Judge Charles P. Mirarchi Jr., 86

Judge Charles P. Mirarchi Jr. was no stranger to prominent cases that produced prominent news stories.

In 1999, he ordered the resumption of deer killing to protect the Wissahickon Valley from damage and disease.

In 1993, he ordered the release of data on deceased crime victims whose brains had been sent by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office to a university anatomy class without the consent of relatives.

"A lot of his cases were fiery," said a daughter, Gina Steiner.

But one of Judge Mirarchi's high-profile cases involved a far larger issue.

In 2000, a Philadelphia jury in his Commonwealth Court courtroom ruled that Monsanto Co. should pay $90 million in damages to the state "for selling defective and toxic PCBs that left PennDot's Harrisburg headquarters contaminated after a 1994 fire," The Inquirer reported

It was, the reporter wrote, "a 15-month civil trial that was one of the longest in state history."

On Tuesday, May 11, Judge Mirarchi, 85, former judge in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court and Commonwealth Court, died of congestive heart failure at the South Philadelphia home where, his daughter said, he had lived since he was 2.

In September, the Justinian Society, an organization of Italian American men of law, unveiled a portrait of him in Courtroom 653 in City Hall.

Born in Philadelphia, he graduated in 1941 from South Philadelphia High School, earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Temple University in 1944, and graduated from Temple's law school in 1948.

His father paved the way.

Charles P. Mirarchi, an Italian immigrant, was sworn in at 48 as an assistant U.S. attorney for eastern Pennsylvania in 1941 with the future judge, at age 16, in the front row of the courtroom, The Inquirer reported. The father resigned in 1949 to open a law firm with the future judge, who had just passed his bar exam.

In 1971, Judge Mirarchi was elected to a 10-year term as a Common Pleas Court judge and worked in criminal courts until 1981. He became secretary of the Board of Judges in 1974 and administrative judge in the Common Pleas trial division in 1976.

In 1980, he became president judge of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges. In that position, Steiner said, Judge Mirarchi "helped to promote continuing legal education and reestablished the Judicial Ethics Committee, which reviews, instructs, and renders opinions."

In 1981, voters gave Judge Mirarchi a second 10-year Common Pleas term, and he worked in civil courts.

In 1986, The Inquirer published a series of articles on the Philadelphia court system. The series noted that Judge Mirarchi was among the judges with more than one relative working in the court system. At the time, he had eight relatives on the payroll, including a sister, a daughter, two nieces, two nephews, a son-in-law, and the son-in-law's brother. The salaries of those employees totaled $198,801. Judge Mirarchi had said he saw nothing wrong with having qualified relatives on the payroll.

Steiner said her father had been effective in two ways. He "successfully mediated hundreds of cases that otherwise would have consumed countless trial dates." And in trials that were appealed, "he was sustained by the appellate court over 98 percent of the time."

Judge Mirarchi was again retained by voters in 1991 and went back to criminal cases, but was required to retire when he turned 70 in 1994.

After leaving Common Pleas Court, he was appointed to Commonwealth Court.

"He retired and got a promotion," his daughter said with a laugh.

From 1995 through 2004, Judge Mirarchi was a senior judge in Commonwealth Court, where, his daughter said, "he presided over the court's only jury trial which actually went to verdict" - the Monsanto trial.

In 2004, he became a Commonwealth Court mediator and, Steiner said, "successfully mediated about 50 percent of the cases submitted."

From 1975 to 2000, she said, Judge Mirarchi was an adjunct professor at the law school of Widener University.

"He was instrumental in getting the school started and accredited," Steiner said. At one time, "courses were held in an old church and the moot court in the sanctuary."

A month ago, she said, "Widener gave him a lifetime achievement award."

Besides Steiner, he is survived by his wife, Josephine; a son, Charles P. III; daughters Mary Jo Craig, Lisa Ianni, and Janice; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Viewings were set from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 14, and from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 15, at Monti-Rago Funeral Home, 2531-35 S. Broad St. A Funeral Mass will follow at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 10th and Dickinson Streets. Burial will be in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon.