UPSON
COUNTY, Ga. — An Upson County judge who was under investigation over
misconduct allegations has resigned from her position.
According
to the Judicial Qualification Commission, Probate Judge Danielle McRae
was under investigation over allegations that she had misused county
funds.
She was accused of using a county-issued purchasing card to pay for a personal trip and lodging.
The
JQC says they were also investigating several instances between 2018
and 2025 of McRae voiding payments made to the probate court for traffic
citations, as well as her not being truthful with the JQC’s
investigators.
Last week, she submitted a letter of resignation to Governor Brian Kemp.
On Monday, he formally accepted her resignation effective immediately.
McRae
signed a consent agreement with the JQC, saying she will not seek
elected or appointed judicial office in the future. In exchange, charges
will not be filed against her.
A Charles County Orphans’ Court judge quit last week amid
disciplinary allegations that he misused “the prestige of judicial
office” on his Facebook page by posting a profile photo of himself in
his judicial robe and engaging in partisan political discussion, giving
legal advice and advertising his private business on the social media
site.
William J. “Bill” Dotson, who had been on the bench since 2020, left
the controversial posts online and added more despite agreeing to take
them down in July, the Commission on Judicial Disabilities stated in the
public charges it leveled in October.
The commission withdrew its plans to hold a hearing on the
allegations in light of Dotson’s resignation from the court, which
handles probate matters. The charges remain posted on the commission’s
website.
Dotson, who resigned without having filed a response to the
commission’s charges, said Monday that he does not believe his posts
were unethical or political.
“I do not think it’s fair to hold part-time orphans’ court judges to
the same standards as other (full-time) judges,” added Dotson, a
nonlawyer and head of an office- management company. “It is what it is.”
Dotson, a former Carroll County Republican Party chair and state
Senate candidate, posted comments on his Facebook page in the fall of
2021 endorsing then-President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign
businesses as a way to support U.S. manufacturing, according to the
commission’s charges. Dotson also “liked” like-minded comments to his
posts, including one advertising an event by a partisan political group,
according to the commission.
Dotson, who led protests against pandemic-related closures in Carroll
County before becoming judge, also posted comments in January critical
of the county council for continuing to treat COVID-19 as a pandemic
rather than an endemic, the commission stated.
In these posts, Dotson gave “his personal opinions on overtly
political issues as well as social and cultural issues closely aligned
with national and local partisan political positions,” the commission
added.
Such expressions violate the Maryland Code of Judicial Conduct’s
prohibition on judges engaging “in any partisan political activities,”
the commission states in its charges.
The commission also cited an October 2021 post in which it said
Dotson criticized Maryland’s taxation policy toward non-resident sellers
of real property and suggested that the tax not be paid, the commission
stated.
“Judge Dotson participated in substantive discussion of the issue
with commenters in the comments to the post during which he elaborated
on his interpretation of the law, described how the law works in
practice, and provided further advice on how to avoid paying the tax,”
the commission stated.
This advice violated the code’s admonition that judges “shall not
practice law” except when representing themselves or a family member
without compensation, the commission stated.
Dotson said his views in support of U.S. manufacturing, opposing the
tax and questioning pandemic policy were not intended to be partisan.
But “everything is political today,” Dotson said. “I was not going to give up my platform.”
The commission also took issue with Dotson’s Facebook posts
advertising open positions at Modern Door, the White Plains-based
company of which he is president.
Dotson also posted in support of the opening of a local business, a
charity’s hiring efforts and a holiday-themed event by local stores that
he planned to attend.
These advertisements violated the code’s prohibition on judges
lending “the prestige of judicial office to advance the personal or
economic interest of the judge or others, or allow them to do so,” the
commission stated.
The panel added it had reached an agreement with Dotson that required
him to remove his Facebook posts advocating political positions,
providing legal advice or endorsing businesses and charities.
But Dotson kept the posts up and added another in August, expressing
his views on “defunding the police,” the commission charged.
Dotson, a judicial appointee of Gov. Larry Hogan removed the August
post after the commission sent him a letter stating that he he was not
in compliance with the agreement.
The commission followed with its formal charges on Oct. 26 and gave Dotson 30 days to respond. Dotson resigned Nov. 30.
A Massachusetts family court and probate judge accused of inappropriate touching of an employee has resigned.
Judge Paul Sushchyk turned in his letter of
resignation to Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker earlier this week on
Mar. 28. Sushchyk’s alleged misconduct happened outside of the courtroom.
Sushchyk has been the subject of an ongoing
investigation that started in 2019 after a female co-worker accused him
of groping her buttocks.
At the time, the woman served as the field
coordinator for the Massachusetts Administrative Office of the Courts.
She was also a staff liaison to the Massachusetts Court’s Judicial
Education Committee.
