McCune retiring, planning to serve as senior judge
Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCune said he could run for another 10-year term on the bench, but he isn’t.
“It’s time to retire,” McCune said last week.
He won his first 10-year term in office in the 2005 election, which expanded the number of county judges from five to six, and his second term ends in January 2026. He’ll turn 69 in October this year and will have six more years before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 for judges and district judges in Pennsylvania.
“Professionally, I think I’m as sharp as I ever was. It’s the outside of work life I want to experience more,” said McCune, who works in the criminal court division.
He said he plans to spend time volunteering in the community; traveling with his wife; playing more, and better, golf; and spending time with his wife watching their grandchildren, nieces and nephews compete in their sports and dancing activities.
The 44 years he has devoted to the legal profession — including working as a lawyer, district attorney and judge — won’t come to a complete end when he retires at the end of his term. He said plans to inform the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Court that he will be available to serve as a senior judge. Senior judges can serve for 10 years or until they turn 78, whichever comes first. Judge William Shaffer, who retired in January 2022, is serving as a senior judge. A full-time judge to replace McCune will be selected by voters in the upcoming election.
As a senior judge he said he hopes he can remain involved with veterans treatment court, which he has presided over since it started in 2012 and once called his most rewarding professional accomplishment.
Veterans’ treatment court is one of three specialty treatment courts in Butler County Common Pleas Court that combine highly structured court supervision with treatment. McCune said he assisted in establishing drug treatment court and behavioral health court — the two other treatment courts.
“I’ve seen the tremendous benefits of treatment court,” McCune said.
In addition to McCune’s replacement, a new seventh judge will be chosen in the election.
The additional judge is needed because the demands on the court system, especially family law cases, have risen in step with the increase in the county population, he said.
“We’re seeing more serious criminal cases than we have in the past,” McCune said.
There have been more homicide cases in the last few years than there were in the past, he said.
Those cases, such as homicides and others that involve sentences of life or many years in prison, take a lot of time and effort by prosecutors and defense attorneys to resolve, and disrupt the lives of those involved, he said.
“They need to get resolved quickly,” McCune said.
Thorough work by attorneys is needed to avoid having appealed cases returned for a new trial years after the original trial because people involved in the original cases could die and investigating officers can retire, he said.
Two judge offices are open because of McCune’s retirement and a new seventh judge position created by Act 58 of 2023.
Clarion County public defender Jacob Roberts; Matthew McCune, a Butler attorney and Timothy McCune’s son; John Scialabba, the husband of state Rep. Stephenie Scialabba, R-12th, and a partner in a Butler County law firm; and Pittsburgh attorney James Insco II, of Mars, filed their petitions.
County-level judges serve 10-year terms.
