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State Senate Judiciary Committee recommends confirming Lackawanna County DA Mark Powell to a vacant county judgeship

Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell testifies before the state Senate Judicary Committee on Feb. 3, 2025, on his nomination to fill a county county court of common pleas vacancy. The committee voted unanimously to recommend the Senate confirm Powell as a judge.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously recommended Monday confirming Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell to fill a vacant county court of common pleas judgeship.

The committee also unanimously voted to recommend confirmation of attorney Anthony McDonald to a common pleas court vacancy covering Columbia and Montour counties.

The recommendations move to the Senate for a final vote.

Gov. Josh Shapiro only recently nominated Powell and McDonald. Their confirmation hearings each lasted less than 20 minutes.

Attorney Anthony McDonald testifies before the state Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 3, 2025, on his nomination to fill a vacancy on the county common pleas court that serves Columbia and Montour counties. The committee voted unanimously to recommended the Senate confirm McDonald.
Borys Krawczeniuk
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State Senate Judiciary Committee Screenshot
Attorney Anthony McDonald testifies before the state Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 3, 2025, on his nomination to fill a vacancy on the county common pleas court that serves Columbia and Montour counties. The committee voted unanimously to recommended the Senate confirm McDonald.

If confirmed, both would fill the seats until January and would have to seek election to full 10-year terms in the upcoming election.

Powell, 60, of Moosic, first elected district attorney in 2017 and re-elected in 2021, faced re-election this year. Recently, he issued invitations to a party to kick off his campaign for judge this year instead, a signal that the nomination was near.

Powell would fill a vacancy created in fall 2023 when Judge Julia Munley moved up to assume a federal district court judgeship.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Munley on Oct. 17, 2023, and she began serving as a federal judge on Nov. 7, 2023. Powell publicly named Brian Gallagher as his first assistant district attorney on Nov. 20, 2023.

Powell expressed interest in replacing her then, but Shapiro waited more than a year to nominate Munley’s replacement.

Under state law, first assistant district attorneys automatically move up if a district attorney resigns. Gallagher, 38, of Scranton, is expected to seek a full four-year term as district attorney.

Powell told the committee he first declared he wanted to be a lawyer when he was 5 years old. He touted his work defending clients who couldn’t afford a lawyer with his family’s law firm.

“One hundred and twenty years after my grandfather first started the firm, I spent the next 27 years doing all types of civil and criminal cases in that firm,” he said.

He continued to try cases but also worked closely on “delicate issues” with school administrators, mental health experts and recovery specialists.

“The qualities that will make me a good judge are the same values that my father taught me, character, competence and hard work,” Powell testified said. “My professional experience is an accumulation of many years of hard work, a commitment of justice and the rule of law, I will bring those same qualities to the bench and be a fair and impartial jurist, and I'll be committed to the integrity of our courts, protecting individual rights and the due process of law.”

During McDonald’s hearing, state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, said many judges are “really great people” until “they go away to nasty school.”

“I hope you don't change when you go to nasty school,” Yaw said.

McDonald said he sees the job as public service.

“I don't see it as making me somebody special, no more than the sheepskin that I've had hanging over my left shoulder for the past 30 years made me a special person. Frankly, it's a humbling position,” McDonald testified. “Knowing that I would be in a position where I can either make or destroy a person's life, I can assure you that the robe will weigh heavily upon me and will not make me at all think that I'm a special person."

Borys joins WVIA News from The Scranton Times-Tribune, where he served as an investigative reporter and covered a wide range of political stories. His work has been recognized with numerous national and state journalism awards from the Inland Press Association, Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors, Society of Professional Journalists and Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association.

You can email Borys at boryskrawczeniuk@wvia.org