In the complaint
she filed against Sushchyk, the female court employee accused Sushchyk
of groping her buttocks using what she said felt like “a full hand.”
Sushchyk’s attorney, Michael Angelini of the
Worcester law firm Bowditch & Dewey, did not return phone calls from
The Epoch Times about the allegations.
According to court records, the incident is alleged
to have occurred at a dinner event that was part of a probate and family
court conference for judges that she, Sushchyk, and other Massachusetts
court officials attended.
In her complaint, the worker named potential
witnesses all of whom were other court employees, and also produced
evidence of a text message she sent to her sister immediately following
the alleged incident.
“While at the bar after dinner one of the newer
judges full palmed my ass. I am still reeling a bit today from it. Kinda
thought maybe it was a mistake until today he spent the day hovering
uncomfortably around me,” she texted.
In a formal response to the complaint against
Sushchyk, Angelini wrote that his client “denies that he had any
physical contact whatsoever with any part” of the woman’s body.
However, in a written statement he gave nearly a year
earlier and shortly following the alleged groping incident, Sushchyk
wrote that he had come into “momentary contact with a portion of her
lower body” in an attempt to steady himself.
“I was somewhat unsteady on my feet, feeling the
effect of past hip replacement surgery, the long day, the evening meal,
and the alcohol consumed,” Suschyk wrote.
The Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct
found the contradiction enough to recommend that Suschhyk be suspended
without pay during the continued investigation into the alleged
incident.
“He falsely claimed to the court administration
investigating the matter that he had a recollection of incidental
contact, a falsehood he knowingly provided in an attempt to exculpate
himself.
“Such misdirection during the investigation not only
evinces a consciousness of guilt, but is wholly inconsistent with the
oath of office and ethical conduct required of a judge,” the commission
wrote in its findings.
However, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court,
which has the authority to impose administrative discipline against
state judges, did not follow the commission’s 2020 recommendation and
instead allowed Sushchyk to continue receiving his annual $185,000
judge’s salary while keeping him on administrative suspension during the
investigation.
It wasn’t until recently on Mar. 23 that the court
ordered Sushchyk be taken off the state’s payroll and issued a ruling
that it found there was sufficient evidence that Sushchyk engaged in
“intentional, nonconsensual, and unwelcome touching,” of his female
co-worker.
The court did not recommend terminating Sushchyk as a judge.
In its decision, the court indicated that Sushchyk
was only being suspended without pay for a “reasonable time to permit
the executive and legislative branches to consider, ‘if they wish,’
whether [Sushchyk] should retain his judicial office.”
It also did not follow the judicial conduct
commission’s recommendation that Sushchyk be publicly reprimanded and be
ordered to reimburse the state for the commission’s investigation.
“We do not adopt the commission’s recommendations
that the respondent be censured publicly and ordered to pay the
commission’s costs because we believe the objectives of those sanctions
effectively have been achieved by the sanction we have imposed,” it
wrote in its order.
Sushchyk served less than a year on the bench before he was accused.
MARLBORO COUNTY, S.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – The second-in-charge at
the Marlboro County Probate Judge’s Office is no longer with the office.
A call to Judge Mark Heath’s office Friday morning confirmed Deputy
Probate Judge Tammy Bullock is no longer with the office.
A woman who answered the phone in the judge’s office confirmed
Bullock no longer worked there. The woman did not identify herself and
hung up on FOX 46 Chief Investigator Jody Barr when asked when Bullock
resigned.
Marlboro County Deputy Probate Judge Tammy Bullock points her cell phone
out of the front door of the courthouse on Sept. 24, 2021appearing to
photograph FOX 46 Chief Investigator Jody Barr outside the courthouse.
(WJZY Photo/Jody Barr)
Follow-up calls to the office were not answered.
Bullock is currently the subject of a criminal investigation by the
State Law Enforcement Division and a South Carolina Supreme Court Office
of Disciplinary Counsel investigation after FOX 46 aired an
investigative series titled ‘Final Disrespects’ on Oct. 5.
The series detailed criminal allegations against Bullock and others
who plundered through Hollis Slade’s home in January 2021. Slade died on
Jan. 23 and security camera recordings at his home captured audio and
video of Bullock and the group discussing searching Slade’s home for a
will. The videos showed members of the group walking out of the home
with property.
Bullock is also accused of impersonating a probate judge when she met with Slade’s family on Jan. 24; the day after his death.
This all happened over the course of two days in January while
Slade’s wife, who suffers from severe dementia, was inside the home.
Bullock and the group never responded to multiple requests to
schedule interviews with FOX 46 to explain what happened in those
videos.
