Nearly six months after former Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Mark V. Tranquilli resigned his seat and stipulated to a complaint alleging racial bias, a Pittsburgh man convicted by him on marijuana charges is seeking a new trial.

It is believed to be the first hearing on what is likely to be many such requests involving Tranquilli, who joined the court in 2014 and moved to the criminal bench in 2018. The request at hand Wednesday involved allegations against the judge’s impartiality.

On the eve of his misconduct trial before the state Court of Judicial Discipline in November, Tranquilli resigned, stipulating to the facts laid out against him in a six-count complaint filed by the Judicial Conduct Board last summer.

Among the allegations was that Tranquilli engaged in “racial or other harassment,” on the bench.

Based on the board complaint against Tranquilli, an attorney representing Montay Green filed a post-sentence motion in October accusing Tranquilli of “probable bias” in her client’s case.

On Wednesday, Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer, who now sits in Tranquilli’s former courtroom on the fifth floor of the Allegheny County Courthouse, heard argument on the issue.

“He’s entitled to go to trial in an impartial tribunal,” said defense attorney Diana Stavroulakis during the hearing.

Green, 27, had a nonjury trial before Tranquilli on Feb. 13, 2018. The judge found him guilty of possession with intent to deliver; possession of marijuana; possession of drug paraphernalia and conspiracy.

Tranquilli sentenced Green, who is Black, to the nine months he’d already served at Allegheny County Jail pending trial and 30 months probation.

Stavroulakis argued in her motion that the sentence was “manifestly excessive,” that Tranquilli failed to consider that her client had no prior record and that it was a victimless crime.

During Green’s probation, Tranquilli revoked him three times on technical violations and resentenced him to new periods of probation, extending it into 2023.

At one such hearing, Tranquilli told Green, “‘You bought yourself an additional year of probation for being a jackass, alright? Lesson learned?’”

During Wednesday’s hearing, Stavroulakis pointed to the board complaint against Tranquilli — as well as his stipulation to the facts it contained — as evidence that her client was denied due process “because of probable or actual judicial bias.”

The case that led to the charges against Tranquilli stemmed from the acquittal by a jury of a Black defendant accused in a drug crime.

Those circumstances mirror Green’s, Stavroulakis said.

“It’s probable [Green] proceeded to a nonjury trial before a judge who was not impartial,” she said.

The standard, Stavroulakis said, is “to establish probable judicial bias. I don’t have to establish it to a certainty.”

Green’s case, she said, came down to a credibility determination between her client and the police officer who charged him.

In trying to persuade Beemer, Stavroulakis cited several portions of Green’s trial transcript where she believes Tranquilli showed bias.

In explaining his findings at the conclusion of Green’s trial, Tranquilli said he believed Green was receiving marijuana in the mail from California, Stavroulakis said. She said there was no such evidence presented at trial.

“I think it shows a predisposition of Judge Tranquilli to find my client guilty,” she said.

Later, in sentencing Green, Stavroulakis continued, Tranquilli used several of the phrases cited by the Judicial Conduct Board in its complaint against him.

Tranquilli, a longtime homicide prosecutor, told Green “there is no milk of human kindness left in these veins,” and “If you lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.”

“That is evidence of implicit bias,” Stavroulakis said.

She called Tranquilli’s tone with Green condescending and superior.

But Assistant District Attorney Alicia Searfoss told Beemer it’s disingenuous to go back to a lengthy trial transcript and pick out only a handful of lines.

“Most cases come down to credibility between the defendant and a police officer,” she said.

“Doesn’t that make fairness, impartiality and the ability to make decisions based only on the evidence presented absolutely paramount for the judge?” Beemer countered.

Searfoss agreed, noting that Tranquilli went on for several pages of the transcript explaining how he made his credibility determination.

She objected to Beemer considering Tranquilli’s board complaint, saying that it’s irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial.

To receive a new trial, Green needed to show there was actual bias by Tranquilli against him, the prosecutor said.

“The commonwealth believes the evaluation is whether or not there was specific judicial bias in Mr. Green’s case,” Searfoss said.

Beemer responded, “I completely disagree that it’s irrelevant.”

Several things in Tranquilli’s complaint, he continued, go directly to Green’s issue.

“We have to have a system where an individual who makes a choice — that whatever decision is made is free from external considerations not appropriate in a court of law,” Beemer said.

He told the parties he would review the relevant documents and case law and issue his decision shortly.

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