Case Summaries: Judges
Ohio Supreme Court Reprimands Judge Who ordered Weddings
Over strong dissent by two members of the Ohio Supreme Court for more serious penalties, a former Cincinnati judge was given a public reprimand for conduct on the bench in domestic violence Cases. In addition to dismissing domestic violence complaints against the wishes of prosecutor's and victims, Albert Mestemaker ordered three domestic violence abusers to marry their victims as part of their probation in criminal cases. The judge was defeated for re-election. The Cincinnati Enquirer 4/4/97, 78 Ohio St.3d 92 (1997).
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
Judicial Decision Questioned
Harry Lee Butler was free on $3,000 bond by Clearwater Florida Judge Walter Fullerton on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge. Leslie Fleming did not request a no-contact order. Based upon Butler's violent history, police requested a high bond. Two days later Butler, a convicted drug dealer, was arrested for the murder of Fleming with a sharp edged weapon. Her daughters, ages 2, 4, and 6, were in her apartment when her body was discovered. Her father Raymond Fleming: For this kind of thing his a-- should still be in jail. The system should be on trial as much as that SOB that did it. St. Petersburg Times, 3/15/97.
Keywords: judges, judicial mistakes
Date: 4/23/2002
Judicial Decision Questioned
Helene Ball McGee told Pinellas County Florida Circuit Judge George Greer that her husband Bobby McGee forced himself on her sexually, burned her belongings and said she was possessed by the devil. Judge Greer said he was not convinced that the woman's life was in imminent danger and turned down her request for a protection order. Two weeks later the woman was found stabbed to death. Her husband was arrested nearby wearing camouflage clothing and a mask. Her cousin Monica Carr was quoted as outraged with the judge's decision: "The person was sexually abusing her, as well as burning her things. If that's not violence, what is?" St. Petersburg Times, 3/15/98.
Keywords: judges, judicial mistakes
Date: 4/23/2002
Maryland Commission Declines Action
The Maryland Commission on Judicial disabilities recommended no disciplinary action against Judge Thomas Bollinger, after he found that Charles Weiner's conviction for beating his wife should be erased because the man's reputation would be tainted. The judge reversed himself after public outcry. The Commission also declined to discipline Judge Robert Cahill Sr. for saying he understood why Kenneth Peacock shot and killed his wife after discovering her adultery. The judge sentenced Peacock to work release. Daily Record (Balt. Md. 4110/97), 1997WL8897269.
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
DV Incident With Wife Causes Judge's Suspension
The Washington Supreme Court suspended Tacoma Municipal Judge Ralph Turco for the balance of his current term in office for shoving his wife of 38 years to her knees at a public Christmas dinner. Just the week before, the court had disciplined Turco for inappropriate remarks in domestic violence Cases. Turco did not seek reelection after the suspension. The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA), 1/29/99.
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
Judicial Decision Questioned
A Cleveland police officer was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence after his wife said he struck her. She was treated at a hospital for bruises on her forehead, cheeks and jaw. Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Mary Eileen Kilbane ruled that the officer, Timothy Kilbane (no relation) did not have to stand trial provided he spend one year in the Selective Intervention Program, a court-supervised program for first time offenders. Cleveland Mayor Michel R. White publicly criticized the judge, saying that the officer has a long history of serious domestic violence complaints, though no criminal charges have ever been brought. Prosecutor's say domestic violence defendants are not usually admitted to the diversion program, and have filed a notice of appeal. Cleveland Plain Dealer, 2/11/99.
Keywords: judges, judicial mistakes
Date: 4/23/2002
DV Comments Cost Judge His Job
A judge who denied a protective order to Karyn Metz after her husband was charged with assault for beating her, then proceeded to tell his clerk that an order of protection is "useless" and that "every woman needs a good pounding every now and then." Judge Donald Roberts was removed from office by the New York State commission on Judicial Conduct. National Law Journal, 6/30/97.
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
DV Comments Result In Removal Decision
Profane remarks, ill-placed humor, hostility to prosecutors, and comments about domestic violence by Haverstraw, New York, Town Court Judge Ralph T. Romano caused the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct to decide he should be removed from office. The panel appeared most concerned with Romano's attitude toward domestic violence. On one occasion he told a man who beat his wife with a phone, "What's wrong with this? You need to keep these women in line now and again." The judge also expressed reluctance to issue protection orders or to require removal of batterers from their homes, unless victims could show extraordinary proof, such as a "turban of bandages." Romano's lawyer said he would appeal. New York Times, 8/15/98
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
Judicial Decision Questioned
New Rochelle Family Court Judge Ingrid S. Braslow granted a protection order to newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas but refused to order her husband Scott Douglas to leave the house. The woman was beaten into a coma with a hammer in her home, and died six days later. Her husband's car was discovered on a bridge with a bloody hammer inside, and his body washed ashore along the Hudson River three months later. "[C]riticism of the court system followed the crime." The New York Times, 9/27/98.
Keywords: judges, judicial mistakes
Date: 4/23/2002
DV Death Costs Judge His Job
Galina Komar was 32 when her abusive former boyfriend shot her to death and then killed himself, three weeks after he was released on charges of assaulting the woman and violating court orders issued to protect her. The killer had served a total of 40 days in jail before his release, over objections of prosecutors, by Brooklyn Judge Lorin Duckman. After the New York mayor and the New York governor demanded the judge's dismissal, a state commission voted 7 to 4 to remove him from office. The panel did not fault the judge for his conduct in the Brooklyn Case, but said he appeared to have a general bias against vigorously prosecuting domestic violence cases, among other misconduct. New York's highest court upheld the dismissal by a 5-2 decision. New York Times, 9/12/97, 10/25/97, 7/8/98.
