PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge has been placed on administrative leave after a colleague accused him of attempting to influence his decision in a criminal case, sources in the criminal justice system said.

Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio was removed from the bench last month after a fellow judge said DiClaudio approached him about a case and intimated that he should give the defendant a favorable sentence, said four sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board is investigating, according to the sources.

DiClaudio, through his attorney Michael van der Veen, vehemently denied that he attempted to influence a case.

“Judge DiClaudio is a well-respected jurist and has not done anything wrong,” van der Veen said in an email Saturday. He decried what he described as “incorrect and inaccurate rumors related to influencing criminal case outcomes.”

Courts spokesperson Marty O’Rourke confirmed that DiClaudio was placed on leave June 25 but declined to comment further.

Melissa L. Norton, chief counsel for the judicial conduct board, said she could not confirm or deny any investigation of a complaint filed against a judge. The board’s work is confidential, she said, and the findings of its investigations are not made public except in cases in which the board decides to bring formal charges.

Van der Veen said there was “no formal complaint” before the Judicial Conduct Board related to the allegations, and moreover, he said, if there were, “it would be confidential and it would be inappropriate for me to comment on at this time.”

It was unclear why DiClaudio might have sought to influence a fellow judge’s decision. The case he spoke to his colleague about, the sources said, involved a defendant who is a friend of Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill. DiClaudio, too, is friendly with Mill, and has discussed criminal justice reform work with him, sources said. The judge has also posed for photos with the rapper, including once inside a city courtroom, and two of the sources said DiClaudio appeared on stage with Mill during his performance at the Roots Picnic on June 1.

Not long after, Common Pleas Court Judge Zachary Shaffer told his supervisors that he and his court staff stopped by DiClaudio’s courtroom and DiClaudio asked to speak with him privately, the sources said. Shaffer said DiClaudio then showed him a piece of paper with a case number and the name of a defendant on it, according to the sources. Shaffer was presiding over the case and was scheduled to sentence the defendant in the coming weeks.

DiClaudio then ripped up the paper and told Shaffer he believed the judge would “do the right thing” in the case, Shaffer said, according to the sources.

Shaffer told his supervisors he believed DiClaudio was trying to influence his decision in favor of the defendant, the sources said.

Shaffer immediately recused himself from the case and reported the conversation to his managers, who filed a complaint with the judicial conduct board, the sources said. Officials with the First Judicial District declined to make Shaffer or his supervisors available for an interview.

The case in question, according to the sources, involved Dwayne Jones, a fitness trainer who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of illegal gun possession last month in connection with a fatal shooting and was scheduled to be sentenced by Shaffer on June 16.

Jones, 46, was arrested in October 2024 after police said he shot and killed a 33-year-old man who tried to rob him in Old City, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

Prosecutors later determined that he had acted in self-defense and that the killing was justified. But because Jones had a felony conviction — and spent more than a decade in prison for crimes including attempted murder in 2002 — he was prohibited from owning a gun, and was charged with illegal gun possession. Because of his earlier convictions, sentencing guidelines called for up to more than 10 years in prison.

After Shaffer recused himself, the case was transferred to Common Pleas Court Judge J. Scott O’Keefe, who sentenced Jones to 111/2 to 23 months of house arrest, plus three years’ probation, court records show.

Jones, in an interview, said he did not believe he had ever met DiClaudio and had no idea why the judge might have asked a colleague about his case.

He said he and his lawyer, James Funt, were surprised when his case was removed from Shaffer’s docket and assigned to another judge.

“My case got moved to another courtroom. I never knew the reason why,” he said. “… My lawyers were baffled.”

DiClaudio was elected to the bench in November 2015 and was sworn in in January 2016. The judge, who mostly hears cases filed by people seeking to have their murder convictions overturned, 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 previously been serving life in prison.

He has also drawn headlines for publicly scolding prosecutors in District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office, whom he criticized as inexperienced and unprepared to handle complicated cases involving serious crimes.

DiClaudio has found himself before the judicial conduct board in the past.

In 2020, he was suspended for two weeks and placed on probation through 2026 after 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.

Earlier this year, the board filed charges against DiClaudio again, accusing him of using his position as a judge to promote his wife’s cheesesteak shop. 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.

Some attorneys with cases before DiClaudio have praised his legal acumen and mastery of complicated evidence in decades-old cases, and said he works efficiently to resolve post-conviction appeals — cases that can take years to wind through the courts.

In the email, Van der Veen praised DiClaudio’s record on the bench, saying that he has presided over thousands of cases and that “lawyers appearing before him universally hold him in high regard as a fair and impartial Judge sitting in our Court of Common Pleas.”

DiClaudio, he said, “has not done anything wrong — in Cheesesteak Gate — or in any other matter.”

(Staff writer Chris Palmer contributed to this article.)

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