Oct 10, 2014 2 min read

HARRISBURG – The attorney general’s office on Friday provided Pennsylvania’s chief justice with hundreds of emails after he sought any material that had pornographic content and related to any judge, a court system spokesman said.

Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts spokesman Jim Koval said Chief Justice Ron Castille met for three hours with a forensic investigator and received about 1,500 images and 65 video clips attached to the emails.

Koval said after those materials are reviewed, the Supreme Court will discuss them and consider taking action.

Castille sought the emails pertaining to judges after Attorney General Kathleen Kane disclosed publicly dozens of current and former employees of the attorney general’s office sent or received emails with pornographic images and other explicit content.

Castille said in a letter to Kane last week he wanted “any emails and pornographic materials relative to ‘any judicial officer,”‘ defining the term as any justice, judge or district judge. Castille told Kane he considers it “a matter of utmost importance which must be addressed immediately.”

Kane’s office found the emails during a review of how the office handled the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case, which dates to when Gov. Tom Corbett was attorney general.

She released heavily redacted copies of emails sent or received by eight former employees of the office, and so far it cost at least three of them their jobs.

Environmental Protection Secretary Chris Abruzzo, Department of Environmental Protection lawyer Glenn Parno and part-time Lancaster County prosecutor Rick Sheetz all resigned since their emails were released by Kane.

Kane declined to release the names of current employees who forwarded or received the emails, citing confidentiality rules under union contracts, and because the state’s open records law does not require it. She said the current employees have been told they are subject to discipline.