Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Spring 2021 - 27

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trial rule. 17 When I started, we had been
scheduling jury trials for two weeks every
month except July and August. Today
(before COVID), criminal trials happen
any time throughout the year as scheduled
by the individual judge assigned to the
case.

	 The administrative judge would call
the list from beginning to end with the
trial lawyers assigned to the case present
and responding to the calling of his or her
case as being ready 1) for trial, or 2) to
enter a guilty plea, or 3) for an immediate
pretrial suppression and/or habeas corpus
hearing, or 4) requesting the case be
continued to the next term of court. And
if there was no attorney of record, the
defendant would be called forward for a
waiver of counsel hearing or a continuance
request to hire or apply for counsel.18
Except for conducting the trial, all of the
other options were immediately heard by
the administrative judge. My job was to
keep the trial courtrooms and the judges
assigned, busy with actual jury trials by
announcing when a trial was finishing
what the next case would be. I would then
inform the attorneys that their case was
now going . The attorneys would scramble
to get their witnesses and client ready for
trial19 before the assigned judge in the
assigned courtroom.

Elevators Redux

Did you know that the elevator cabs of
the current courthouse, were built exactly
to specification as those in the Empire
State Building in New York City, which
began operation in 1931 and remained
the tallest building in the world for four
decades? Perhaps that is why our elevator
speed was not quite the same (or perhaps
it's because they were run by semi-retired
folks).

As I consider the past 50 years, I am
reminded of how fortunate I am to have
received the hands-on education and
experience from my first two jobs directly
following college. My first was in 1972
with the Pennsylvania Governor's Justice
Commission, Northeast Region, which
covered 15 counties including Berks and
Schuylkill. There I learned by interviewing
employees and studying all parts of the
Criminal Justice System in addition to
writing grant applications, and doing short

and long range planning.20 The job lasted
3½ years until I was hired as an Assistant
Court Administrator with Berks County
in 1975. Both of these jobs put me in
contact with professionals from all areas
of the criminal justice system, and taught
me about government, politics, justice,
and the intricacies of the system. It also
gave me the opportunity, as nothing else
could, to learn from very special people
like Paul Adams, Margaret Freeman,
and many others including my ultimate
bosses, President Judges W.R. Eshelman
and Frederick Edenharter. It opened a
new career opportunity, the law, which
presented me with the chance to know and
learn from many great lawyers over the
years. This somehow led me to become
a judge, the most remarkable position
possible. Nearly every day, I appreciate
how blessed I am to have served as a trial
court judge for nearly 30 years.
The Hon. Jeffrey K. Sprecher serves
as a Berks County Court of Common
Pleas judge.

1
Look at the faces of the active bar from yesteryear.
Can you identify the lawyers? Perhaps a Balmer,
Batdorf, or Bertolet (or two); a Delong or Derr;
maybe an Edleman, Eves, Fisher (times four) or
Forry; a Katner or Hahn, Leidy, or Lee; perhaps
a Matten (or two) Manderbach, or Price (two),
Rhoads, Rothermel (or two); Schmehl, Sharman,
Speicher (also named John), Trexler, Wanner, or Yoder,
to name just a few possibilities, that existed 90 years
ago of members (and sons, brothers, or cousins).
2
" Legal lore " has it that at least one attorney from this
era nailed the hats to the wall in his waiting room of
every gentleman client who left without returning for
his head covering. I recently spoke with his grandson,
also a lawyer, who told me those hats are still nailed to
the wall today!
3
In those days, a single judge was elected to a separate
court: President Judge of the Orphans Court. This
changed with the passage of the Constitutional
Amendment in 1968 which for the first time required
Common Please judges to preside over all cases
including Orphans Court. (Article V, Section 5).
Thus, President Judge of the Orphans Court ended.
I recall Judge Marx, the last President Judge of the
Orphans Court, still sitting as a senior judge in 1975.
4
However, one woman was a member of the Berks
County Bar - the renowned Anna Dickenson,
Esquire. That same lore has it that she was " promoted "
to the position of Law Librarian by the gentlemen, in
place of her practicing law. She is not in the picture,
but her photo can be found in Courtroom 9 in both 1)
" Berks County Bar 1927 " photo and in 2) " The Last
Gathering of Berks County Bar at Old Courthouse, "
April 27, 1931 photo. The men lawyers outnumbered
the woman almost 100 to 1 in 1931.
5
Yes, that is a Saturday. In those days, and for several
years thereafter, support court was conducted on a
Saturday.
6
Article V, Section 1 amendment to the Pennsylvania
Constitution, April 23, 1968. It was a part of the
same amendments that ended the separate election of
president judge to the Orphan's Court.

