The hardest-working judge is ...

The laudatory editorial by HeraldStandard.com on the legal career of retiring Fayette County Judge Ralph C. Warman should come as no suprise. Warman is, after all, a long-time and long-known pal of HeraldStandard.com editor Mark O'Keefe.

It's also no secret that the two mens' wives have been fast friends for a long time.

While there is nothing wrong with writing an editorial that pays homage to Warman -- who by all accounts has been a pretty good judge -- we found one line in "Big shoes to fill," (Herald-Standard.com, May 20) that was a little over the top.

Here it is:

While some judges have served longer, few, if any, have worked harder than Warman during his 16-year tenure on the Fayette County bench.

There is, of course, no objective basis for making such a claim. Can or has it been documented, for example, that Warman's case load is greater than the other Fayette County judges?

During court week, does he preside over more trials than the other judges?

Has he written more opinions?

Fact is, there has been absolutely no real basis to crown Warman with the title of "hardest-working judge," other than an assessment that probably germinated and then rattled around inside O'Keefe's head.

Chances are pretty good that if you talked to someone who is a close associate -- or pal -- of Judges Gerald Solomon, Steve Leskinen, John F. Wagner Jr. or Nancy D. Vernon, they would probably think that "their" judge was the hardest-working.

The difference is, they do not have the same level of access to the newspaper's pages as O'Keefe. So they cannot broadcast their personal opinion and preferences to a wider audience as fact.

We won't bore you with the details of everything that was said in this particular editorial. If you want to pay to get on the newspaper's website, you can read it for yourself.

Among the things there you will find there is this comment:

There was no such thing as a shortcut or doing something the easy way. To Warman, there was only one way to do things and that was the right way.

That may have been indisputable during Warman's years on the bench, but his 32 years of service included time as Fayette County district attorney and as a prosecutor in that office. And in that capacity, Warman's name is inexorably tied to that of one David Munchinski.

Munchinski is the convicted murderer who was set free last year. We won't go into all those details, but you can read a pretty comprehensive overview here:

"After 25 years in prison in the 'Bear Rocks Murders,' Former Latrobe Man Released Pending Outcome of Appeal," (Innocence Institue of Point Park University, Oct. 6, 2011)

http://innocenceinstitute.org/blog/munchinski%E2%80%99s-free/

Three paragraphs from that story are as follows:

During questioning at one hearing by (Noah) Geary, Munchinski’s most recent lawyer, the lead prosecutor who is now Fayette County Common Pleas Judge Ralph Warman admitted he removed two paragraphs from the original Bowen police report which stated a tape was made.

Judge Warman said he did it with the approval of District Attorney Gerald Solomon, now President Judge of Fayette County. While he said he removed the paragraphs and cut and pasted the paperwork to disguise his actions because no tape was made, other reports and testimony suggested that critical interview was recorded. The tape has never surfaced.

All of that misconduct became the basis for a visiting judge’s scathing opinion in October 2004, where citing intentional prosecutorial misconduct, he reversed the convictions against Munchinski and ordered the tape of Bowen turned over within 10 days or he would dismiss the case. He also referred the Fayette prosecutors for criminal prosecution. No one has been charged.

The Munchinski case is complicated, convoluted and controversial. But there is no way that anyone can accurately recap Warman's long legal career, as a prosecutor and judge, without at least some mention of it.

Wonder why that wasn't done? Selective memory? Or just not enough space?