On Oct. 18, Judge Heath asked the state Supreme Court to reassign
Slade’s probate case to another county after Heath wanted to recuse
himself from Slade’s estate case. Heath had already spent nearly nine
months presiding over the case despite knowing of the allegations
against his deputy judge since at least Jan. 29.
Slade’s neighbor, Bobby Norris, told Judge Heath about the criminal
allegations against Bullock and the videos during a Jan. 29 phone call.
Heath told Norris he’d investigate the allegations, but Norris said he
never heard anything further from Heath.
Marlboro County Probate Judge Mark Heath gives a “No comment” response
to questions about his knowledge of criminal allegations made against
his deputy probate judge, Tammy Bullock during this Sept. 1, 2021
interview at his courthouse office. (WJZY Photo/Stewart Pittman)
Heath swore Bullock into office seven weeks later, granting her full judicial powers in his absence.
Bullock and Heath attended a South Carolina Association of Probate
Judges conference at a Myrtle Beach resort this week. Our investigation
found Bullock attended the first day of the three-day conference but
left the resort after our arrival. Bullock missed two of the three days
and the resort confirmed Bullock never checked out of her hotel room for
the final two days of the conference.
The conference provided up to 12 continuing legal education, or CLE,
hours for all elected probate and appointed probate judges in the state.
State regulations require all probate judges to earn 15 CLE hours each
year.
We attempted to interview Heath inside the resort at 10:30 Wednesday
morning as he waited on an elevator. “No comment,” Heath said as the
door closed.
About 30 minutes later we video recorded Heath and a woman carrying
luggage through the parking lot and loading it into a vehicle registered
to Heath. We followed Heath as he left the resort and got onto the
highway out of Myrtle Beach.
Heath attended only 30 minutes of the final day of seminars at the
conference. Heath was not in the office Friday morning when we called to
ask about Bullock’s employment status.
On Feb. 5, Bennettsville Police charged Bullock with pointing and
presenting a firearm during an argument with her roommate. Bullock was
never arrested in the case after city police investigators chose to
charge Bullock under a city ordinance instead of the state’s criminal
code.
Bullock was issued a criminal citation on a state traffic summons.
Bullock’s trial on that charge is set for Nov. 16 in Bennettsville.
South
Carolina Secretary of State records show Marlboro County Deputy Probate
Judge Tammy Bullock was issued this oath of office on March 15, 2021.
(Source: South Carolina Secretary of State’s Office)
Following our Final Disrespects series, the South Carolina Supreme
Court’s investigative unit, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, sent
subpoenas to the Bennettsville Police Department seeking records in
Bullock’s prosecution. The unit also sent subpoenas to the Marlboro
County Probate Judge’s Office; sources familiar with that office told
Barr.
The ODC acts as a “screening and investigating” arm for the South
Carolina judicial system for investigations involving misconduct
allegations against lawyers and judges in the state. The agency has the
authority to prosecute misconduct complaints.
The Supreme Court would not confirm the existence of an investigation
in an emailed response to FOX 46 received Oct. 13, “Court rules
prohibit us from confirming the existence of disciplinary investigations
while they are ongoing, so I will not be able to respond to your
request,” South Carolina Judicial Branch Public Information Director,
Ginny Jones wrote in the statement.
Court rules prohibit members of the Supreme Court and its employees
from confirming such investigations and violating the confidentiality
rule could result in a contempt of court charge for those state
employees.
“We have received a subpoena for records pertaining to the case and
we have fulfilled those particular subpoena needs, wants, and questions
regarding this case and that has been forwarded to our city attorney so
they can properly go through the channels to ensure that information is
given to that state agency,” Bennettsville Police Chief Kevin Miller
told FOX 46.
We asked Bullock multiple times for an interview throughout our
investigative series, but Bullock would not respond to any of our
requests.
Following our investigation into the Bullock weapon charge, Chief
Miller asked the State Law Enforcement Division to “review” his
department’s prosecution decisions. SLED declined Miller’s request.
Tammy Bullock posted this image to her Facebook account on March 15,
2021 celebrating being sworn into office as the Marlboro County Deputy
Probate Judge by elected Probate Judge Mark Heath. (Source: Facebook)
“At this time no information or evidence has been obtained to warrant
SLED opening a new criminal investigation into this matter. There is no
evidence to indicate anything improper was done by the arresting agency
or officers. Any cursory review of the initial arrest would be handled
by the City Attorney or Solicitor’s Office,” SLED spokesman Tommy
Crosby wrote in a response to FOX 46 seeking clarification on the
agency’s decision.
Fourth Circuit Solicitor Will Rogers said since his office performs
legal work for the county probate office it would not “be proper” for
his office to be involved in any investigation of Bullock. Rogers
directed the Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office to send a separate
criminal investigation into Bullock to SLED in June citing a potential
conflict of interest between his office and the probate court.
