Although it’s a wrist slap compared to what awaits the defrocked judge, the commission also made final its discipline of Jones: a three-month suspension without pay for his unethical relationship with the late prosecutor Lisa Willardson. The commission could have pushed to have him removed from the bench he hasn’t seen in months because of a pending federal fraud indictment.
Instead, it recognized his lack of a prior disciplinary record, “otherwise exemplary” 20-year judicial career, and the “relatively minimal violations” of three of the counts against him to opt for a lesser penalty. (The commission explored only the allegations before it and clearly didn’t wade into other legal swamps in which Jones finds himself mired.)
The notion that he continued to collect his six-figure salary in recent months despite his self-inflicted civil and criminal entanglements is downright disturbing. With his pay finally suspended, you would think even Jones would at last do the right thing and resign from office.
It wasn’t a close call. Ample evidence existed early in the process that pointed to Jones’ inappropriate relationship with a prosecutor who had cases in his courtroom.
“The close relationship of Ms. Willardson, a prosecutor, and Respondent, the judge who presides over their cases caused concern,” commission Chairman Douglas Jones wrote in a unanimous decision. “At least one case had been prosecuted by Ms. Willardson and was still pending through the period when the Respondent’s relationship with Ms. Willardson further developed.”
The judge’s failure to recuse himself was trouble on its face. Parental rights and the future of a child’s custody were at stake.
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Judge Jones Case a Waste of Just About Everything
Judges like him should be harshly ighly disciplined, because they hurt the image of the Bar, which is sinking fast!
ReplyDeleteThe Bar has become a joke and it's a shame. Once it was held in high esteem.
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