Pa. Supreme Court To Investigate Reports Linking Justice To Explicit Emails

By Jim Melwert

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's released a statement saying its members are "disturbed" by reports a Supreme Court justice sent or received explicit emails from a personal account. And in a statement released Monday, the state Supreme Court says it's looking into the matter.

The statement comes in response to published reports linking state Supreme Court justice Michael Eakin to explicit emails. But it seems to call into question whether special counsel retained by the court was given full access during its investigation last year.

The independent lawyer was hired when word first came out the Attorney General's office had found explicit emails, to investigate if any state Supreme Court justices were involved.

But the statement from the Supreme Court says that investigator was never given copies of emails. Instead, the review remained under the control of the office of the Attorney General.

It also says, the report from special counsel from December, found no violations of the code of judicial conduct or any other wrongdoing by Justice Eakin, and the Attorney General's office agreed with those findings.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's office says the Supreme Court's special counsel had access to all of these emails during its review last year. He says the only emails in this batch that were not included last year, are ones that fell outside the court's requested timeline of 2008 to 2012.