Racist Pennsylvania judge resigns right before his own misconduct trial was set to begin

Former Judge Mark Tranquilli.

Back in January, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Common Pleas Judge Mark Tranquilli was recorded referring to a Black juror as “Aunt Jemima” repeatedly. This bit of information about the judge came out due to a written complaint about the incident. Judge Tranquilli was “reassigned” at that point. The context of the comment was Judge Tranquilli allegedly telling a lawyer who had just had his case acquitted that he made a mistake in allowing the young Black woman on the jury—the one he called “Aunt Jemima.” He also explained that he assumed she had a “baby daddy” at home who sold drugs and therefore would acquit a criminal. Tranquilli was reportedly disappointed in the acquittal.

Tranquilli then attempted to dismiss this bizarre turn of racism as a wording mistake, saying he had been searching for the word “kerchief,” but landing on “Aunt Jemima” and the other racist shit he said. More stories of Tranquilli’s strange racism toward Black people in his courtroom came out. In August, under pressure, the Judicial Conduct Board filed charges against Tranquilli, and he was suspended without pay pending a review and trial over his alleged misconduct. His trial was set for this November, and like all cowardly racists, Mark Tranquilli has decided to retire so as to not have the facts of the matter litigated.

Tranquilli had been serving as a judge since 2013. He was facing six counts of judicial misconduct. The formal charges that came down from the Judicial Conduct Board and had led to the November trial date added more allegations of racial insensitivity, including an incident where he reportedly spoke “in an urban dialect to a Black couple during a custody hearing in 2015.” To be more specific, in talking about an issue of communication between the Black couple, Tranquilli reportedly “affected an accent and dialect described as ‘Ebonics.” Then he allegedly said: “And when I say communication, I don’t mean ‘and den da bitch done dis, and den da bitch done dat.’”