judicial abuse Archives

Michigan Judge Theresa Brennan faces misconduct allegations

Oct 22, 2018 | Bad Judges, Blog, News

Livingston County District Judge Theresa Brennan faces misconduct allegations that include perjury, failing to disclose personal ties to parties involved in her cases, requiring her staff to do personal tasks for her and mistreating people who came before her in her courtroom. As the evidentiary hearing began Monday, the commission said it plans to add destroying evidence and obstruction of justice to the list of accusations

A retired judge appointed by the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission is hearing the evidence in Livonia. Depending on his findings, the commission could eventually ask the state Supreme Court to discipline Brennan.

In the most recent 87-page complaint, the Judicial Tenure Commission said Brennan, among other issues:

Failed to disqualify herself or fully disclose her close personal relationship with a Michigan State Police detective involved in a murder case she presided over in 2013. She also failed to disclose conflicts and disqualify herself in other cases, the Judicial Tenure Commission said;
Failed to disqualify herself from hearing her own divorce case until six days after she knew the complaint had been filed;
Used improper demeanor in court;
Directed court staff to do personal tasks for her on court time;
Required staff to work on her re-election campaign during work hours;
Made misrepresentations during court hearings and in her contact with the tenure commission;
Committed perjury.

Below are Many News Reports and Court Video

When judges need disciplining

Oct 3, 2016 | Blog, News

DETROIT — They lied, stole, forged bank documents, padded expense accounts, drove drunk, slept with litigants and jailed innocent people.

Michigan judges have been in big trouble in recent years. The number of judges disciplined — about 35 per year — has not gone up, but the level of chicanery has soared.

Four judges have been removed from the bench and a fifth was forced to retire in the last three years. National experts who are watching the state’s troubled judiciary say the trend is perhaps an aberration, but others say the state’s judges need remedial education on judicial ethics.

Judges who have been disciplined in recent years range from a Wayne County Circuit judge who was carrying on an affair with a woman involved in a divorce case he was deciding to a Jackson County judge who dismissed traffic tickets against his wife to a Hudsonville judge who threw a defense attorney in jail for advising his client not to answer potentially incriminating questions.

The problems have even reached up to the state’s highest court. Diane Hathaway, a Michigan Supreme Court justice, chose to retire from the bench in January 2013 rather than face removal as she was about to be indicted on a federal mortgage fraud charge. She eventually served nine months in a federal prison and was released in May 2014.

On Monday, proceedings will start to remove yet another Michigan judge from the bench.

Officials say Detroit 36th District Judge Brenda Sanders is seriously mentally ill, a danger to herself and others. Sanders, on the bench since 2008, wrote the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit in 2013 that her fellow judges were being murdered to stop them from revealing wrongdoing and that she, too, was in imminent danger. People were hacking into her phone and e-mail. Supreme Court justices had evicted her from her home.

A psychiatrist who later examined the letter for court officials said it showed classic symptoms of “psychosis” marked by “insane delusions” and warned that Sanders, who has been known to carry a handgun, could be dangerous.

Her attorney, Cyril Hall, in court filings, said the letter was meant to be private and that a psychiatric examination would show that she was not mentally ill.

Sanders has been suspended from her duties without pay. At Monday’s hearing, the Judicial Tenure Commission will gather evidence and decide whether to recommend her dismissal to the Michigan Supreme Court, the only authority to remove judges.

“I think you can make the point that this is a troubled judiciary,” said Charles Gardner Geyh, a professor of law at Maurer School of Law at Indiana University and a national expert on judicial ethics. “But there is a counterpoint to be made. Michigan is doing a fairly aggressive job of rooting out misconduct.”

A message to all judges

Paul Fischer, executive director of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, will prosecute the case against Judge Sanders.

Fischer said the number of complaints about misbehaving judges have remained steady, though recent cases have garnered much more attention, likely because they have involved titillating behavior like sex, theft and lying that ended up in headlines.

“It’s been pretty steady the last several years, but it does seem like there’s been more,” he said. “I think people are paying more attention.”

The Center for Judicial Ethics at the National Center for State Courts serves as a clearinghouse for judicial discipline and tracks misdeeds nationwide. Their records show that removing a judge from the bench is rare.

In 2013, only five judges were removed from the bench nationwide, and 17 resigned or retired in lieu of removal. Michigan, in just three years, has removed four judges and forced two to retire.