The separate criminal investigation was presented to SLED in June and
it took the agency more than two months to officially open that
investigation into Bullock. In that case, Bullock is accused of
impersonating a judge, rummaging through a dead man’s home, and
participating in the removal of property from the man’s home in January
2021.
That man, Hollis Slade, died on Jan. 23. Security cameras outside
Slade’s Joyce Drive home captured Bullock and others searching the man’s
home looking for his will. The cameras also captured discussions
between Bullock and the group about keeping financial information they
found inside the man’s home from his family.
That investigation is still open at SLED.
Chief Miller is the only law enforcer in Marlboro County to agree to an interview regarding Deputy Probate Judge Tammy Bullock.
“This interview was important to me because let’s face it, I could
have hid behind a desk, I could have hid behind a phone; that’s very
easy to do is to hide. I’m out here in the open. I want people to know
this is the truth, these are the facts. The Bennettsville Police
Department is 100% acting in good faith with everything we’ve done,”
Miller told FOX 46.
Miller submitted the case to the city’s attorney’s office for review
and has requested the city attorney prosecute the case during the
scheduled Nov. 16 trial, “I will not hide behind a desk or a door or a
phone from anyone who has questions about anything pertaining to this
case. That is not who I am and that is not what this police department
represents,” Miller said.
Bullock will be tried in the Bennettsville municipal court. Her trial
date is currently set for Nov. 16, 2021. We will continue to follow the
prosecution and update our reporting.
Circuit Judge Martin Zilber was at the
center of a NBC 6 Investigators story over allegations of
inappropriately behavior toward an assistant
A
Miami-Dade circuit judge who admits getting paid for excessive days off
and misusing court staff has agreed to suspension and paying a steep
fine. NBC 6’s Tony Pipitone reports
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Martin Zilber, who was at the center of a
NBC 6 Investigators story over allegations of inappropriately behavior
toward an assistant, has announced his resignation.
In a letter dated Friday, Zilber said it was a "privilege to serve the people of Miami-Dade County."
Former judicial assistant Dixie Dent told NBC 6 investigator Tony
Pipitone in April she sensed the judge was acting inappropriately
shortly after being hired.
Over the next 18 months, she would later tell the state Judicial
Qualifications Commission (JQC), she witnessed him not showing up for
work, requiring her and a bailiff to do personal tasks and endure what
she said was a rant from the judge after she informed him she was
pregnant.
Having had previous miscarriages, she said she needed the job's
health benefits and endured his behavior - even when he required her to
wheel his heavy chair up several floors to his courtroom bench while she
was pregnant, which Zilber admitted doing.
"I had to put up with it," she said in an exclusive interview, "but
what I saw, (was) injustice to the constituents of Miami-Dade County."
In the end, the JQC found probable cause to support most of her
allegations and Zilber entered into a stipulation where he admitted his
behavior was “intemperate, inappropriate and damaged the public’s
perception of the judiciary.”
He also agreed to the recommended discipline: a 60-day suspension
without pay from his $161,000-a-year job and a $30,000 fine, calculated
to cover the proceeds of 51 days he was absent from the courthouse
without notifying court administration he was taking leave.
Attorney Deborah Baker, who said she spoke to Zilber's lawyer after
NBC 6 inquired about the judge, volunteered that she had "never seen him
treat a woman any different than a man" and, as far as she could tell
from years of practicing before him, there "wasn't a sexist bone in his
body."
In recommending the discipline to the Florida Supreme Court, the JQC
notes Zilber "immediately accepted responsibility (and) expressed
remorse for his intemperate treatment and misuse of his court staff."
He admitted requiring his staff to do more than help run the
courtroom, including at times doing his online shopping, registering his
car, working on his scrap book and picking up his Art Basel tickets.
Dent said it did not take her long to realize "he wasn’t being honest
with his time sheet. It was made very clear to me that the most
important thing was to hold up the appearance that he was there, but in
reality that wasn’t happening."
Not there on many Mondays and Fridays, she said, and not there for a
week last August when he vacationed in Malibu without taking leave, the
judge subsequently admitted, though he said he did do some work while in
California.
"There’s a lot of good judges on the bench who don't behave this way,
and it’s guys like this that are abusing their power, taking advantage
of people like Dixie," said attorney Bruce Jacobs, who has his own
long-running beef with the judge over contentious foreclosure
litigation.
He is helping Dent challenge the deal Zilber reached with the JQC,
which only recommends discipline to the state Supreme Court, which has
final say.
"We’re asking that the Florida Supreme Court reject the JQC’s
recommendation, which we think is a slap on the wrist, and we want him
removed from the bench and disbarred," Jacobs said.
Dent said she is glad he is accepting responsibility, but one personal attack, she said, still hurts.
