Allegheny County Common Pleas Judges Bicket, Todd up for retention votes

In addition to 10 vacant seats on the Allegheny County Common Pleas bench, two sitting judges are up for retention in Tuesday’s election.

Judge Alexander P. Bicket, 65, of Mt. Lebanon, and Judge Randal B. Todd, 66, also of Mt. Lebanon, are running for another 10-year term

The Allegheny County Bar Association rated both Bicket and Todd as recommended for retention — the highest rating offered for that category.

Bicket, first elected in 2011, has been in the criminal division since 2015.

He currently serves as the supervising judge of the Allegheny County grand jury and is a member of the ethics committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges.

Bicket is originally from Cape Town, South Africa, and moved to the United States in 1982 to attend Columbia University in New York, where he earned a master’s degree in psychology.

He later moved to Pittsburgh, where he taught English and Latin at Fox Chapel Area High School.

Bicket attended night classes at Duquesne University while teaching and earned his law degree in 1988.

Following graduation, Bicket became an associate at Zimmer Kunz and practiced as a trial lawyer in civil litigation for 23 years.

When he was first elected to the bench, Bicket spent four years in the court’s family division.

He said he is running for retention because he enjoys his work and believes he can still make a difference on the court.

“I want to continue to make sure that defendants who come before me understand, regardless of what color they are or their socioeconomic background, they’re all going to be treated fairly, and my record of the last six years shows that,” Bicket said. “And I like to think lawyers and litigants who have come before me would agree.”

During his tenure in criminal court, Bicket’s most high-profile case was the jury trial of former East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld, who was accused of killing Antwon Rose II on June 19, 2018.

Rose was a passenger in a car that had been spotted minutes earlier at a drive-by shooting in North Braddock, when Rosfeld pulled it over.

Rose and another passenger, Zaijuan Hester, fled on foot. Rosfeld fired, hitting Rose three times.

A jury from Dauphin County was selected to hear the case. The panel deliberated about 3-1/2 hours before returning its verdict of not guilty on the single count of criminal homicide.

Deborah Gross, the president and CEO of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, said that sitting judges are limited in what they can say and do, especially when they preside over jury trials.

“Under the Code of Judicial Conduct, we’re required to handle difficult cases regardless of public opinion,” Bicket said.

Todd was first appointed to the bench in June 2001 by then-Gov. Tom Ridge. He was elected to a full term in November of that year. Todd served in the court’s family division until 2005, when he moved to criminal court. During his time in the criminal division, Todd also served as supervising judge of the Allegheny County grand jury.

Before becoming a judge, Todd worked as a civil attorney with the firm DeMay, DeMay, Donnelly & Todd. During that time, he was a volunteer with the bar association’s Indigent Divorce Program and served as a special arbitrator in the court’s civil division.

He earned his law degree at Duquesne University’s evening program. Todd has four children and five grandchildren.

He declined to comment for this story.

Among his recent high-profile cases, Todd presided over the homicide proceedings against Joseph Gazzam, of Mt. Lebanon, who was charged with killing his 4-month-old daughter, Victoria Gazzam.

Gazzam pleaded guilty in 2019 to a general count of criminal homicide, leaving Todd to determine his degree of guilt in the beating death of the infant.

At sentencing, Todd called it the “most disturbing case” he’d ever had.

He ordered Gazzam, who blamed his actions on alcohol and drug abuse that worsened following two Army tours in Afghanistan, to serve 21 to 42 years in prison.

Todd also presided over the February 2020 jury trial of Jawan Johnson, who was found guilty of attempted homicide and robbery for a 2017 shooting.

Johnson was accused of following an 18-year-old woman from Braddock after she got off a Port Authority bus on the East Busway in Homewood, shooting her and stealing her purse.

A jury found Johnson guilty, and Todd ordered him to serve 30 to 60 years in prison.