Cynthia Gray, the director of the center and considered one of nation’s experts on judicial ethics, has been watching the Michigan judiciary with interest. “Perhaps in a year or so, it will be back to the typical thing, like drunk driving,” Gray said. “When you take a snapshot, you sometimes get an aberration, and I hope, for the sake of Michigan, that’s what this is.”

The public punishment of judges may prompt those remaining on the bench to behave, she said.

“Part of judicial discipline is to remind them that people are watching, so whatever they might be struggling with, hopefully they resist.”

Leslie Abramson, a professor at the Louis Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, said the nature of the transgressions should prompt the state to look hard at how judges are elected and retained.

“Even if the numbers are stable, the nature and severity of what these people are doing would suggest a cultural problem,” said Abramson, who lectures extensively on judicial ethics.

Noting Hathaway’s forced retirement from the Michigan Supreme Court, Abramson said: “It sounds like a top-down problem and should prompt the question of whether there needs to be a cultural change, either through education, or a reminder that these people are held to a very high standard, and not just on what they do on the bench.”

Others say that while the trend is troubling, Michigan residents should be encouraged by the prosecution of bad judges. “But for the discipline, some of this behavior might have continued,” said Geyh. “I tend to see this as the glass half-full.”

The ‘black robe disease’

Judges, by the very nature of their work, are very powerful, and some get into trouble by wielding that power inappropriately.

Dennis Wiley, a district court judge in Berrien County in southwest Michigan, was publicly censured in 2012 after he found a woman in contempt and threw her in jail for 10 days because she muttered a profanity in the clerk’s office while trying to take care of traffic tickets.

And Kenneth Post, a district court judge in Hudsonville, was given a 30-day suspension in 2013 after he jailed a defense attorney for advising his client not to answer incriminating questions.

Professor Abramson calls it the “black robe disease.”

“It seems to be an affliction that overtakes judges perhaps because of the tremendous power they have,” he said, noting that judicial canons require judges to be courteous to all litigants.

Michigan is not the only state with judges committing jaw-dropping behavior.

In Wisconsin, Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley claimed fellow Justice David Prosser put her “in a chokehold” during a heated argument in her chambers regarding the timing of an opinion. A special prosecutor was appointed but brought no charges. The Wisconsin Judicial Tenure Commission recommended sanctions against Prosser, but the matter was dropped when three of the Supreme Court justices who had witnessed the altercation recused themselves.

And in California, two county judges were publicly censured in September in separate cases for having sex in their chambers, one with his clerk, and the other with two of his former law students. The state’s Commission on Judicial Performance declared that Orange County Judge Scott Steiner and Kern County Judge Cory Woodward showed “utter disrespect for the dignity and decorum of the court.”

Policing the judiciary

The majority of the state’s 1,259 judges, magistrates and referees never face discipline. But once a judge breaks a law or violates one of the strict judicial canons that dictate behavior, they can face sanctions.

The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, made up of five judges, two attorneys and two citizens oversees the complaints, investigates and holds hearings. If the commission determines wrongdoing, it makes a recommendation to the Michigan Supreme Court. Sanctions can include a private censure, a public reprimand, paid or unpaid suspension, mandatory retirement or removal from office.

The process is secretive and often lengthy. The commission does not provide information about investigations or allegations unless they take action, and private censures are sealed. The commission is not subject to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.

Critics of the system say citizens should have more access to complaints about judges. Michigan’s secrecy prompted the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization, to give the state a failing grade in “judicial accountability” in a 2012 survey of states. Several other states received failing grades.

Michigan is among 39 states that elect their judges. Voters can be dispassionate if not outright uninformed when it comes to electing judges in Michigan. Once a judge wins election, it can become a job for life.

Judicial elections tend to be about name recognition and the special incumbent designation that sitting judges get on the ballot. And few practicing attorneys want to risk an election challenge against a judge whom they have to face in court regularly.

On occasion, voters will hold judges accountable.

After Inkster District Judge Sylvia James was removed from the bench in 2012 for misusing public funds, including money meant for crime victims, she ran for her old seat in the following November election. But James lost to Sabrina Johnson, who was appointed by the governor to finish James’ term and now had the incumbent designation.

Some states have tried to provide more citizen access and greater policing.

