THE HONORABLE JEANNINE TURGEON, Judge. Elected November 1991. Retained November 2001.

Judge Jeannine Turgeon is a native Central Pennsylvanian. She was born in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, on March 19, 1953 and attended elementary school in Lancaster County. She has lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania since the age of nine and graduated from Central Dauphin East High School (1970), prior to attending Chatham College (B.A. 1974) and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law (J.D. 1977-Class President 1974-76). Judge Turgeon is enrolled at the National Judicial College for her Master's Degree in Judicial Studies.

Judge Turgeon values greatly her mentors from college employment to her current position, including the Honorable K. Leroy Irvis (summer intern for first African-American to serve as Speaker of the House in any state legislature in the U.S. since Reconstruction), State Treasurer Grace M. Sloan (secretarial duties during summer and winter college breaks for the first female State Treasurer in Pennsylvania), Secretary of State C. Delores Tucker (secretary to Director of Women's Division of Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee, the Vice-Chair of the Democratic State Committee, who was also the first female African-American cabinet officer in the U.S.; chair of the Democratic National Committee Black Caucus; the founding President of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Association for Non-Violent Change, the first African-American to serve as President of the National Federation of Democratic Women.) and the Honorable Genevieve Blatt (law clerk for the first female elected to statewide office in 1955 when she was elected Secretary of Internal Affairs and then appointed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania).

Following law school she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Genevieve Blatt (1977-1979), and then commenced practicing law at Nauman, Smith, Shissler & Hall (1979-1981) the oldest Harrisburg law firm. In 1991, she became partner in her own firm, Campbell, Spitzer, Davis & Turgeon, later Davis & Turgeon, until November of 1991, when she was elected as the first woman judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County and only the third Democrat since its creation in 1785 over 200 years ago.

Judge Turgeon is Vice-Chair of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Civil Jury Instructions Committee (2000-date) (Reporter 2004/2005; Vice Chair 2005-date) which recently revised over 300 Standard Suggested Jury Instructions. Following her appointment to this Committee, she encouraged the PA Supreme Court to permit jurors to take notes and receive written copies of certain jury instructions prior to deliberation, which innovations have been adopted. She also convinced the Committee to assume the challenging and arduous task of rewriting the two volumes of instructions in "Plain English," an ongoing project.

She was appointed by the PA Supreme Court to serve as a member of the PA Supreme Court Domestic Relations Rules Committee (1997-2003 Chair 2002-2003) which drafts new statewide rules on unified family court reform, custody, divorce, child support guidelines, mediation, protection from abuse and related issues. She chaired the PA State Trial Judges Family Law Section from 1996 to 2000. Working with the county bar association's family law section and as Chair of the Family Law Section of the PA Conference of State Trial Judges, she brought to our state and her county the concept of providing four-hour educational seminars to inform parents about the effects of separation and divorce on children and how to minimize the effects of the separation and custody litigation on their children. Today nearly every county in Pennsylvania requires custody litigants' attendance to this seminar. She currently serves on the Pennsylvania Joint State Task Force on Parenting Coordination (2007-date) which drafted a proposed statewide Rule and standard Parenting Coordination Order for high conflict custody cases.

She served following appointment by the PA Supreme Court, on the PA Commission on Sentencing (2003-2009) which researches, develops & recommends sound statewide sentencing guidelines and monitors compliance with the guidelines and served as Chair of the Sentencing/Re-Sentencing Work Group (2008-2009).

She is Vice-Chair of the PA State Trial Judge's Judicial Security Committee (2005-date); served as a member of the PA Attorney General's Family Violence Task Force, the Pennsylvania Coalition against Domestic Violence (PCADV) Protection from Abuse Database Project Advisory Committee, Common Pleas Computer Project Committee was Chair of the Joint PA Trial Judges Task Force on Gender Fairness in Courts (Chair, 1996-1997); and is a member of the PA State Trial Judges Executive Committee Zone 3 Representative (2008-date).

Judge Turgeon's service on the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, a court of general jurisdiction, involves handling all general civil, criminal, family and equity matters (1992-date). Her special assignments have included: Domestic Relations Judge (1992-1994; 2000-date); Civil Calendar Judge (1994-1995); Emergency Custody Judge (1994-1995); Custody Conciliation Supervisor (1993-1995); Mandatory Seminar for Separating Parents Program Supervisor (1993-1996); Asbestos Litigation (1994-1995, 2006-2008); Minor Settlements (1994-1995); Miscellaneous Court (1992-1995, 1998-1999, 2008-date); Juvenile Court (1996-1997); Mental Health Court (1998-1999); Prison Board Member (1998-1999); Election Board Member (1995, 1999); and Protection From Abuse Court (2000-2001).

During her tenure as Domestic Relations Judge in Dauphin County she has instituted many new programs to expedite support conferences and increase support collections and enforcement ($45 million in 2008), helped compose a comprehensive booklet, for the public, explaining child support for litigants and references to various human services and organizations for related problems, work release outreach and has arranged for community organizations to provide books for DRO and criminal inmates to read to their children.

