Chief Counsel for JCB Delayed Conahan Investigation

The chief counsel for the state Judicial Conduct Board ordered an investigation into former Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan delayed until after Conahan testified at the misconduct trial of former county Judge Ann H. Lokuta, according to a statement the board made to a state panel investigating the county kids-for-cash scandal.

The board also accused attorney Joseph A. Massa Jr. of summarizing an anonymous September 2006 complaint against Conahan without mentioning key allegations of case fixing and suspicions about Conahan’s close relationship with former Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr.

Massa disputed the claims during testimony the panel Monday, saying he asked the board to authorize a full investigation of the Conahan complaint at its bimonthly meeting in June 2007.

According to the board statement, Massa instructed the board to delay the investigation until after October 2007. Lokuta’s trial, on allegations she mistreated court staff and showed up late for hearings, was expected to end in September 2007, but dragged on into April 2008, Massa said.

Asked if he was protecting Conahan, Massa said, “absolutely not.”

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Chief Counsel for Judicial Conduct Board Delayed Conahan Investigation

Ex-Judge Disbarred for Abuse More Than 30 Years Ago

The Delaware Supreme Court ordered the disbarment of a former judge who admitted earlier this year to sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy more than 30 years ago.

William C. Bradley Jr.’s disbarment was based on a “professional misconduct involving moral turpitude,” according to the one-page order the state’s highest court.

Neither Bradley, 72, nor his attorney, Mason Turner, could be reached for comment.

A week after resigning as Court of Common Pleas judge in January, Bradley admitted to molesting Gregory Kelly at his home: “On or about the evening of Dec. 28, 1975, and Dec. 29, 1975, while present in my home located in Townsend, Delaware, I molested Gregory Kelly, then age 11, through inappropriate sexual contact. I deeply regret any harm I have caused to Gregory Kelly and his family.”

The statement, and an undisclosed cash payment, were part of a settlement arising out of a lawsuit filed by Kelly in U.S. District Court in Wilmington.

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Delaware Courts: Ex-Judge Disbarred for Abuse

Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Theft but Claims He Must Keep Practicing

A longtime Utah lawyer has pleaded guilty to a felony count of theft concerning $346,248 he allegedly stole from a client, according to the Park Record.

But in order to make restitution, Gary William Nielsen, 66, will need to keep practicing, his lawyer says.

“I would expect that he would be allowed to practice for the foreseeable future but I am certain that our bar association will take some action at some point, especially since it involves the practice of law,” attorney Greg Skordas told the newspaper today. “That’s a two-edge sword because if they take his bar license away then he is going to have a hard time making restitution.”

Nielsen faces a maximum prison term of 15 years when he is sentenced in June.

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After Pleading Guilty in $346K Client Theft, Lawyer Must Keep Practicing to Make Restitution

NV Bar Decides to Disbar Lawyer for Life!

Jeanne Winkler received the Nevada State Bar’s most serious sanction Monday night when a panel of judges unanimously recommended she be disbarred for life after stealing more than $260,000 from her client trust fund.

“What does a lawyer have to do to get disbarred?” Rob Bare, legal counsel for the Nevada State Bar, said in his closing statement. “That is this case.”

Winkler in testimony delivered at the start of her hearing March 3 said she looted the fund, which has clients’ money and must be handled separately from other accounts, because she was caught up in an investment scheme that would have netted her up to $60 million.

[A}ttorney Michael Warhola asked the panel for leniency, saying Winkler was under tremendous psychological stress and “deluded” when she misappropriated the funds.

Coincidentally, Winkler stole from her clients after she and her husband were victimized by an employee who, according to testimony in her previous hearing, stole more than $300,000 from their now defunct contracting business.

The bar’s decision came less than an hour after the panel, consisting of attorneys Tom Ryan, Robert Schumacher, and Lary Lamoreux and lay member Carrie Taylor, began deliberations.