"The moment I told him I was pregnant, he said, 'Oh geez. This is
such an inconvenience. This is going to ruin all my plans. This is the
worst possible time for you to be pregnant,'" she recalled.
Soon after, Zilber was "requiring his pregnant JA to wheel his chair
up several floors to the courtroom and then lift it onto the dais prior
to hearings," the JQC found and Zilber admitted, later telling an
investigator he made other arrangements "once the issue was brought to
his attention."
"I simply could not do it because it was so heavy and I wasn’t going to risk the baby," Dent said.
After having her daughter and returning from leave, Dent said the
final straw came in August when Zilber berated her over a Zoom session
witnessed by her other children. She submitted her resignation the next
day.
ATHENS, Ala. - A north Alabama judge accused of misusing court funds and stealing money from clients has resigned from his post.
Former
Limestone County District Judge Doug Patterson announced he would be
stepping down effective July 3, according to a letter to the Alabama
Supreme Court filed Tuesday.
“The unescapable reality is that I
cannot financially, mentally, or emotionally continue to fight the full
weight, power and resources of the State of Alabama in two different
theaters,” Patterson wrote in the letter, saying the move should not be
viewed as an admission of guilt.
The former judge was suspended after being indicted on felony charges
of use of official position for personal gain, financial exploitation
of the elderly and theft of property in December 2019. He has pleaded
not guilty to the counts, news outlets reported.
The Alabama
attorney general’s office accused Patterson of using $47,000 intended
for juvenile court programs on personal expenses. The former judge also
was accused of improperly withdrawing about $47,800 from the account of a
nursing home resident for whom he had served as a conservator, as well
as between $499 and $1,500 from the estate of another client.
The
case was scheduled for trial in June but was postponed because of the
coronavirus pandemic, news outlets reported. Jury trials in Alabama
remained paused until September. Patterson was set to face a separate
trial at the Alabama Court of the Judiciary on the ethics charge this
week, but that trial was also postponed.
A justice on the state’s First Court of Appeals has
resigned, days after reports that she was sitting on the bench while
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Justice
Laura Carter Higley, who lives in West University and served on the
Houston-based court, submitted her notice to Gov. Greg Abbott, the
appeals court’s clerk confirmed Tuesday. In the letter, she did not
offer a reason for stepping down from the bench, he said.
“Her service is appreciated by us and the state of Texas,” clerk Christopher Prine said.
The justice, a Republican, has held Place 5 on the
court since 2002. She was re-elected in 2008 and 2014, with her term set
to expire December 2020.
Higley has not responded to requests for comment.
The
Houston Chronicle reported on Higley’s cognitive condition after her
sons launched an effort to become her legal guardians. The justice, who
is 72, had been continuing with her daily work routine contrary to her
failing health, the sons said.
“Due
to the recent (and rapid) progression of her Alzheimer’s disease,
Justice Higley’s mental state has deteriorated to the point that she is
no longer able to care for her own physical health or manage her own
financial affairs,” sons Garrett C. Higley and Robert Carter Higley said
in the filing for guardianship.
She
had continued driving herself to work downtown, and had not resigned
from her job despite “clear indicators and explicit warnings” that she
was no longer capable of serving on the court, the brothers said.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressively-natured form,
meaning it can begin with mild memory loss and become increasingly
severe, possibly causing the person to lose the ability to respond to
their environment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. It can affect the ability to complete daily activities, the
agency said, and there is no known cure.
Higley
became the subject of the guardianship case in mid-October, just a week
after receiving an official diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, according
to documents filed in Probate Court No. 2. Her wellness issues began
more than a year earlier with a diagnosis of an unspecified mild
neurocognitive disorder, which progressed to a mild neurocognitive
disorder stemming from possible Alzheimer’s disease in March, records
show.
The
sons hope to pull decision-making regarding Higley’s care away from her
husband and their father, West University Place Mayor Bob Higley.
They
called their mother’s condition “in the moment” only, meaning she can’t
engage in substantive conversations. She struggles to remember
information relayed to her or people she spoke with just a day before,
according to the court filing.
Higley
can’t do her job or manage her personal and financial affairs without
complete assistance and supervision, meaning she’s a legally
“incapacitated” person, the sons said.
She
has a long history in law, and was an attorney at Baker Botts, L.L.P.
prior to being a judge. Before that, she was the mayor of West
University Place.
Higley
was one of nine justices on her court, which serves Austin, Brazoria,
Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Waller and
Washington counties. The judges mostly hear appeals on cases decided in
lower district and county courts in their jurisdiction.
It’s
unknown whether Justice Higley has been on the receiving end of any
official complaints related to her work. Those would be brought to the
State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the oversight group for judges,
interim executive director Jacqueline Habersham has said.