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
Judge Engaged In Misconduct By ordering Parties To Marry
Judge who ordered defendants, including domestic violence abuser and his victim, to get married violated state constitution and committed willful misconduct. Mississippi Commission v. Municipal Court Judge, 755 So. 2d 1062 (2000).
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
DV Plea Bargain Reaction Forces Judge, Prosecutor Out
Susan Fuller had been separated from her husband Stephen Sarno for a year when he caught her with another man and beat her with a flashlight. She required 17 stitches above one eye. The prosecutor plea bargained the case to a misdemeanor assault, despite police insistence that they had sufficient evidence for a felony conviction. New Hampshire Judge William O'Neil sentenced Sarno to 28 days in jail on weekends, saying since "she was still his wife I can't conclude it was completely unprovoked." Subsequently, the prosecutor was publicly rebuked by the state attorney general and did not run for re-election. The judge was criticized, wrote a letter of apology, and retired. Bangor Daily News, 10/2/97.
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
Judicial Decision Questioned
Over the objections of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a California judge released Mohammed Haroon Ali from a drug treatment program. Ali was in the program after testing positive for cocaine while on probation for felony criminal charges stemming from domestic violence against a former girlfriend. The INS wanted him held and deported because of the felony conviction. Instead, the judge set a $5,000 bond. Ali was recently arraigned in another California court on one count of murder for the strangling death of Tracey Biletnikoff, the daughter of a former NFL star. San Mateo County Times, 2/20/99.
Keywords: judges, judicial mistakes
Date: 4/23/2002
Judge Suspended For Committing Domestic Violence
Judge who struck wife in public setting held to have violated Canons 1 and 2(A) of Judicial Conduct and ordered to be censured and suspended from bench without compensation until end of office term; judge ordered to complete domestic violence program before assuming other judicial capacity. In re Turco, 970 P.2d 731 (1999).
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
Judicial Decision Questioned
Defendant kidnapped his former girlfriend, threatened to kill her and himself, and raped her. He made threatening phone calls to her from jail. At the preliminary hearing, the victim testified to a history of physical assaults and threats. After the defendant was released on bail by a California judge, with the admonishment not to contact the victim, he shot her in the head, killing her. At trial, defendant's counsel argued against admission of the decedent's preliminary hearing testimony because she was not available for cross-examination on the murder charge. People v. Ogen, 168 CA3d 611, 215 CR 16 (1985).
Keywords: judges, judicial mistakes
Date: 4/23/2002
Free Public Space To Domestic Violence Agency
An Ohio board of county commissioners may provide space in a building under its control without charge to a nonprofit organization which, in its judgment, performs a public purpose, under the authority of R.C. 307.03. This statute would allow county commissioners to permit a local organization which provides services to victims of domestic violence to occupy public facilities at no cost. 1982 Ohio Op. Atty. Gen. 2-57.
Keywords: court space
Date: 4/23/2002
Judges Admonished To Report Child Abuse
During a custody dispute, evidence of child abuse was introduced at trial. Change of custody was denied. On appeal, the appellate court admonished the trial court for not reporting the disclosed child abuse to children's services. "Our conscience and the law require that in cases involving alleged abuse of children, and where there is reason to believe such abuse has occurred, a trial Court must take an active role in assuring that the child's physical and emotional well-being have been protected. In reviewing the statute we find nothing that exempts a trial judge of the duty to report dependency, neglect, or abuse." Fugate v. Fugate, 896 S.W.2d 621, 623 (Ky. App. 1995).
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics
Date: 4/23/2002
Judge Reprimanded For Discouraging Petitioners From Immediately Filing Domestic Violence Petition
Municipal judge reprimanded after delaying the issuance of domestic violence protection order by deterring petitioners from immediately filing DV petition after inappropriate ex parte communication with one of the parties; magistrate should have waited until petition was filed to decide and should have erred on the side of caution when deciding issues involving domestic violence. In re Helen McCormick, 521 S.E.2d 792 (1999).
Keywords: judicial misconduct, judicial ethics, judges
Date: 4/23/2002
Judicial Decision Questioned
Nineteen-year-old Hilda Uguna asked White Plains New York Family Court Judge Arienne Hofmann Scancarelli for a protection order because her husband slept with a knife and threatened to kill her. The judge said she did not see an emergency and turned down the request. Five days later, Luis Uguna stabbed his wife to death then jumped out a fourth-story window. The county's district attorney Jeanine Pirro: "What does it cost to issue an order of protection against someone with a proven history of abuse? The bottom line is that we have a court system that is supposed to help victims and it turned away Hilda Uguna." The New York Times, 9/27/98.
Keywords: judges, judicial mistakes
Date: 4/23/2002
Judicial Staff's Decision Questioned
Antoinette Good walked into the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse looking for help. She had been told her ex-boyfriend was again threatening her and their two small children and she was frightened. A court intake worker declined to pass her case to a judge, because the reported threats were second-hand. One day later, as the children watched, their father stabbed Goode to death. A spokesman for the state defended the caseworker's decision to refuse help because the woman had not been directly threatened in more than a year. The Washington Post, 5/28/98.
Keywords:
Date: 4/17/2002
Judicial Decision Reversed; Dismissal Unwarranted
The trial court erred in dismissing domestic violence charges against husband who pulled wife out of bed by her hair, broke her glasses, and threatened to kill her if she filed charges against him, where the arresting officer who was the complaining witness did not wish to drop charges and there was independent admissible evidence against husband. State v. Moran, (Lorain 11/25/98).
Keywords:
Date: 4/17/2002
Court Has Duty To Protect Victims of DV
Ohio courts have an obligation to carry out the legislative goal of protecting victims of domestic violence, according to the specific mandate of the Ohio Supreme Court. Felton v. Felton (1997), 79 Ohio St.3d 34.
Keywords:
Date: 4/17/2002
