Judicial Conduct Board accuses Philly Judge Scott DiClaudio of attempting to influence a case with ties to Meek Mill

Ellie Rushing, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sep 9, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board on Tuesday charged a Philadelphia judge with committing “a host of ethical violations,” and recommended that he be suspended without pay, after officials said he attempted to influence a colleague’s decision in a case with ties to Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill.

In a complaint made public Tuesday, the board charged Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio with violating the code of judicial conduct by seeking to affect the outcome of a case being handled by a fellow judge.

DiClaudio, the board said, “engaged in conduct that was so extreme that it brought the judicial office itself into disrepute.”

DiClaudio’s attorneys, Bill Brennan and Michael van der Veen, said the judge did nothing wrong and “emphatically denies any attempt to influence the judicial process in any way.”

“Judge DiClaudio has an excellent reputation for fairness and impartiality throughout the bar and his brethren,” said the lawyers. “... He denies any violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution or the Code of Judicial Conduct.”

DiClaudio was placed on administrative leave in June after a fellow judge told his supervisors DiClaudio had approached him about a case earlier that month and intimated that he should give the defendant a favorable sentence.

The complaint filed Tuesday by the Judicial Conduct Board centers on those allegations by Common Pleas Court Judge Zachary Shaffer and previously reported by The Inquirer.

According to the board’s filing, Shaffer and his law clerk visited DiClaudio’s chambers on June 12 to purchase T-shirts promoting Shay’s Steaks, a cheesesteak shop owned by DiClaudio’s wife. After they made the purchase, the complaint said, DiClaudio asked the clerk to leave the room so he could speak with Shaffer privately.

DiClaudio then showed Shaffer a piece of paper with Shaffer’s courtroom number, and the name of a defendant, Dwayne Jones, written on it, the filing said.

“I’ve heard you might do the right thing anyway,” DiClaudio then told Shaffer, according to the filing. He then ripped up the paper and threw it in the trash, the filing said.

Jones, a friend of rapper Meek Mill, was scheduled to be sentenced by Shaffer in the coming days for illegal gun possession in a case tied to a fatal shooting. The board wrote that DiClaudio “is also acquainted, both socially and professionally,” with Mill.

Shaffer recused himself from the case and reported the conversation with DiClaudio to his supervisors, the filing said.

Martin O’Rourke, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia courts, declined to comment Tuesday, and declined to make Shaffer available to discuss the complaint.

The board asked the Court of Judicial Discipline, which adjudicates complaints against judges, to suspend DiClaudio without pay pending the outcome of the case.

“If Judge DiClaudio is permitted to continue to perform any judicial duties and receive a judicial salary during the pendency of this Board Complaint, the public’s confidence in the judiciary will continue to erode,” Melissa L. Norton, the board’s chief counsel, wrote in the petition.

Norton, in a phone interview Tuesday, said the court’s decision in the matter could take anywhere from a few days to about a month.

DiClaudio will have the opportunity to respond to the allegations, review the evidence against him, and then go before the Court of Judicial Discipline for a trial. That process, she said, can take anywhere from a few months to more than a year.

DiClaudio’s lawyers said the judge “is eager for the process to preserve his reputation.”

DiClaudio, who mostly hears cases filed by people seeking to have their murder convictions overturned, was elected to the bench in November 2015 and was sworn in in January 2016. He has presided over many high-profile exonerations and wrongful-conviction cases in recent years and approved the release or resentencing of dozens of people who had been serving life in prison.

The filing marks the second time this year — and the third since 2020 — that the board has filed charges against DiClaudio.

In 2020, the board ruled that he violated the code of conduct for judges when he failed to report debts on annual financial disclosure forms and repeatedly defied a judge’s orders to pay thousands of dollars in overdue bills to a Bala Cynwyd fitness club. He was suspended for two weeks, and placed on probation through 2026.

Then, in April of this year, the board filed charges against DiClaudio for allegedly using his position as a judge to promote his wife’s cheesesteak shop. In so doing, the board said, he had eroded public trust in the judiciary and abused the prestige of the office for personal gain. DiClaudio has denied the allegations, and the case is pending before the Court of Judicial Discipline.

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