Retired York County Judge Emanuel Cassimatis (FILE)
Retired Common Pleas Court Judge Emanuel A. "Mike" Cassimatis died Wednesday while vacationing in Rome, Italy.

News of his death at 83 spread quickly through the York County Judicial Center on Thursday.

Cassimatis' legacy, according to those who knew him, is the children's rights programs and the statewide juvenile justice system he helped to establish.

Many successful people in the county today view Cassimatis as a mentor, including Judge John C. Uhler.

"He was the epitome of judicial demeanor, patience and insight," Uhler said Thursday.

Former state Rep. Bev Mackereth, now the county director of Human Services, met Cassimatis in 1981 when she was a 22-year-old caseworker for Children and Youth Services.

She said Cassimatis was the person she went to with life-changing questions.

"He said, 'Follow your heart and you will never make the wrong choice,'" Mackereth said.

With that advice, Mackereth helped create the county's child abuse prosecution unit, joined the Ridge administration as the director of the Governor's Community Partnership for Safe Children, successfully ran for office and then took the Human Services position.

Cassimatis was currently serving on Mackereth's Human Services commission.

Mackereth was there when Cassimatis, presiding over juvenile dependency court, sometimes found it necessary to remove children from unsafe homes.

"He did everything in his power to do right by these children," she said. "Some who were abused later came back to see him and told him he saved their lives."

Longtime juvenile public defender Barbara Lee Krier, Cassimatis's law clerk in 1981-82, fought back tears.

"Everything done in the commonwealth in the last 30 years concerning juvenile justice is based on his work," Krier said. "I do what I do because of him."

Cassimatis, along with Uhler, participated in writing the court's juvenile bench book, a reference manual used by juvenile court judges throughout the commonwealth. Cassimatis authored Chapter 1, "The Juvenile Court Judge."

Judge-elect Chuck Patterson recalled Cassimatis as "totally committed to the York community."

"He is one of the finest minds and most notable scholars of the judiciary," Patterson said. "And he had an absolute passion for the success of young people."

Cassimatis was one of the founding fathers of the state's court-appointed special advocate program, CASA, which aids abused and neglected children through a volunteer program.

Wanda Noll, director of the county's CASA program, also struggled with her emotions as she spoke of Cassimatis.

"Humble, dedicated, caring, accessible. He was that way with everybody," Noll said. "He valued his community, kids and families.

"He touched so many things in juvenile dependency court and juvenile delinquency court and never wanted to be given any credit for anything."

York County Chief Public Defender Bruce Blocher also began his legal career as a law clerk for Cassimatis in 1985.

"He truly cared about the juvenile justice system," Blocher said. "He is how I ended up becoming a juvenile public defender.

"He was very bright and one of the hardest working people I've every seen. He made you want to work harder. Hopefully, the new judges will emulate his work ethic."

In 1989, Cassimatis chaired a county initiative that led directly to the creation of the district attorney's child abuse prosecution unit and the mandated sharing of information between social services and law enforcement.

In 2000, Cassimatis was the only American judge on the International Tribunal for Children's Rights, a bona-fide court and an arm of the International Bureau of Children's Rights organized in 1994 after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations in 1989.

NOTABLE

During his years on the bench, Cassimatis presided over several state judicial organizations, including the Conference of State Trial Judges and the Juvenile Court Judges Commission.

Court cases Cassimatis presided over include:

  • The first-degree murder conviction of John Amos Small in 1996. Cassimatis sentenced Small to death. Small remains on death row;

  • Ordering sitting York Mayor Charlie Robertson to stand trial for murder in 2001 for the 1969 race riot death of Lillie Belle Allen. Robertson was later acquitted;

  • The first public juvenile hearing in York County in 1995.

    BIOGRAPHY

    Emanuel A. Cassimatis

  • Born in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, on Dec. 2, 1926.

  • His father, Andrew E. Cassimatis, who died in 1959, founded the former Ramona Restaurant in the first block of North George Street, York. His mother, Mary A. (Calopedis) Cassimatis, died July 29, 1993.

  • He attended York City Schools and graduated from William Penn Senior High School in 1944. He received a bachelor's degree from Dickinson College, Carlisle, and his law degree from Dickinson School of Law in 1951.

  • He began practicing law in York 45 years ago with attorney Norman Olewiler on East King Street. In 1953, he became associated with the law firm of Kain, Kain and Kain. After two years, he became a partner with Stock and Leader, staying there 21 years.

  • He was elected judge in November 1977.


    On the blogs

  • Judge Emanuel Cassimatis added to growing list of distinguished York countians recognized for community involvement

  • The Cassimatises: 'Builders and Heroes,' Part I