Videos showing gruesome shootings and stabbings were regular viewing in James DeLeon’s courtroom during his more than 30 years overseeing preliminary hearings as a municipal court judge.
DeLeon, who left the bench in 2021, believes handling homicide and other violent crime cases gave him post-traumatic stress disorder – and it left him frustrated over what he perceived as inaction on the part of city’s leaders.
“The (mayoral) candidates that are running right now have no clue on how to keep people safe,” he said during an interview at the Metro office. “They’ve never done it. When they were on City Council, they turned a deaf ear to the gun problems that we have.”
Though no independent polling results have been published, DeLeon, who lives in Germantown, is considered a long shot among the 10 Democrats running in the May 16 primary for mayor.
However, he believes his judicial experience gives him a unique perspective on Philadelphia’s gun violence crisis and sets him apart from the other candidates – most of whom have generated more headlines and raised more money than him.
“He has a very upbeat demeanor for someone who literally has watched the worst of the worst of Philadelphia for 34 years,” said Jarred Rigmaiden, DeLeon’s son-in-law, who also works on the campaign.
“He’s actually in the community,” Rigmaiden added. “He’s really helping people, really trying to show kids that there are other things out there besides being in a gang or being in the streets.”
DeLeon, as mayor, said he would push for better coordination and collaboration between the mayor’s office, City Council and judicial leadership.
“Every single organization that is concerned with gun violence in Philadelphia has not reached out to the court system at all,” he said.
He scoffs at the violence prevention plans of some his competitors in the race – ideas such as directing gun possession cases to federal court or declaring a state of emergency – saying they likely are not feasible or effective.
DeLeon’s plan calls for hiring 1,500 officers for the Philadelphia Police Department, in part to fill vacancies. PPD leaders told City Council this week that the force is short 850 officers.
To counteract nationwide police recruitment struggles, DeLeon intends to make a direct plea through television and radio public service announcements.
“For a mayor to run the city, he has to have the help of the citizens, truthfully,” he added. “He needs to ask for the help of the citizens.”
Judges, DeLeon said, should be handing down social media bans to most people charged with assault, domestic violence, illegal possession of a gun and other serious crimes. Such a prohibition, while hard to enforce, would lead to a decline in shootings stemming from online beefs, he argued.
DeLeon is basing his public safety strategy on the National Incident Management System, or NIMS, a standardized set of procedures which he said he learned about while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary in the aftermath of 9/11.
His plan, known as LIMS, involves a public safety director who would be in charge of coordinating the gun violence response in the most affected neighborhoods.
The same approach, DeLeon said, would be used in his administration to tackle homelessness and drug use in Kensington and on SEPTA. It would also be deployed to improve student achievement, turning schools into service centers for families.
“We can’t just look at the child,” he said. “We have to look at the child and his family, and we have to give what’s needed to that family in order to help that child.”
A reluctant judge
DeLeon grew up in West Philadelphia, attending Catholic schools before heading to Howard University.
“I wanted initially to be an engineer,” he said. DeLeon added that he served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1970 to 1985.
He eventually enrolled in Delaware Law School. After earning his degree, DeLeon joined a firm, and he recalls his law partners nudging him toward a run for municipal court judge.
“I had to be forced to run for judge,” he told Metro “The people said that, ‘Jimmy, you will be a great judge.’ And I said, ‘But I’m really having fun practicing law.’”
DeLeon was elected in 1988. Three subsequent runs – two for Superior Court and one for Pennsylvania Supreme Court – failed, so he remained in the municipal court’s criminal division, which handles misdemeanors, summary offenses and initial proceedings for felonies.
In 2009, the state Court of Judicial Discipline suspended DeLeon without pay for three months for misconduct. Four years earlier, he had issued a bogus “stay away order” after the Romanian Counsel to Philadelphia complained that a neighbor was bothering his teenage daughter.
DeLeon has admitted to the misstep and noted that the oversight court did not decide to remove him from the bench.
“I’m a champion of a fresh start,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about me. Sometimes we stumble. But when we stand up straight and walk again, we walk with the confidence and knowing that we’re heading in the right direction.”
Ahead of Philadelphia’s Mayor’s Race, Metro will spotlight every candidate in the Democratic primary election, which will take place on Tuesday, May 16. Follow our Mayor’s Race Spotlight Series for an in-depth look at the candidates.
