Jessica Ellis won the Wayne County magisterial district judge seat in May. Her husband Brendan is an assistant DA. The courthouse where both work is small — and the county hasn’t said how it plans to keep them out of each other’s cases.

HONESDALE — The Wayne County Courthouse isn’t a big building. Walk through the front doors on Court Street, and you’re a short hallway from the district attorney’s office, the magisterial courtrooms, and just about everyone who works in local criminal justice.

Starting in January, Jessica Ellis will preside over preliminary hearings, arraignments, and summary trials there. Her husband Brendan has been prosecuting cases out of the same building since 2019.

Pennsylvania’s judicial conduct rules are clear: a judge can’t hear cases where her spouse is involved as a lawyer. But “involved” is the question. Does Brendan need to stay completely away from every case that could land in his wife’s courtroom? What if he reviews a file before it gets reassigned? What if he advises on charges, then a colleague handles the hearing?

The DA’s office hasn’t said.

Five prosecutors, one small courthouse

Wayne County District Attorney A.G. Howell runs a small shop: himself, First Assistant Shelley Robinson, Patrick Robinson, Brendan Ellis, and Jessica Ellis. When Jessica resigns to take the bench — Pennsylvania bars sitting magistrates from practicing law — that drops to four.

Jessica’s district covers Honesdale Borough, Waymart, Prompton, and the townships of Canaan, South Canaan, Cherry Ridge, and Texas. That’s the county seat and surrounding area. A significant share of Wayne County’s criminal cases start there.

If Brendan can’t touch any of those files, can four prosecutors manage the workload? Would he need a formal reassignment to other districts or appeals work? The DA’s office hasn’t announced a policy.

Both Ellises also run Ellis Law Group on Church Street, handling family law, estates, and real estate across northeastern Pennsylvania.

During her campaign, Jessica used her plan to leave private practice as a selling point. In a May 7 interview with The River Reporter, she criticized other magisterial judges who maintain private practices: “I can tell you from my personal experience I can never get them on the phone if I have cases with them. They are always very late in filing things, and it is very difficult to resolve cases with them.”

It’s an unusual complaint. Attorneys don’t typically call judges to discuss cases — court business runs through filings, hearings, and staff. Direct contact outside formal proceedings is what ex parte rules exist to prevent.

She told the paper she’d dedicate all her work to the MDJ office — “In my opinion, it wouldn’t be fair to juggle.”

Pennsylvania doesn’t completely bar MDJ attorneys from private practice, but the restrictions are severe: no appearances before any magisterial judge in the Commonwealth or criminal work in their home county. Most MDJ attorneys find maintaining a meaningful practice impractical. Whether Jessica’s decision was a principled choice or simply practical reality, she framed it as the former.

Brendan faces no such restrictions.

The recusal math

Wayne County has three magisterial districts for roughly 50,000 people. Judge Kay Bates retired from Jessica’s seat last August. Judge Bonnie Carney, based in Hawley, is stepping down from her seat in early 2025. That leaves Judge Jonathan Dunsinger in the northern part of the county as the only holdover.

When a magisterial judge recuses, the case transfers to another district. If Jessica recuses frequently from Honesdale-area matters and Carney’s Hawley seat sits vacant, Dunsinger’s docket absorbs the overflow.

Nobody’s explained how that works.

What the rules actually say

Pennsylvania’s Code of Judicial Conduct requires disqualification when a judge’s spouse is “acting as a lawyer in the proceeding.” Courts elsewhere have read that broadly. New York judicial ethics opinions say a prosecutor’s “personal involvement” extends beyond courtroom appearances — reviewing files, advising on charges, or consulting on pleas can trigger conflicts even when a different attorney shows up in court.

The U.S. Supreme Court addressed a related question in Williams v. Pennsylvania (2016). The Court threw out a death sentence because a state Supreme Court justice had, as Philadelphia’s DA decades earlier, approved seeking capital punishment in that same case. The majority found “an impermissible risk of actual bias” when a judge had “significant, personal involvement as a prosecutor” in a matter before them.

Nobody’s suggesting the Ellises would act improperly. Jessica made the Super Lawyers list for family law. Their firm has strong reviews across four counties. She won the May primary decisively.

But judicial ethics rules don’t run on trust. They exist because public confidence in courts depends on systems that prevent problems before they start.

“A judge must avoid even the appearance of impropriety,” the Pennsylvania code states.

What Wayne County hasn’t answered

The questions are basic: Will there be a written policy keeping Brendan Ellis away from District 22-3-02 cases? How will assignments work? Who certifies that a file never crossed his desk before it reaches his wife’s courtroom? What happens if a conflict surfaces mid-proceeding?

Other rural Pennsylvania counties have navigated prosecutor-judge marriages. Some reassign the spouse to appeals. Others implement screening protocols with documentation showing which attorneys touched which cases.

Wayne County takes office in January. The courthouse is small. The docket is shared. And the county still hasn’t said how any of this will work.

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