The Houston Chronicle has requested comment from the governor’s office regarding Higley’s resignation.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A suspended Arkansas judge accused of not filing or paying his taxes for several years has agreed to resign from the bench.
The Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission said Friday that Saline County Circuit Judge Bobby McCallister will resign, effective Dec. 15. The panel says it unanimously accepted McCallister’s agreement to step down.
Prosecutors say McCallister failed to pay or file taxes from 2012 to 2014 and in 2016. He’s been charged with four felony counts of failing to pay or file taxes.
The Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission said McCallister was “candid” and cooperative with the panel during its investigation.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson will appoint a replacement to the position.
A longtime Goodsprings judge has resigned less than a month after being suspended without pay for a year.
Former Justice of the Peace Dawn Haviland resigned effective Sept. 18. She had served as Goodsprings’ only justice of the peace since she was appointed to the position in 1999.
Haviland’s attorney, Albert Marquis, said the former judge was disheartened by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline’s investigation into and ruling on ethics charges that led to her suspension without pay in late August.
“What a terrible injustice was reaped upon Dawn Haviland,” Marquis said. “Three disgruntled employees conspired together to drag a judge off the bench, and with the help of the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline they succeeded.”
Marquis added that Haviland could not afford the “thousands of dollars” it would cost to attend classes at the Nevada Judicial College at her own expense, which was a requirement of her punishment.
County spokesman Erik Pappa said three temporary justices of the peace will rotate to cover Haviland’s calendar. The same arrangement has been in place since December, when Haviland was suspended with pay.
Commissioners are scheduled to discuss Tuesday how they will replace Haviland and Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis, who resigned in August.
Commissioners can fill the vacancies by either appointment or special election. Haviland’s term was set to expire in January 2019.
Year-long investigation
The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline suspended Haviland with pay in December based on findings “into numerous allegations of judicial misconduct,” according to a public notice released at the time.
In March, state disciplinary investigators charged Haviland with multiple ethics complaints, including sealing her then-son-in-law’s criminal records, ordering staff to run background checks on her friend’s boyfriend, and bullying employees while using commentary rife with vulgarity.
In a 14-page written response Haviland claimed the charges were false and concocted by disgruntled employees.
“I have at all times during my 20-year career attempted to administer justice fairly and within the confines of the law,” Haviland wrote.
The commission suspended Haviland without pay in late August.
In its ruling, the commission wrote Haviland was punished for her “repeated failure over several years to follow the law, her proclivity towards following her own moral compass in administering her version of justice irrespective of the law, and her lack of remorse and admission of wrongdoing for the same.”
Even for those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the court system,
both stories raise questions about a judge's ethical responsibilities
and about the quality of the county judiciary.
“Judges have a code of professional conduct they are obligated to
uphold, and one essential tenet of the code is do not engage in any
conduct that compromises the prestige and integrity of the judicial
office,” said Samuel Jones,
professor at John Marshall Law School. “They cannot engage in conduct
to compromise impartiality or gives the public the appearance they are
biased. They also have an obligation to maintain certain competencies.
One thing about Judge Cooke is that traffic court is often used as a
training ground for new judges, where the chief judge and presiding
judges are able to gauge their temperament to handle more intricate
cases.”
So how do Cook County judges stack up?
“As a presiding judge, the majority I saw were good judges,” said retired Cook County Judge Edmund Ponce de Leon.
“But there are some that feel a sense of entitlement – I don’t want to
do that, I don’t want to leave this assignment, because I’m entitled to
it. … And that’s a problem, because you’re serving the public.”
“You can imagine, it’s sometimes difficult to supervise judges –
there can be an ‘I was elected, there’s nothing you can do to me’ type
of attitude,” said Ponce de Leon.
These two cases also raise the long-running question of whether the
system for electing and retaining judges should be in the hands of
voters at all. Since 1990, no Cook County judge has lost a retention
election.
“It’s up to the public to take judicial elections as seriously as any other election,” said Marc Karlinsky,
editor of the Chicago Law Bulletin. “Even though judges you don’t see
every day, they don’t do constituent outreach like a senator, but in a
time of need if you’re being accused of something, if you’re being sued,
having a good judge can mean a lot of time and a lot of money. The
whole system works when judges are good.”
And it’s not just important to have a quality judiciary says Jones,
but one that reflects the people whose cases come before the court. “If
you look at the [federal] judges in the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District, you don’t find a judiciary that reflects the social,
economic, racial, ethnic, religious diversity of the community,” Jones
said. “In Cook County, we have that. We have a judiciary that reflects
the diversity of the community.”
“I firmly believe that the vast majority of our judges do good work
in and out of the courtroom,” Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans said
in a statement. “They are public servants who are committed to the
principles of fair and impartial justice. They also care about the
communities where they live, work and raise families.
