In re Ballentine

121 A.3d 611, 2015 Pa. Jud. Disc. LEXIS 6, 2015 WL 4716143
CourtCourt of Judicial Discipline of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 4, 2015
DocketNo. 7 JD 13
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 121 A.3d 611 (In re Ballentine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Judicial Discipline of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Ballentine, 121 A.3d 611, 2015 Pa. Jud. Disc. LEXIS 6, 2015 WL 4716143 (cjdpa 2015).

Opinions

OPINION AND ORDER

OPINION BY

PRESIDENT JUDGE McCUNE

I. BACKGROUND

Magisterial District Judge Kelly S. Ballentine of Lancaster County appears before this Court on several charges including a probation violation and a new Complaint concerning her failure to file state and federal income tax returns, failure to remit sales tax for a small business she owned and also as a result of her conviction of a summary offense for operating a business without a sales tax license. These charges were brought while Judge Ballentine was already on [613]*613probation with this Court for prior charges involving causing the improper dismissal of traffic tickets issued to her. Judge Ballentine admitted the factual basis of the allegations against her.

On February 5, 2015 a combined hearing on the probation violation (see C.J.D.R.P. No. 505) and the new Complaint as well as the sanctions for both was held by this Court, Effectively, all of Judge Ballentine’s misconduct, including the improper ticket dismissal and the tax/business licensure problems are open for consideration here.

II. FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Starting on January 2, 2006, Judge Ballentine served as Magisterial District Judge for Magisterial District 02-2-01 of the Second Judicial District, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, encompassing the City of Lancaster, Wards 3 and 7.

2. Pursuant to a plea agreement, on February 1, 2013, Judge Ballentine appeared before the Honorable Charles B. Smith, Senior Judge of Chester County Court of Common Pleas specially presiding, and entered a plea of guilty to three misdemeanor counts of Tampering with Public Records of Information, 18 Pa. C.S.A. § 491 1(a)(1)-(3).

3. Judge Ballentine’s guilty plea was based on the following conduct which she admitted:

On December 29, 2010, [Ballentine] entered the Magisterial District Judge Computer system and dismissed two traffic citations issued to her on November 1, 2010. [Ballentine] wrote the date, the word “dismissed” and her initials on each citation; 2. On January 27, 2011, [Ballentine] entered the Magisterial District Judge System and dismissed a third traffic citation issued to her on November 8, 2010. [Ballentine] admitted engaging in this intentional conduct of entering the Magisterial District Judge Computer System and dismissing traffic citations issued to her.

4. By pleading guilty, Judge Ballentine admitted that she “did knowingly make a false entry in or false alteration of any record, document, or thing belonging to or received by or kept by the government for information or record.”

5. Subsequently, Judge Ballentine was charged by the Judicial Conduct Board with misconduct and, after a hearing on May 17, 2013, before this Court was suspended from her judicial office without pay for the time period from February 11, 2013 until May 31, 2013 and placed on probation until December 31, 2014.

6. On July 8, 2013, Judge Ballentine agreed to rules and conditions of probation which included the following:

Based on your conduct of dismissing your own traffic citations, it is particularly important that you abide by the following rules. 1. You shall not engage in any activity 'prohibited by law; 2. You shall comply with the law in all activities which implicate the judicial decision making process; 3. You shall not engage in any activity or behavior, on or off the bench which would impair or prejudice the proper administration of justice; and 4. You shall not engage in any conduct, on or off the bench, which would bring disrepute upon the judiciary. (Emphasis added.)

7. As a condition of her probation this Court also ordered Judge Ballentine to report to the Judicial Conduct Board on a monthly basis and directed the Judicial Conduct Board to file a monthly written probation report with the Court.

8. The Judicial Conduct Board filed probation reports with the Court on a monthly basis from July 8, 2013 through January 8, 2014, at which time the Judicial [614]*614Conduct Board Chief Counsel decreased the frequency of the probation reporting meeting to every other month. Thereafter, the Board submitted a report to the Court in March, May, July, September and October 2014. . Board Chief Counsel can-celled the November, 2014 probation reporting meeting because of the Judicial Conduct Board’s decision to file a probation revocation case.

9. Judge Ballentine presided over criminal cases in December 2010 and October 2012 against defendants charged with making sales of taxable goods without a license, failure to file tax returns and failure to remit taxes on the sale of goods.

10. Prior to and during the pendency of Judge Ballentine’s term of probation, the Board investigated a complaint that Judge Ballentine engaged in judicial misconduct in the operation of a retail business, Walk-In-Style Fashion Footwear, 356 North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which she owned and operated from 2009 to 2014. Walk-In-Style Footwear had not filed sales tax returns from 2009 through the second quarter of 2012.

11. On January 25, 2012, as a result of Judge Ballentine’s failure to pay sales taxes due and owing on the sale of taxable goods at Walk-In-Style Fashion Footwear, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue provided notice to Judge Ballen-tine that her license to sell taxable goods was revoked as of that date.

12. The License Revocation Notice advised Judge Ballentine that she was subject to a criminal citation if she sold taxable goods without a sales tax license.

13. On May 9, 2012, the District Administrator of the Bureau of Collections and Taxpayer Services of the Department of Revenue sent a letter to Judge Ballen-tine regarding the revocation of her Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax license and ordered her to surrender the license to the PA Department of Revenue. The letter notified Judge Ballentine that she was prohibited from maintaining a place of business in Pennsylvania for the purpose of selling taxable goods until the revocation was rescinded and her license restored.

14. On September 25, 2012, the PA Department of Revenue issued a Non-Traffic Citation to Judge Ballentine for a summary offense violation of 72 P.S. § 7208(c) which prohibits the offering of taxable goods for sale without possession of a valid sales tax license.

15. On January 31, 2013, Judge Ballen-tine appeared pro se at a Summary Trial before the Honorable Paula P. Correal who denied Judge Ballentine’s request for continuance. Commonwealth v. Kelly S. Ballentine, Docket No. MJ-02202-NT0000963-2012.

16. Following trial, Senior Magisterial District Judge Correal adjudicated Judge Ballentine guilty of the aforementioned summary offense and sentenced her to fines and costs in the amount of $369.45.

17. On February 1,2013, Judge Ballen-tine filed a Notice of Summary Appeal in the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County. Commonwealth v. Kelly S. Ballentine, Docket No. CP-36-SA-0000023-2013.

18. On October 25, 2013, while represented by Attorney Jerome A. Taylor, Judge Ballentine withdrew her appeal.

19.

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Related

In re Shaw
192 A.3d 350 (Judicial Discipline of Pennsylvania, 2018)

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Bluebook (online)
121 A.3d 611, 2015 Pa. Jud. Disc. LEXIS 6, 2015 WL 4716143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ballentine-cjdpa-2015.