Bucks County DA Matt Weintraub will be a judge soon. But, first he has to try a murder case

Bucks County’s newest Common Pleas Judge-elect Matt Weintraub plans to end his career as a prosecutor the same way he started: In a courtroom.

Next month he will represent his office in a case against a New Jersey man accused in a February fatal hit-and-run in a Bristol Township parking lot. The trial is scheduled to take place two weeks before Weintraub moves from the top spot in the county District Attorney’s Office to the Bucks County bench.

“I’m going to work until the last day I can,” the 55-year-old Central Bucks resident said. “I love this job too much.”

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Weintraub has been the county’s top law enforcement officer since 2016, when he was appointed following the retirement of David Heckler.

He won his first four-year term as DA in 2017, and he was re-elected in 2021 as the only sitting Republican district attorney in the Philadelphia suburbs.  He is the third Bucks County DA to move from the prosecution chair to the bench since 2011.

Weintraub was unopposed in the judge race this year, and unofficial totals show he collected 170,000 votes on the Republican and Democratic ballots Tuesday.

Here is what to expect next as Weintraub moves to the judiciary.

What we know about Matt Weintraub and his legal career

He was hired as a Bucks County prosecutor fresh out of law school in 1993, following a summer internship at the courthouse. In 2001, he left the DA’s office to work at a private practice doing civil work, but after three months he found it was not a good fit.

He longed to return to the county, but at the time there was an unwritten rule that once a person left the DA’s office they couldn’t come back.

So Weintraub went north, taking an assistant district attorney job with Lehigh County. After four years he went south to Cape May County, New Jersey, where he worked as a prosecutor for another five years.

But the Upper Southampton native longed to return to his first job, and in 2011 he got wind that Heckler, who was then DA, had fond memories of Weintraub as a prosecutor. When he reached out to Heckler he learned the rumors were true.

Heckler offered him a job and a prediction, Weintraub said.

The former judge promised that he would use whatever influence he had to make Weintraub his successor.

“He was true to his word,” Weintraub said Wednesday after his Election Day win.

While the district attorney is largely an administrative role, Weintraub continued to show up in the courtroom at least once or twice a year, he said.

“That way, you have your hand in it,”  he said.

Weintraub was the lead prosecutor on high profile cases including Cosmo Dinardo and his cousin Sean Kratz, who were accused and convicted of of participating in the murders of four men, and  Sara Packer and Jacob Sullivan, who were convicted in the 2016 rape, murder and dismemberment of Packer’s 14-year-old daughter.

Earlier this year he headed up the prosecution for the resentencing hearing for Ivory King, who was convicted of murdering four people in 1998, when he was 17.

Now, Weintraub is preparing for his last homicide trial as a prosecutor set for Dec. 11. He took over the case for the original ADA who will be out on maternity leave.

“It’s what I enjoy,” Weintraub said. “When I walk into court, people say, ‘What are you doing here?’ I say,’I work here.’”

Who will be the next District Attorney?

First Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Schorn will serve out the rest of Weintraub’s four-year term, which ends in 2025.  She could then seek re-election.

She is the third woman to hold the top prosecutor position, and the first since current Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry who served from 2008 to 2009.  She has been a Bucks County prosecutor since 1999.

Like her boss, Schorn is no stranger to high-profile prosecutions including former Warminster police officer James Carey, who was convicted earlier this year of sexually abusing five boys in the 1990s.

Schorn plans to keep her current casehold, which includes upcoming murder trials for Trinh Nguyen, who is accused in the 2022 murders of her sons, and Robert Atkins, who is accused in a 1991 murder of Joy Hibbs. She also anticipates occasionally prosecuting as DA.

The choice of Schorn as his successor was one Weintraub said he planned back in 2021, when he promoted her to his second-in-command.

At the time a recent change in state law automatically passed the job to the first deputy DA when the sitting district attorney vacates the role.  Previously, the Common Pleas court made the appointment, which is how Weintraub got the job.

"I put a lot of thought into this because I care a great deal about leaving the office and the county public safety in great hands," he said.

Since learning he was unopposed for the judge seat, Weintraub said he has been working closely with Schorn on transitioning.

“Jen and I are working daily to make sure she has every advantage and benefits of my experience, including the mistakes I have made along the way,” he added. “Bucks County will be well protected with her as the top law enforcement officer.”

What court will Weintraub be assigned as a freshman judge?

Weintraub said he doesn’t know what court he will be a judge for, other than he won’t be hearing criminal cases for a while.

“I’ll take whatever assignment they give me. I’ll try my best to learn it and do my best,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m nervous — I’m looking forward to the new challenge.”

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: How Bucks County DA Matt Weintraub will transition to county judge