Judge committed land fraud, jury says

A Common Pleas Court jury ruled yesterday that Judge Willis W. Berry Jr. obtained a property next to his former law office by fraud and said he had to pay $180,000 in punitive damages.

Berry, 67, was suspended from the Common Pleas Court bench in July by a state disciplinary tribunal that found he had violated judicial canons by running a real estate business out of his chambers for more than a decade. His suspension ends Dec. 16.

The Court of Judicial Discipline began its investigation after The Inquirer reported in April 2007 that Berry was using his chambers to manage the properties, many of which were in deplorable condition and ridden with roaches and rodents. Berry was in the midst of an unsuccessful campaign for the state Supreme Court.

After the tribunal's ruling in July, the Philadelphia Bar Association called on Berry to resign, saying his presence on the bench undermined public confidence in the criminal-justice system.

Inquirer reporting also led to the lawsuit that resulted in yesterday's jury finding and $180,000 award regarding the vacant property Berry obtained at 1533 W. Girard Ave.

He acquired the lot before becoming a judge in 1995. At the time he represented Denise Jackson, who had slipped and injured herself in a fall in front of the lot in 1993.

Berry, who had long coveted the property and once tried to buy it from a previous owner, obtained the lot for Jackson in an estate transaction as compensation in her slip-and-fall case.

He then bought it from her for $1,500. The previous owner had paid $25,000 for the land five years earlier; today, the property is worth $180,000.

Jackson sued Berry in September 2007, alleging that he had duped her into signing documents that transferred the property to him for $1,500, which she believed was a cash settlement in the lawsuit. She said she had known nothing about owning the property, or selling it to Berry, until an Inquirer reporter showed her documents bearing her signature.

Berry referred comment yesterday to his attorney, Samuel C. Stretton, who said he would appeal the verdict and award.

The jury of six women and two men ruled that the statute of limitations on fraud, typically two years, started to run only when an Inquirer reporter interviewed Jackson about the transaction in 2007.

The $180,000 was the current market value set for the lot during trial, said Jackson's attorney, Barry S. Yaches. The jury also awarded Jackson $9,858.72 in compensatory damages.

Jackson testified during a civil trial in Common Pleas Court that although her signature was on the real estate documents, she had not realized what she was signing, and that Berry had misled her.

Chester County Judge Charles B. Smith, who was brought in to hear the case, expressed surprise at the verdict after the jury was dismissed.

"I am, of course, shocked, like most of you are," he said from the bench.

He did not explain his comment, but earlier in the trial he said he was considering dismissing Jackson's suit on a motion by Stretton, who argued that there was insufficient evidence to send the case to a jury.

Jackson said she was caught off guard by her victory.

"It's a surprise to me that they would rule in my favor, considering . . . that my signature was on so many" documents connected to the property, she said.

Jackson testified that Berry had tricked her into transferring the land.

"I see my signatures, but I don't remember signing the papers. . . . I wasn't given the papers to read. I was given them to sign," she said from the witness stand in June, when the case first went to trial. A mistrial was declared at the time, leading to yesterday's second trial.

Berry, who denies any wrongdoing, disputed Jackson at both trials.

He testified in June that the property had been saddled with liens and back taxes, and that he had paid to have the property cleaned and filled. "I thought I was being fair, and they thought I was being fair," Berry said.

"They wanted to sell it. I wanted to buy it. We had an agreement, a meeting of the minds," he testified.

He said Jackson had told him that she did not want the property for three reasons: She didn't want to run the risk of losing her welfare checks, she was not in a position to clean up the property, and she could not afford the back taxes.

Yaches, Jackson's attorney, said during the trial that Berry had breached his duty to Jackson by transferring the property to himself without fully explaining to her what was taking place. The transfer, he said, amounted to an excessive fee, given the value of the land.