gary Gilman, Valerie Costanzo and Michael Lucas said they reached out to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for help following an April 2 incident.

“In April of this year, following an unfortunate incident, judges Emery, Gilman, Costanzo and Lucas requested the assistance of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with regard to the administration of our court by the president judge,” the judges said in a press release. “Judge DiSalle joined in the request and the concerns communicated to the Supreme Court.”

The incident in question was not detailed in the release, but involved an attempt to transfer DiSalle’s court reporter, Sharon Harmon.

O’Dell Seneca has been at the center of several controversies, including the allegation that she altered a trial transcript in a murder case. Most recently, O’Dell Seneca was named as a defendant in a whistleblower lawsuit filed in August by a former juvenile probation officer, claiming he was “unlawfully fired” after he reported the county’s chief probation officer was making inappropriate recommendations to place children at a treatment center where his girlfriend worked. As president judge, O’Dell Seneca oversaw the operation of that office.

The lawsuit also alleges O’Dell Seneca was eavesdropping on the juvenile master through a digital recording system installed in the courtrooms.

An investigation into the claims by the AOPC, which found no “substantial increase” in the number of children being placed in the center, did have secondary findings, however. They included poor office morale, lack of transparency in management decisions and poor organizational communication

In May, former Washington County Judge Paul Pozonsky and his attorneys, Robert Del Greco Jr. and Mark Fiorilli, attempted to subpoena O’Dell Seneca to testify at a suppression hearing in which they challenged the legality of an administrative order written by O’Dell Seneca that was used to seize the evidence against him. Senior Bedford County Judge Daniel Lee Howsare, who is presiding over the case, determined that she did not have to testify. Pozonsky is scheduled for trial in March on charges he stole cocaine evidence stored in his office.

O’Dell Seneca did not return calls for comment, but did release a brief statement Tuesday afternoon confirming her retirement.

“I want to thank the voters of Washington County for electing me on three occasions, and entrusting me with the honor of serving our citizens for the last 23 years,” she said. “After thousands of cases, these citizens have continually inspired me with their commitment to their role in the jury system. It has been a rewarding and enriching experience every day, and I look forward to new professional challenges.”

Word of O’Dell Seneca’s decision was something of a surprise to county officials.

Commission Chairman Larry Maggi was a state trooper in the 1980s when O’Dell Seneca was an assistant district attorney under Herman Bigi and as county sheriff handling many aspects of courthouse security when she was the county’s first woman judge. He said during a break in the action at the Powerade Christmas Wrestling Tournament at Canon-McMillan High School, where he was refereeing, “I’ve known Judge O’Dell Seneca for a lot of years. I know she’s had a long and distinguished career as a judge, and I know we disagreed on the reassessment matter. It was a public disagreement, but it was part of the commissioners doing our job and her doing her job.”

They locked horns over several aspects of the Washington and McGuffey school districts’ petition to have the first countywide property reassessment since 1980.

“We had no options,” Maggi said. “We didn’t quit the fight, we just didn’t have any place to fight” when the state Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

The commissioners and president judge also tangled over salaries for probation office staff. Some supervisors were making less money than the union members they supervised, so the judge in 2013 withheld $235,000 paid in fees by offenders that was to be placed in the county’s general fund. The stalemate ended when the county salary board granted raises to the supervisors.

Maggi wasn’t totally surprised by her announcement.

“I did know what was going on in the courts,” Maggi continued. “There was some movement up there in the courts. The courts are an entity of their own. They do their own thing up there. The taxpayers pay for it, but they’re their own entity.”

Even at the wrestling tournament, news of O’Dell Seneca’s imminent departure was a hot topic, according to a sports writer covering the event.

Commission Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan is both a friend and Nottingham Township neighbor of O’Dell Seneca’s, but she had no advance knowledge of the announcement.

“I believe Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca cared very deeply for the people she represented and she served,” Irey Vaughan said. “I think we all wish her the best in retirement. We have not always agreed on every issue, but I believe she always did what she thought was right.”

O’Dell Seneca’s fellow judges and court staff were also surprised. Although judges DiSalle and Costanzo declined to comment, Gilman, Emery and Lucas wished her luck in her future endeavors.

“I know she has given her best to the profession,” Gilman said.

Emery said O’Dell Seneca should be “proud of her career as a judge.”

President judge status, in Washington County, is determined by seniority. On Tuesday, Emery should become the county’s next president judge after serving close to 20 years on the bench.

“She had a great career as a jurist,” she said.

Staff writer Barbara S. Miller contributed to this story.

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