Arizona has a “judicial review commission,” made up of mostly nonlawyers, that queries jurors, litigants, attorneys, court staff and witnesses about their experiences in front of judges.

They then rate the judge as qualified or not and make the information public on the secretary of state website and in paid advertising. There are no studies showing the impact, but the experts say it likely keeps judges behaving.

“I would regard that form of accountability as reliable,” said law professor Geyh.

Judges recently punished by Michigan Supreme Court

The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission typically receives about 600 complaints a year. Many are complaints about rulings, out of the jurisdiction of the commission. Some legitimate complaints are resolved through private admonishments and warnings. The more serious end up before the Michigan Supreme Court.

Some of the judges most recently punished by the high court:

Deborah Ross Adams, Wayne County Family Court, removed from the bench in 2013 after lying under oath. She repeatedly contacted an Oakland County judge regarding her divorce pending in that court and forged a document, then lied about it.

Sheila Ann Gibson, Wayne County Circuit Court judge, issued a public censure and 30-day suspension without pay after a Detroit television crew followed her and filmed her arriving late to the courthouse and leaving early on several days. Some days she worked as little as four hours.

Diane Hathaway, a Michigan Supreme Court justice, retired from the bench rather than face removal following her 2013 conviction on mortgage fraud. She served nine months in a federal prison and was released in May 2014.

Sylvia James, Inkster district court judge, removed from the bench in 2012 for misusing public funds meant for crime victims, then lying to the Judicial Tenure Commission about it. She was ordered to repay $16,500.

James Justin, a district court judge in Jackson, removed in 2012 after dismissing traffic tickets for his wife and members of his court staff without notifying prosecutors.

Wade McCree, Wayne County Circuit Court judge, removed from the bench in 2014 after carrying on an affair with a female litigant appearing before him, then lying about it to the Judicial Tenure Commission. He also was ordered to pay $12,000 in costs. He made headlines in 2010 after he sent a shirtless photo of himself to a county employee, and when questioned by reporters said, “There’s no shame in my game.”

Bruce Morrow, Wayne County Circuit Court judge, 60 days suspension in 2014 for mismanaging cases, including his refusal to lock up a convicted rapist pending sentencing.

Kenneth Post, Hudsonville district court judge, public censure and 30-day suspension in 2013 after he jailed a defense attorney who was advising his client not to answer the judge’s potentially incriminating questions from the bench, a professional obligation all defense attorneys have.

Dennis Powers, Novi district court judge, retired in September to avoid removal from the bench after investigators found thousands of dollars of improper mileage reimbursement. Powers also was accused of golfing, and attending real estate seminars when he should have been on the bench.

Kirk Tabbey, Ypsilanti district court, public censure and 90-day suspension without pay in 2014 after being arrested on charges of drunken driving while towing a boat out of a lake. His blood alcohol was 0.17, more than twice the legal limit.

Dennis Wiley, Berrien County district judge, issued a public censure after he found a woman in contempt and jailed her for 10 days over Christmas because court clerks told him she had muttered an obscenity in the clerk’s office while attempting to take care of traffic tickets.

Removal of Judges

Michigan judges may be removed in one of three ways:

Judges may be impeached by a majority vote of the house of representatives and convicted by a two-thirds vote of the senate.

The governor may remove a judge upon the concurrent resolution of two thirds of the members of both houses of the legislature.

On the recommendation of the judicial tenure commission, the supreme court may censure, suspend, retire, or remove a judge. However, the Judicial Tenure Commission cannot deal with Supreme Court Justices. There is currently no mechanism to deal with misbehavior by Supreme Court Justices.

Judge Found With Thousands Of Nude Pictures Of Defendants Resigns

May 12, 2016 | Blog, News

Victims said the judge would sentence them to community service, invite them to his home, and ask them to bend over to pick up cans while he took pictures.

An Arkansas judge resigned just days after he was found with thousands of pictures of nude men in his computer, many who appeared in his courtroom and received reduced sentences from the judge.

Cross County District Judge Joseph Boeckmann was accused of trading softer sentences in his court for men who went to his home and posed for him, sometimes bending over, sometimes nude, and sometimes in acts of masturbation.

In some cases, men sentenced by Boeckmann were photographed at the judge’s home before Boeckmann paid their court fines himself.

