Former judge Toothman loses pension over judicial misconduct
news@greenecountymessenger.com
The state pension for former Greene County president judge Farley Toothman has been revoked after he was found to have committed judicial misconduct while on the bench.
The Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System confirmed this week that Toothman’s pension was “forfeited” March 17, the same day he was formally removed from judicial office by the state Court of Judicial Discipline and barred from ever serving on the bench again.
The information was released last week as part of an open records request by the Observer-Reporter. No other details were provided by SERS in its one-page emailed response to the newspaper.
In addition to being barred from the bench, Toothman was ordered to write apology letters to those he victimized. However, the Court of Judicial Discipline does not have oversight on state pensions, meaning SERS was the government agency to decide whether his retirement plan should be terminated.
The Court of Judicial Discipline ruled last July that Toothman “engaged in misconduct so extreme that brought the judicial office into disrepute” when he retaliated against a courthouse employee and another person who was on probation. The eight-judge panel found that Toothman abused his time on the bench and “committed serious misconduct” in two cases that violated judicial conduct rules in 10 of the 21 counts the Judicial Conduct Board brought against him in May 2020.
In three other cases, the Court of Judicial Discipline found Toothman may have violated procedures, but there was not clear and convincing evidence of ethical violations.
Toothman had been a judge in Greene County for 11 years until he retired January 2021, nearly eight months after the misconduct charges were filed.