Marissa Brumbach

Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Marissa Brumbach was scheduled to hear 95 traffic citations on January 7, 2022, but had also planned a trip to Florida that her presiding judge had not approved. Rather than reschedule, Brumbach obtained the citation files in advance, had the prosecutor indicate which citations he intended to withdraw, and marked rulings on all 95 cases before the actual hearing date — making it appear the citations had been ruled on as scheduled.

Pennsylvania's Judicial Conduct Board filed nine counts of misconduct against Brumbach in December 2022, including alleged violations of the state constitution. The Court of Judicial Discipline ultimately dismissed most of those counts, finding Brumbach's plan was not intended to abuse her power or for personal gain, and that communication problems with the presiding judge had contributed to the situation. The court did find her guilty of one remaining count — failing to perform her judicial duties diligently and competently.

A judge deciding cases before they're actually heard, so a personal trip doesn't have to wait, is a real integrity problem even when a disciplinary court ultimately finds no bad intent behind it — the citations still got decided out of order, and it took a formal nine-count case to sort out which parts of that were sanctionable.