It was a practice that investigators believe spanned the entire time Boeckmann served as a judge since 2009, David J. Sachar, executive director of the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission told BuzzFeed News.

In the months-long investigation, Sachar said they have identified about 30 men who were defendants in Boeckmann’s court during the six-year period, were photographed at the judge’s home, and received some sort of payment from the magistrate. Many others have not been identified yet.

“We had victims come forward in the last two weeks who had been denying all this time. There’s a lot of shame and hesitation,” Sachar told BuzzFeed News. “Of course, it took a lot of courage for those people to come forward.”

Boeckmann has not presided over any new cases since November of last year, when the commission first announced the charges against him and the Supreme Court of Arkansas assigned his cases to another judge.

He submitted his resignation Monday, just days after the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission told his attorney they had obtained nearly 4,500 photographs of men in his home computer and camera, including several young men who had been sentenced to “community service.”

According to the commission, Boeckmann would often offer “substitutionary sentences,” to young men in his court, asking them for their personal number or giving them his personal cell phone number.

The men were typically white and between the ages of 18 to 35, according to the documents.

Instead of defendants being sentenced to picking up trash on county roads, the men would be invited to the judge’s home where they would simulate the act of picking up cans from the ground, while, “Boeckmann would photograph the buttocks of the men as they were bending to retrieve the garbage.”

In one case, the defendant told investigators Boeckmann asked him to take two bags filled with cans to his home, and began to take pictures of him picking up the cans at the judge’s backyard.

Victims told investigators Boeckmann would tell them how to pose, sometimes telling them to spread their legs further. One defendant told investigators that after Boeckmann took pictures of him bending over, the judge asked him if he would go inside his home and pose “like Michelangelo’s David.”

Boeckmann is accused of keeping thousands of those pictures in his computer before he resigned and promised the commission to never again seek a job as a local, county, or state employee.

Sachar said the allegations surfaced when the commission was looking into an allegation of conflict interest, where Boeckmann had presided over a case of a personal friend.

“We were wondering, why is he handling a case involving family and friends?” he said.

In that case, Boeckmann had reduced a $50,000 bond for Crystal Avellino, who happened to be the mother of the judge’s niece. But as investigators looked into the case, they found Boeckmann had also presided over cases involving Avellino’s brother, who was engaged in a sexual relationship with the judge, Sachar said.

Investigators discovered a pattern of the judge contacting young male defendants from his court, telling them sentencing involved them doing “community service” at his home, and often paying them for posing for pictures.

“It’s every bit of his judicial career,” he said.

Some of the men were found to have developed a sexual relationship with the judge, while others only posed for the suggestive pictures.

One defendant told investigators he was paid for years to perform maintenance duties at rental properties owned by Boeckmann, and also for posing nude while the judge took pictures.

The judge would allegedly ask him to “spread my legs further and further apart,” and later told him he would not have to pay a $500 court fine.

In some cases, investigators found that Boeckmann wrote personal checks to pay the court fees of the same men who appeared before his court as defendants.

Investigators have reviewed at least one of Boeckmann’s checking accounts, which shows he issued 150 checks to seven defendants over a six-year span, paying them at least $30,000.

Officials have also found evidence the judge’s actions might go back farther than his years on the bench, including his time as a prosecutor in the same judicial district before becoming a judge, and in his private practice.

One man told officials he hired Boeckman for his divorce and owed him attorneys fees at one point. The fees were forgiven in exchange for posing for pictures, with his pants down, after being spanked, Sachar said.

The commission pointed out that during his time as judge, Boeckmann has paid court fees, overlooked court fees, hired, or become involved in personal, sexual relationships with young white men defendants at his court, while at the same time “patronizes, yells and screams at those litigants who are minorities or female, with whom he does not have an intimate personal relationship with.”

The judge repeatedly denied the allegations in statements to the commission during the investigation, and said the pictures were “solely for the purpose of recording proof of community service.”

He submitted his resignation three days after the commission said it had reviewed 1,050 photographs, and was in the progress of receiving 3,400 more.

“Boeckmann denies engaging in any pattern of seeking out young Caucasian male litigants for the purpose of forming personal sexual relationships,” the statement read.

Although his resignation ends the investigation by the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, Sachar said the case has been referred for a criminal investigation.

The case is currently being reviewed by federal investigators, as well as a special state investigator.