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NEVADA STATE BAR: LV Attorney’s Disbarment for Life Urged

Daunting Deadline for PA Interbranch Commission

One compelling question in the wake of the Luzerne County judicial scandal is this: Can Pennsylvania’s legal version of Humpty Dumpty be put back together again? That’s something the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice is looking to answer, and they only have until May 31 to come up with their suggestions.

The commission certainly has its work cut out for it. Because while there are plenty of questions, I’m not sure if the state’s legal community has the stomach for all the answers.

How do you restore faith in a court system where two former president judges have been accused of racketeering? Or when the state’s judicial conduct system was put on notice years in advance and admittedly did nothing? How do you protect the rights of juveniles when the pressure from schools, police, government, and even some parents is for judges to “get tough”?

The commission’s name alone lets you know that its primary purpose was to address the most notorious aspect of the allegations against former Luzerne County Judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. — that they took $2.8 million in payments from the builder and former co-owner of a private juvenile detention center and sentenced juveniles there, even when unwarranted. The judges reject the allegations.

But the commission’s hearings over the past several months have revealed deeper problems in Pennsylvania’s court system, not just in Luzerne County. The testimony and the line of questioning by the commission have covered larger ground than I’m guessing any of its members anticipated.

We reported back in July 2009 that multiple sources described how Conahan and Ciavarella had essentially run the county for years, ruling by fear and intimidation. The commission has heard plenty of testimony that corroborates that. In fact, when pressed as to how “this could happen” — namely the kids’ rights being trampled on without anyone challenging it — the constant refrain has been either fear of the judges or blind faith in their authority.

How do you check that? How does the commission address that?

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The Interbranch Commission Facing Daunting Deadline

Ex-Chairman of Judical Conduct Board to Testify in Conanan/Ciavarella Hearing

Local auto-parts executive Patrick Judge Sr., former chairman of the state Judicial Conduct Board, will be among the witnesses testifying next month before a state panel probing the kids-for-cash scandal.

The conduct board, charged with investigating and prosecuting allegations of ethical abuses by judges, has come under fire from the panel for failing to investigate allegations against two Luzerne County judges now facing federal racketeering charges. Judge, who shared investments in a Florida condominium and Forty Fort ambulance company with one of the judges, Michael T. Conahan, was a member of the board when some of those allegations were made.

As chairman of the conduct board, Judge voted to proceed to trial with allegations against former county Judge Ann H. Lokuta, who was removed from office in 2008 by the state Supreme Court for mistreating court staffers and attorneys.

Lokuta is seeking reinstatement, arguing the charges against her were orchestrated by Conahan and his co-defendant in the racketeering case, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. Conahan and Ciavarella, who both testified against Lokuta, are accused of accepting $2.8 million for placing juveniles in two for-profit detention centers.

After voting to proceed with charges against Lokuta, Judge was named to the state Court of Judicial Discipline, which conducted a trial in Lokuta’s case. Judge recused himself from the case.

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Ex-Conduct Board Head to Testify in Kids-for-Cash Probe

It’s Time to Take a Wrecking Ball to Our Judicial Discipline System

Former Luzerne Judge Ann Lokuta and the state’s judicial conduct system have a lot in common: The people they need to convince the most don’t believe them.

Lokuta was the first judge under the current system to be banished from the bench for non-criminal conduct. A case of first impression. But the same system failed to even investigate the worst and most pervasive judicial corruption scandal in Pennsylvania’s history.

That alone should tell you all that you need to know about the Judicial Conduct Board and the rest of the state judicial conduct system. It’s time to smash it into a million pieces, because when it comes to dealing with true judicial corruption, the system isn’t up to the task.

But smashing the JCB and the rest of the system would be redundant in many ways, because it’s already been destroyed. The public does not believe in the system. And more importantly, most lawyers and trial judges I’ve spoken with think something’s terribly wrong, too.

In terms of the public’s confidence in the system, here’s the analogy I’d make: It’s like watching an old Pinto endure a thermonuclear explosion. There’s nothing left, not even a trace. In this instance the atom bomb was former Luzerne Judge Michael T. Conahan and the 2006 complaint made against him.