7
Ah, the tumultuous 1960s and thus the many laws
passed in the 1970s to fight crime and straighten
out the " revolutionary madness. " This started with
President Nixon's war on drugs announced on June
17, 1971, from which we still feel the negative shakes
and tremors today. We're still fighting that war
although the drug problem is far worse today than
when the war began, leading some to conclude that we
never did win this war.
8
I sometimes tell the story about one visiting senior
judge who thought those gold hangers were so pretty
that he took a couple home. There's more. About
20 years ago, I found one of those gold hangers in a
retiring room closet holding the robe of a commissioned
judge, whose court I was covering. I don't tell this
story anymore.
9
Is this possible? Forty-five years ago; and this wasn't
even my first job!
10
At this time, clocks were made to run for eight days
instead of seven or 30 hours instead of 24.
11
According to the internet.
12
I borrow this quote from Maine's state slogan.
13
We often refer to the good old days, which in
one respect was not so good. That was when law
enforcement and court people imbibed at notorious
District Attorney, Juvenile or Adult Probation, Public
Defender, and/or Warden Christmas parties, to name
just a few, and then drove home or to Reading bars
to celebrate some more. The Golden Lion Pub for
example was a known watering hole for courthouse
and legal community employees. That was before the
D.U.I. laws were enacted in the early 1980s. Such
courthouse celebrations no longer include spirits.
14
I say character because I once saw that same lawyer
walk into a full courtroom, fondly extend his hand and
seriously ask the seated fellow lawyer John Boccabella,
in his loud, deep voice, " Hello doctor, do you have a
moment to check my hemorrhoids? "
15
When I did finally agree to speak again, 30 years
later, I was more aptly prepared, I began my talk at
this Endlich dinner as a fellow member dressed in a
full suit. I asked if anyone else thought it was hot in
there. Whereupon I removed my coat; but didn't stop
there. I stripped down to my biking spandex with
attached note cards that said, " Endlich Law Bicycle
Team " and then ended my presentation. Perhaps no
one else felt the justice flowing from the heavens but I
did and now you know the rest of the story.
16
My job also included the " administration " of the
criminal trial list. This administrative system for
processing this trial caseload is known as the master
calendar system. It is still in effect in some counties in
Pennsylvania today and is known fondly as the cattle
call. I prefer the system we have had since the 1980s,
the individual calendar system, in which the assigned
judge is solely responsible for all scheduling of each
individual case. Some of us schedule only one case for
a specific date. However, some judges use a modified
system, scheduling a smaller, more manageable,
number of cases for the first day, for instance.
17
Adopted in 1973, today Rule 1100 is renumbered
as Rule 600.
18
There was one lawyer, who shall remain nameless,
that would " cruise " Courtroom 5A for unrepresented
parties. Sadly, he would solicit defendants to hire him
in violation of Rule 7.3 of the Rules of Professional
Conduct.
19
My job was not very popular among the lawyers.
20
That employment also allowed me to pursue a
Masters Degree in Public Administration which
I received on August 6, 1976 from Marywood
University, formerly Marywood College in Scranton,
Pennsylvania. Educational funding for personnel
employed in the criminal justice system was provided
through federal funds from the Omnibus Crime
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (my final bit of
useless information).

Spring 2021 | 27
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Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Spring 2021

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