“Whenever allegations arise about improper conduct by a judge, I meet
with the court’s Executive Committee to decide what action is
appropriate. While we have no authority to discipline a judge or remove a
judge from office, we can assign a judge to administrative duties while
the legal or ethical matter is pending. We can also refer matters to
the Judicial Inquiry Board, the state agency that prosecutes judicial
misconduct. We have done that in the past and will do that in the future
as necessary to maintain public confidence in the judiciary,” Evans
said.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CN) – An Arkansas judge has resigned from the bench and is facing a criminal investigation over claims that he exchanged judicial rulings for sexual favors and money.
Former Carroll County District Court Judge Timothy Parker denied the allegations but agreed to never serve on an Arkansas bench again after resigning Saturday, the last day of his term, as part of a negotiated resolution.
In a Dec. 31 letter of removal, the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission notified Parker that its investigators were prepared to charge him with judicial violations, including evidence that he “engaged in a pattern of personal relationships with many female litigants” who appeared in his court from approximately 2013 to 2016.
“The bonds or release of these women or their family or friends were done by their request in exchange for sexual favors,” the JDDC letter states. “Allegations also exist about trading cash or prescription pills for sexual favors or money with many of the same women, as well as other women in the community.”
The commission says it has video statements from over a dozen women to support the allegations, recordings of conversations he had with jailed women, and printouts of text messages between the former judge and female litigants.
Special Prosecuting Attorney Jason Barrett is reportedly investigating the evidence against Parker, who was appointed to the judgeship in 2013, to determine if charges will be filed.
According to the JDDC, Parker admitted that he improperly performed probable cause determinations, lowered bail settings, released defendants who were friends or former clients of his, and in some cases, gave rides to defendants.
“The other allegations were not litigated, as you resigned and agreed to a permanent bar from holding judicial office in this state,” the removal letter states.
Parker told the commission that his decision to resign was influenced by the effect litigation would have on his family, as well as the time and expense issues.
Parker began his career as an attorney in private practice before serving as an elected municipal court judge from 1999 to 2004.
He will no longer be eligible to serve as a judge in Arkansas.
An Arkansas judge accused of trading sex for reduced sentences
with young male defendants for the past three decades has resigned after
investigators said they found thousands of photographs depicting nude
male defendants.
Cross County District
Judge Joe Boeckmann announced his resignation on Monday in a letter to
the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission. In it, he said
he would never again seek a job as a local, county or state employee in
the State of Arkansas.
Documents
released by investigators found thousands of sexually explicit
photographs depicting young men inside or outside his home, many of whom
were identified as defendants.
Investigators also said the photos
showed evidence that some of the men had been paddled, and the
discipline commission told the former judge to turn over the paddle used
in the photos.
Episodes of this behavior are alleged to go as far back as 1985 when Boeckmann served as a deputy prosecutor.
"He's
a criminal predator who used his judicial power to feed his corrupt
desires. Every minute he served as a judge was an insult to the Arkansas
Judiciary," said David Sachar, executive director of the Judicial
Discipline and Disability Commission, which had been investigating to
determine if the judge should be sanctioned or kicked off the bench.
In
November, the discipline commission reported Boeckmann had abused his
power as a judge to engage in sexual relationships with "young Caucasian male litigants," and used community service sentences to bring them to his home.
Sachar
said investigators found hundreds of checks written from the judge’s
personal and professional accounts to pay for attorneys and court fines
for defendants.
In one case, he maintained a sexual relationship
with a former defendant for five years, even going as far as paying his
bills, according to a complaint from November. The complaint says
Boeckmann “engaged in spanking A.A. regularly,” both for sexual pleasure and as punishment for “criminal conduct.”
Boeckmann’s
resignation ends the discipline commission’s cases against him. Though
the former judge has not been charged with a crime, the investigation
was handed over to a special prosecutor and could lead to a criminal
case.
A
Brooklyn judge with nearly 30 years on the bench resigned after being
accused of improperly approving payments to her clerk for the clerk’s
work as a court-appointed lawyer, officials announced on Thursday.
The
judge, Yvonne Lewis of State Supreme Court, had also been charged with
improperly presiding over guardianship cases in which her clerk,
Kimberly L. Detherage, was also the court-appointed guardian.
“A
judge shouldn’t play any role in any fiduciary case at the point that
the person she hires is involved,” said Robert H. Tembeckjian,
administrator of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which disciplines judges in New York.
Fiduciary
cases in State Supreme Court, where judges have the power to assign
private lawyers to lucrative posts as guardians for the young, elderly
or infirm, have long been a magnet for patronage and the appearance of conflicts of interest — and the subject of periodic reform efforts.