As administrative judge of domestic violence cases, she instituted a holistic courtroom approach referring both plaintiffs and defendants to various human service providers including, batterers' intervention programs, housing, Drug & Alcohol, Mental Health/Mental Retardation, Children & Youth Services, psychological evaluations and treatment and parenting programs. She was instrumental in the creation of the Seminar for Separating Parents program in Dauphin County. During her term as Juvenile Court Judge, she created a Juvenile Justice Work Group to create collaboration between Juvenile Probation, Children & Youth, D&A and MH/MR agencies and developed a Truancy Task Force. She was appointed by Harrisburg's Mayor as one of the City's delegates to the Presidents' Summit on Youth at Risk and thereafter was founding member and Vice-President for the Tri-County Alliance for Youth at Risk. As the Court Civil Calendar Judge, she instituted the practice of publishing summaries of all civil jury trials and verdicts in the Dauphin County Reporter, brought all civil jury cases certified for trial readiness current with no back log, and revised the court's jury verdict forms to provide for a "jury foreperson" rather than "jury foreman."

In criminal court proceedings, Judge Turgeon instituted a holistic approach, long before it became a recent trend, ordering defendants to in-patient drug and alcohol treatment programs, mental health programs, batterers' counseling and sex offender programs as well as directing them to complete their education to obtain job skills, attend parenting classes to learn how to focus themselves on changing their lives to become better parents and role models, and sending non-dangerous defendants to work release centers rather than jail. She created a community task force to outreach to defendants and their families to enroll their children in Pre-K programs. She has sentenced over 6,500 adult defendants to various sentences including intermediate punishment, county prison, state correctional institutions, life in prison without parole and a capital serial murderer defendant to the death penalty.

Prior to ascending to the bench, she was on the Board of Directors of various committees and Boards including the Dauphin County Bar Association, PBA, Harrisburg Junior League, CREDC and the Heinz-Menaker Senior Citizens Center. She was a founding member of the Dauphin County Victim Witness Program in 1983. Judge Turgeon has always been active in numerous civic and community activities.

She currently chairs the Dauphin County biannual Meet Your Judges Program (1992-date) which provides an opportunity for the public to meet their judges, learn about our judicial system and ask questions. She serves on the Steering Committee of Dauphin County Capital Beginnings Early Childhood Initiative (2006-date); the Governor's Pre K Counts Executive Leadership Council (2007-date); the Harrisburg Center for Healthy Child Development (Penn State/Greater Harrisburg Foundation); Chatham University's Landscape Architecture Advisory Board (2010-date) and she is the Chair of the Dauphin County Do the Write Thing Challenge (2004-date) which sends two ambassadors (the winning 7th or 8th grade girl and boy essayists on violence in their home, school and community) to the National DTWT conference in Washington, DC every July. She is Co-Chair of the Central Pennsylvania Judges and Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers and Judges (LCL) (1992-date). She has served on Drug Free Pennsylvania Board of Directors (2001-2007) and the Community Action Commission Board of Directors (2008-2009).

She sits as a volunteer judge for statewide Moot Court Widener Law School, Dickinson Law School's Moot Court and PBA High School Mock Trial competitions. She is a judge for the annual James A. Finnegan Foundation Essay Contest, a foundation established to provide internships in PA government to outstanding accredited college/university students. She volunteers as a judge for the Paxtang Halloween parade. She has served on the Board of Directors of her Bellevue Park community and recently co-authored a book "Bellevue Park - Our First 100 years," (Xlibris Publishing Co., 2009).

She has taught as an Adjunct Professor at Widener School of Law and an Associate Professor at Penn State University, Capital Campus. She is a frequent lecturer for PBI, the PBA Family Law Section, the PA State Trial Judges Conference, CASSP, Widener Law School, bar associations, community organizations, churches, schools and has also testified before the State House Judiciary Committee.

Judge Turgeon has co-authored with Prof. Elizabeth Francis "Improving Pennsylvania's Justice System Through Jury System Innovations," Widener Law Journal, 18 Widener L.J. 419 (2009); co-authored an article with Mary Cushing Doherty, Esquire "Partnership Means Progress For Family Court Reform" for the PBA Family Law Section, Pennsylvania Family Lawyer, May-June 2003; she authored "PFA Court - A Problem Solving Court", Pennsylvania Family Lawyer, Dec., 2001; "Judges: Should Pharmacological Treatment Be a Condition of Certain Sex Offenders' Probation or Parole?" Jurispondence (Pennsylvania Trial Judges) May 1997; "How to [Create] A Custody System That Works," The County Line (PBA) July 1996; and "A Custody System That Works," Jurispondence (Pennsylvania Trial Judges) Dec., 1995 and in The Pennsylvania Lawyer; Dec., 1996.

Judge Turgeon has received several awards, including the Coretta Scott King - Women for Diversity Award (Women Connect - March 2009); The Heinz-Menaker Senior Center's 35 Year Service to Community Leader Pioneer Award (October 2007); The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International's Paul Harris Fellow Award (April 2005); Domestic Relations Association of Pennsylvania (DRAP)Special Recognition for Many Years of Dedicated Service to PA Families (September 2003); Edgewater Psychiatric Center's Community Service Award (October 1998); Juvenile Detention Center Association of Pennsylvania's Distinguished Award Outside Field of Detention (1996); Eagleville Hospital Board of Directors' Eagleville Hospital Award (June 1995) and Chatham College Distinguished Alumna Award (1995).

Judge Turgeon is married and has three children, two step-children, and one granddaughter.