The caller said his reaction to veteran Bucks County Judge Alan Rubenstein’s humiliating comments during family court in October is head nods and head shakes.
“It all depends on where you are at the time,” said the caller, who we’ll call Ted to preserve his anonymity. “When you’re in front of him in court, and he’s making you feel like you’re the worst person in the world, when he’s tearing you a new one, you’re shaking your head side to side in disbelief. At least you are inside.
“But when I read the story in your paper the other day, about the woman who filed a complaint to the state board after he kept insulting her in her child custody appearance, I was bobbing my head up and down, like, I know, lady, I’ve been there.
Lehigh Valley bars accused of violating state’s holiday COVID shutdown
Updated Jan 31, 2021;
Pennsylvania State Police on Friday announced citations against Lehigh Valley bars and restaurants for allegedly violating the three-week ban on indoor dining over the holidays.
Gov. Tom Wolf and Dr. Rachel Levine, then the state’s health secretary, instituted the temporary ban that also affected businesses like gyms and casinos as well as high school sports, from Dec. 12 to Jan. 4.
“This virus continues to rage in Pennsylvania,” Wolf said at the time. “And over the past several weeks it’s become clear that we need to take further mitigation actions to protect Pennsylvanians and stop the spread of COVID-19. We all hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”
I wonder what Alan Rubenstein’s reaction would be if the robe and gavel were on the other foot, so to speak.
How might the long-time Bucks County judge receive repeated humiliating comments directed toward him if he stood before the bench, not seated behind it?
How, if in Rubenstein’s moment of turmoil and confusion and fear and uncertainty, as his world was turning upside down, a family court judge looked down upon him with a gaze of contempt and delivered stinging insults. Perhaps assessed him as being “too dumb,” and that he “lacked self-respect,” and, despite the judge lacking evidence or training to make such a determination, called him an alcoholic, and said of his choice of partners that, after moving on from his current one, he’d “pick another loser.”
pray@altoonamirror.com
Blair County Judge Jackie A. Bernard has rejected a post-conviction petition by an Altoona man who claimed he was unaware that he would receive a 12-year minimum sentence for drug offenses including drug delivery resulting in death when he pleaded guilty 28 months ago.
The defendant, Alexsi Serpas Lopez, 40, was sentenced by Bernard to a term of 12 to 30 years in a state correctional institution, but Lopez claimed he was under the impression when he entered his guilty pleas that his minimum sentence would be 10 years.
He argued he was unaware of the 12-year minimum because his trial attorney had not informed him that the prosecution had taken the 10-year minimum off the table because he failed to accept the plea offer by April 30, 2018.
Bucks Judge Alan Rubenstein says woman behind ethics complaint living in parallel universe
A Bucks County judge accused of making disparaging remarks last year about a single mother during a custody hearing on Tuesday said the woman was living in a “parallel universe” where she could do what she wanted without anyone challenging her.
“That is her happy place,” Bucks County Judge Alan Rubenstein said during a hearing for the Langhorne woman, who was seeking a modification of an order granting temporary custody of her young daughter to her father, the child s grandfather.
The court appearance came days after the publication of a news story detailing remarks Rubenstein made to the woman during an October child custody hearing. Family court and judicial conduct experts called the comments inappropriate.