Justice
Lewis, 70, was elected to Civil Court in 1987 and has been an elected
State Supreme Court justice since 1991. Her current term would have
expired at the end of 2016.
She hired Ms. Detherage as her law clerk in 2009, the commission said. In 2013, after an article in The New York Post,
the commission began investigating allegations that Justice Lewis had
approved payments to Ms. Detherage for work she did as a guardian on
cases being heard by other judges.
The
commission said it opened a second investigation last year after the
inspector general of the state courts alleged that Justice Lewis
improperly presided over three cases where Ms. Detherage worked as a
guardian and approved a guardianship payment to Ms. Detherage after
hiring her as her full-time clerk.
“The moment she hires Detherage, she has to take herself off any matter involving Detherage,” Mr. Tembeckjian said.
The
commission declined to reveal the amounts of the payments to Ms.
Detherage that Justice Lewis was charged with improperly approving;
figures for those payments could not be found on the state court system website.
From
2003 to 2008, before hiring Ms. Detherage, the website shows, Justice
Lewis appointed her in at least 26 cases and approved at least $97,000
in fees.
Justice
Lewis “denied certain aspects of the complaints and offered
explanations as to certain aspects of the complaints,” according to a stipulation
signed by her and the commission. The commission said it had not
evaluated those denials and explanations because the judge’s
resignation, which takes effect on Dec. 31, ended the case.
Justice
Lewis’s lawyer, Deborah A. Scalise, said in a statement that if the
commission had continued its investigation, “Justice Lewis is confident”
that the charges “would be dismissed.”
Mr. Tembeckjian disagreed. “Had the matter proceeded, there would have been formal discipline,” he said.
Ms.
Detherage left Justice Lewis’s employ in 2013 and is now in private
practice, Mr. Tembeckjian said. She could not immediately be reached for
comment.
Ms. Detherage has also been the pastor of St. Mark A.M.E. Church
in Queens since 2010, a position that court officials said was full
time and could have conflicted with her full-time job as a law clerk.
Correction: October 16, 2015
An earlier version of this article misidentified the job of
Kimberly L. Detherage in one reference. As the article correctly notes
elsewhere, Ms. Detherage was a law clerk, not a court clerk.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -
He once presided over Mahoning County Probate Court.
But on Thursday, former Judge Mark Belinky found himself in the county
jail posing for a mug shot.
Earlier that afternoon in Common
Pleas Court, Belinky first pleaded not guilty, then changed his plea to
guilty of a charge filed in connection with an investigation into his
political campaigns.
Belinky appeared before a visiting judge to answer to a bill of information charging him with tampering with records.
A bill of information is usually filed when a defendant agrees to forego the grand jury indictment process.
In most cases, defendants plead guilty to a bill of information, but Belinky first entered a plea of not guilty.
But after some discussion in the courtroom, the former judge changed his plea to guilty.
According
to the bill of information, Belinky failed to disclose 2008 campaign
contributions, expenditures and loans in amounts ranging from $7,500 to
$150,000. The court document does not list a specific amount.
The crime is a fourth degree felony.
"As
part of the plea agreement, the defendant did agree to and did resign
from the probate court bench, did agree to and did surrender his license
to practice law, and will no longer practice law again," said Atty. Dan
Kasaris, Special Prosecutor.
A Columbia County magistrate judge resigned his office Thursday amid
allegations that he had behaved inappropriately toward women he had
encountered as a guardian ad litem, officials said.
Doug Nelson, who had been a magistrate judge since 2007, submitted
his resignation at the Evans courthouse, said Columbia County Chief
Magistrate Judge Jason Troiano. It was effective immediately, Troiano
said.
Nelson had been notified earlier Thursday that Troiano had taken him
off the court calendar and intended to refer him to the Georgia Judicial
Qualifications Commission.
“While it is inappropriate to comment on the matter, I take the
allegations very seriously,” Troiano said in a statement. “The integrity
of Columbia County Magistrate Court and the judicial process are of
utmost concern.”
At least two women have accused Nelson of inappropriate remarks and
touching while serving as a court-appointed guardian ad litem
in their divorce cases, court officials said.
Tina Wright, of Grovetown, filed a report with the Columbia County
Sheriff’s Office on April 23 accusing Nelson of grabbing her when they
met to discuss her custody case in May 2011. Wright told police she and
Nelson met at McDonald’s on Columbia Road, and at the end of the meeting
he grabbed her into a close hug and stroked her back, making her
uncomfortable, according to the report.
The allegations in this article concerning Doug Nelson
should not be confused with the Douglas Merlin Nelson who has practiced
law at 204 Thirteenth Street, Augusta, Georgia for over 18 years.
Douglas Merlin Nelson is well respected and has an excellent reputation.
