PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge who once sparked controversy by jailing the rapper Meek Mill for probation violations has been transferred to civil court and had all of her pending criminal cases reassigned — a highly unusual move that the judge has called "unlawful" as she attempts to have it reversed.
The unfolding legal battle is the latest chapter in a months-long conflict between Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley and judicial leadership, a feud that began in part over questions about whether Brinkley was showing up to the courthouse on time or managing her caseload effectively. Since the reassignment, lawyers and judges who have reviewed dozens of Brinkley's cases have discovered a history of her appearing to impose illegal sentences, allow sentences to run past their maximum date, or failing to swiftly address cases remanded to her by higher courts.
This summer, Brinkley, who is Black, filed a gender and racial discrimination complaint against two supervising judges on the court, both of whom are also Black women. And earlier this month, she turned to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court seeking to reverse the decision to reassign her cases, saying in a petition that it "raises unwarranted suspicions about [her] integrity and performance."
Courthouse observers have been left stunned by the dispute, which represents more than just a messy fight between elected officials. Judges hold a unique position in the criminal justice system, with vast authority over cases that affect the lives of defendants and victims.
At least one prominent stakeholder supported Brinkley's reassignment. Keisha Hudson, chief of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, said she was "very encouraged" that judges in leadership were working to address complaints about Brinkley that lawyers in her office have been voicing for years.
"We have long raised concerns about Judge Brinkley," Hudson said. "Concerns in terms of judicial temperament and cases on an individual basis."
Since Brinkley's transfer, Hudson said, her office and prosecutors have begun reviewing about 120 sentences that Brinkley imposed over the last two decades that they believe should be reconsidered "because they are grossly excessive." She did not offer details about specific cases, and said the process is in its early stages.
Brinkley did not respond this week to an emailed request for comment. A lawyer representing her, Gary Green, said Brinkley could not comment on cases she had overseen due to judicial conduct rules, but that her recent petition "represents Judge Brinkley's confidence in Pennsylvania's highest court."
A spokesperson for the First Judicial District said judicial leaders could not comment on the situation.
Past controversies
Brinkley, 66, is no stranger to controversy. Elected to the bench in 1993, she has a courtroom demeanor that some describe as cantankerous and has a reputation for imposing stiff penalties on defendants.
In 2017, she sentenced Mill to two-to-four years in prison for violating his probation in a nine-year-old drug and gun case — a decision that led to widespread outcry from a mix of celebrities and elected officials. (Mill was ultimately freed over questions about the validity of his initial arrest.)
She has also faced questions away from the spotlight. In 2019, after Brinkley jailed a man for failing to pay about $1,900 in court costs, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered him released due to what it called "egregious error."
Still, it wasn't until the recent clash with judicial leadership — especially Lucretia Clemons, the supervising judge of criminal courts — that Brinkley's portfolio of criminal cases came under threat.
Brinkley and Clemons have long had a frosty relationship, something Brinkley acknowledged in her petition to the Supreme Court and attributed to differing judicial philosophies: Brinkley describes herself as a "traditionalist," while she says Clemons "has expressed views favoring leniency."
When Clemons became a supervising judge last year, Brinkley said she asked to be sent to civil court to avoid any potential issues — a request she said was denied.
Tensions continued to escalate, particularly over questions of whether Brinkley was doing her part to help address the system's massive pandemic backlog. In July, Brinkley said, she filed a discrimination complaint against Clemons and another supervising judge, Lisette Shirdan-Harris. Brinkley did not go into detail about the conduct in question in her petition to the high court, except to say it was based on race, age, and gender. A court spokesperson said discrimination complaints are "treated confidentially" and not available to the public.
Against that backdrop, Clemons took the rare step in November of holding a status hearing in one of Brinkley's cases: An appeal by a defendant named Daryl Williams.
Williams had been convicted of first-degree murder in 1989. In his most recent petition, he said he'd discovered new evidence undermining the credibility of a key trial witness. Brinkley denied his appeal, but the Superior Court overruled her, saying in January 2021 that Williams was entitled to an evidentiary hearing and that Brinkley should hold it.
She never did. For nearly a year, the hearing was listed on Brinkley's calendar but delayed. And when Clemons summoned prosecutors and Williams' attorneys to court to learn what was going on, both sides said those delays were often at Brinkley's behest and without explanation.
"Although I can't point to precise dates, I have several occasions that counsel and myself showed up fully prepared to move forward, only to have the case given [a different] date without really any opportunity to speak to the court," Assistant District Attorney Paul George said, according to a transcript.
Reassignment
Although courthouse delays are far from unusual, judges are expected to address issues remanded by higher courts almost immediately, said Samuel Stretton, a defense lawyer and judicial conduct expert who routinely represents judges in disciplinary matters.
Two weeks after Clemons held that hearing, she and Shirdan-Harris ruled that all of Brinkley's criminal matters would be reassigned — a move that Brinkley has since cast as unjustified, unprecedented, and without legal basis.
"The last place that such shenanigans can be allowed is in our courts where integrity must be the hallmark," she wrote in a petition asking the state Supreme Court to reverse the order.
In the weeks since the reassignment of Brinkley's cases, lawyers and other judges have been reviewing dozens of matters she presided over and discovered a range of issues. At hearings this month addressing her open probation cases, for example, one lawyer called the situation a "mess." And Common Pleas Court Judge Mia Perez — who presided over the hearings — was visibly bewildered by some matters that crossed her desk.
In one, Brinkley had sentenced Jeremy Speedling to three years' probation for a 2019 simple assault and theft. But after Speedling moved to New York, his public defender said, Brinkley sent a letter to his probation officer there changing the terms of his supervision — and then found him in violation and ordered him jailed for 11 1/2 to 23 months.
Brinkley "found [Speedling] in violation for terms he wasn't aware of," said the public defender, Elisa Downey-Zayas.
Perez ordered him released and terminated his case.
In another example, Brinkley sentenced Eric Torres to up to eight years in prison for violating his probation with a new conviction for shooting a police officer in 2013.
But that conviction was overturned in 2017, and Torres is awaiting a new trial on those charges, meaning Brinkley's legal basis for finding him in violation of his probation — a new conviction — has been invalid for years. Downey-Zayas said her office had asked Brinkley to address that issue to no avail.
Even in cases without potential legal errors, Perez routinely encountered old matters with lengthy probation terms that she moved to quickly dismiss — with support from both defense lawyers and prosecutors.
Hudson, the city's chief defender, said 101 cases were addressed in two days. More than half were terminated, she said, and an additional 10 to 15 could be in the coming weeks.
Brinkley, in her petition to get her cases back, defended her judicial performance and said "criminal defendants and the victims of crimes have been needlessly hurt" by the unnecessary decision to reassign her caseload.
Perez never directly criticized Brinkley from the bench while reviewing her probation files. But at one point, when weighing how to handle another case in which it appeared the defendant's probationary sentence had been allowed to run past its maximum date, Perez made clear she was grappling with issues much larger than a typical day in court.
"We don't get time back," she said. "Today has turned into a court of equity."