If the system’s idea of policing the judiciary is to chase Lokuta from the bench while politically powerful judges like Conahan avoid the JCB’s scrutiny, who needs them?

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It’s Time to Take a Wrecking Ball to Our Judicial Discipline System

Women’s Group File Complaint Against Judge

Two organizations that foster women’s legal rights filed a complaint Thursday with a panel that disciplines the judiciary, asking it to investigate a Baltimore County judge who performed a wedding ceremony between a woman and the man accused of beating her, and then acquitted him.

The House Of Ruth Maryland and the Women’s Law Center of Maryland called the behavior of District Judge G. Darrell Russell Jr. “grossly inappropriate.”

On March 10, when a 29-year-old Middle River man, Frederick D. Wood, appeared in an Essex courtroom on a charge that he had beaten his fiancee, Russell acquiesced to Wood’s lawyer’s suggestion that his client leave to obtain a marriage license. The judge volunteered to perform the wedding ceremony himself, and did so later that day in his chambers.

The newly married Shelly Pearl Say, 27, then invoked marital privilege so that she would not have to testify against Wood about allegations that he beat her on Nov. 29. Russell found Wood not guilty.

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Women’s Groups File Complaint Against Judge

WI Attorney Publically Reprimanded by State Supreme Court

An Edgerton attorney was publicly reprimanded and ordered to pay the costs of his disciplinary hearing after the Wisconsin Supreme Court found he improperly handled two estates in 1999 and 2000.

However, a referee for the Supreme Court said he was sympathetic to Jeffrey Roethe, whom he said had an “insufferable, unreasonable” client, who was involved with both cases. Referee Timothy Vocke said Roethe’s “biggest mistake was not getting rid of (the client) quickly,” and he noted she waited six years to file the complaint.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation had alleged five ethical violations by Roethe. However, Vocke recommended dismissal of two, saying the lawyer-regulation agency had failed to prove the allegations.

Roethe agreed to be disciplined for twice instructing his assistant to notarize signatures of people who had not signed documents while in her presence and for improperly charging his clients for his services by taking a percentage of an estate sale rather than an hourly fee.

The court said that aside from a 2000 reprimand, Roethe had a “long and honorable career” and was acting in what he believed was the best interest of the estates. He was ordered to pay $24,680.

Source:
Edgerton Attorney is Reprimanded by State Supreme Court

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State’s Supreme Court Reprimands Edgerton Lawyer

Former DA Gives Talk on Ethics

Former Rockdale County District Attorney Cheryl Custer spoke about her work as director of the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission to a local group Wednesday and of the challenges facing her office in enforcing judicial ethics across the state.

Custer was the guest speaker of the Rotary Club of Rockdale County as part of the club’s recognition of March as National Women’s History Month. Custer was the first woman to serve as a district attorney in Georgia when she was appointed by Gov. Zell Miller in 1991. She has served as director of the Judicial Qualifications Commission since 1999. Custer was among those considered for the Georgia Supreme Court to replace retiring Chief Justice Leah Sears Ward.

Custer explained the job of the commission is to enforce the cannons of conduct for all judges in Georgia. Anyone can file a complaint against a judge which can be challenging for her office. The commission is comprised of a seven-member volunteer board of judges, attorneys and non-lawyer residents charged with investigating judicial misconduct.

The commission has two employees — Custer and an assistant — to handle the case load that covers 1,800 sitting judges across the state. The most recent case of the commission removing a sitting judge involved Twiggs County Probate Judge Kenneth Fowler, who was accused of abusing his office on 16 counts, including establishing a higher set of fines for out-of-county residents and insinuating that a female defendant on traffic charges provided sexual favors to a Georgia state trooper.

Custer said those examples of bad behavior are rare on the bench but cause damage to the reputation of all who serve as a judge from traffic court to Superior Court.

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Former DA Gives Talk on Ethics