Feliciani ditches guitar for gavel
Editor's note: This article was modified Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003, to correct information about the future of Scotty G and The Blues Peddlers.
What Yoko Ono was to the Beatles, Westmoreland County voters could have been to Scotty G and The Blues Peddlers.
Back in the 1970s, Ono received much of the blame for breaking up the Fab Four after her marriage to John Lennon created a rift in the group. Last month, local voters could have caused the breakup of a local musical group when they elected Christopher Feliciani as judge. However, Scotty G and The Blues Peddlers will continue to perform without Feliciani. The band has replaced him and has a number of concerts on its schedule.
The band played its last gig with Feliciani on guitar and behind the microphone Dec. 21 at a Pittsburgh Steelers pre-game tailgate party under a tent in a Heinz Field parking lot.
"Out of respect for the office, I'm going to put the music on hold for awhile and focus on being a good judge," Feliciani said earlier this week.
On Dec. 31 Feliciani will be sworn in as the 11th judge in the county's Common Pleas Court. He was elected last month to replace Judge Charles Loughran, who has retired.
Hanging up his musical instruments is just one of many chores Feliciani must complete before he officially becomes a judge.
In the weeks after his election, he began gearing down his law practice. He is a partner with the Greensburg firm of Berk, Whitehead, Kerr, Feliciani and Turin.
By the end of the month, Feliciani must divest himself of all his clients. He will begin work as a judge on Jan. 5, and with about two weeks to go before he takes office, he still listed an active caseload of about 100.
Most of his active cases have been handed over to his law partners, and other clients found new attorneys on their own, he said.
Although his days as a practicing lawyer are nearing an end, Feliciani is still handling cases. He is scheduled to appear in court for a domestic case Dec. 30. It's his last scheduled hearing as an attorney.
"It's bittersweet, but I'm also thrilled. I'm going to be a judge, but at the same time I've been a practicing attorney for 15 years now. You get accustomed to dealing with clients and life as a lawyer," Feliciani said.
He's already checked a few other items off his to-do list.
Several weeks after his election, Feliciani was measured for a judicial robe. It arrived last week and now hangs in his bedroom closet. Feliciani said he tried it on once for his children to see and to make sure it fits.
The $294 Terra Crape black robe was purchased by the county, which also will pay to keep it clean and mended.
The gavel, though, is another matter. The county doesn't buy one for judges.
Evelyn Gismondi, a fiscal assistant in the court administrator's office, said gavels usually are purchased for a new judge by a close family member or friend.
Feliciani said he doesn't know where he'll get his gavel.
"No one's handed me a gavel yet, but I'm sure there'll be one on the bench when I get there. Maybe for Christmas someone will get me one," he said.
The court administrator's office was able to round up a set of law books for Feliciani. He'll inherit Loughran's old library.
Gismondi said judges don't get new volumes. Those are purchased for the law library used by inmates at the county jail.
And lest anyone think life will get easy for Feliciani when he starts wearing the robe, a week after he officially begins his new job he must go back to school -- judges school.
Feliciani and all other newly elected judges will be in classes 81/2 hours a day for six straight days. The curriculum includes courses such as the "Philosophy of Judges" and "Decision Making," as well as other classes that teach the basics.
Feliciani will learn about running civil, criminal and family court cases. He'll study judicial ethics and many other aspects of being a judge.
The new job will require a little personal change -- out with the musical instruments and in with the gavel.
It's a transition Feliciani said he's ready to make.
