Alaska Judicial conduct commission asks for conversation with supremes over 'systemic racism' confessional letter - Must Read Alaska mustreadalaska.com · by author: Suzanne Downing https://mustreadalaska.com/judicial-conduct-commission-asks-for-conversation-with- supremes-over-systemic-racism-confessional-letter/

A “systemic racism” letter penned by and signed by the Alaska Supreme Court and posted on its State of Alaska website in early June prompted robust conversation at the commission that deals with complaints about judges in Alaska.

Now, the commissioners would like a conversation with the Supreme Court justices who signed it.

The letter made its way to the commission agenda in August, when long-time member Robert Sheldon raised a concern about the appearance of the Supreme Court justices condemning the justice system in Alaska; the discussion about the letter was tabled until Dec. 11.

Must Read Alaska wrote about the letter in June:

Alaska Supreme Court system puts its own judicial activism policy in writing During the Dec. 11 meeting, the commissioners heard more of Sheldon’s concerns. Front and center, he said that the justices had a choice: They could have acknowledged that Alaska has done more for its primary minority population than any place in history with extensive reparations. He also pointed out that the letter the justices signed was eerily similar to the one penned by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and other courts around the nation in an effort that seemed coordinated.

Ultimately, Sheldon prevailed in his motion to have the Judicial Conduct Commission write a letter to the Supreme Court justices and invite them in for a private conversation about what they meant by the letter, and how it came to be written.

The commission voted 5-3 to make the request of the justices, recognizing that they may, if they choose, simply refuse to talk to the commission.

Background: In June, shortly after the death of George Floyd, a number of courts around the nation signed confessional letters taking responsibility for racism. Alaska’s Supreme Court letter echoed the phrasing of others, indicating there was a coordinated effort, which appears to have been coordinated by the National Center for State Courts.

Few of them were as radical as Washington Supreme Court’s confessional, which states, in part,

“As judges, we must recognize the role we have played in devaluing black lives. This very court once held that a cemetery could lawfully deny grieving black parents the right to bury their infant. We cannot undo this wrong⸺but we can recognize our ability to do better in the future. We can develop a greater awareness of our own conscious and unconscious biases in order to make just decisions in individual cases, and we can administer justice and support court rules in a way that brings greater racial justice to our system as a whole.”

Alaska’s Supreme Court wrote, in part,

“We recognize that too often African-Americans, Alaska Natives, and other people of color are not treated with the same dignity and respect as white members of our communities. And we recognize that as community members, lawyers, and especially as judicial officers, we must do more to change this reality….As judges we must examine what those changes must be, what biases – both conscious and unconscious – we bring, and how we can improve our justice system so that all who enter may be its judges reflect the community that we serve.assured they will receive equal treatment. We must continue our efforts to make our court system and its judges reflect the community that we serve.”

California’s Chief Justice also wrote, in part,

..We must continue to remove barriers to access and fairness, to address conscious and unconscious bias—and yes, racism…

Massachusetts’ chief justices wrote, in part,

As judges, we must look afresh at what we are doing, or failing to do, to root out any conscious and unconscious bias in our courtrooms; to ensure that the justice provided to African- Americans is the same that is provided to white Americans; to create in our courtrooms, our corner of the world, a place where all are truly equal.

The complete list of confessional letters from judges and justices is at this NCSC link.

Sheldon on Friday expounded on the Alaska exceptionalism in the court system, and said the statement by the Alaska justices was in error or at least ill-advised.

Alaska has completed four reparation cycles, he said, including the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, two recapitalizations of Native corporations, and land grants for Native Vietnam veterans.

Alaska’s largest corporations are owned by Natives, he pointed out.

Every Alaskan gets a Permanent Fund dividend, which is viewed by many as a form of universal basic income, Sheldon said.

In his 13 years on the Judicial Conduct Commission, the commission has investigated or reviewed each complaint of bias, whether or not it was even jurisdictional, he said.

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More of the commission’s discussion of whether to have the justices respond to them on the topic of their letter is at this YouTube link:

Alaska’s Commission on Judicial Conduct oversees the conduct of justices of the Alaska Supreme Court, judges of the state court of appeals, state superior court judges, and state district court judges.

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Alaska Judicial Conduct Commission executive director refuses to draft letter to Supremes - Must Read Alaska mustreadalaska.com · by author: Suzanne Downing https://mustreadalaska.com/judicial-conduct-commission-executive-director-refuses-to-draft- letter-to-supremes/ The Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct was sent into conflict today after the executive director declared she would not draft a letter to the Supreme Court, as she had offered to do for the Commission during its last meeting on Dec. 13. She thinks the action is wrong and said it was outside the commission’s authority.

Executive Director Marla Greenstein submitted her refusal letter to the commission, telling them that the request they were making of the Supreme Court, to have a private conversation about what they meant when they said the court system is racist, is not in the jurisdiction of the Judicial Conduct Commission.

Greenstein, in her letter of Dec. 15, wrote, “At the Commission’s meeting on Friday, in public session on a vote of 5 to 3, the Commission decided to invite the members of the Alaska Supreme Court to meet with the Commission to discuss their June ‘Statement to Alaskans.'”

The “Statement to Alaskans” dealt with systemic racism and justice and the need for the Alaska Judicial System to do better.

“I offered to do an initial draft of the invitation. That effort has presented some difficulties,” Greenstein wrote.

“In an effort to ground our invitation in our Rules and Statutes, it seems unclear that this type of invitation fits within the scope of the Commission’s authority,” Greenstein wrote. She cited Rule 6, which lays out the various roles of the Commission, and said the rule does not envision an invitation to have a conversation with the Supreme Court.

“My understanding of the court’s statement is that it was issued by the Supreme Court as a body, in its role as head of the Judicial Branch. While members of the public or of this Commission might disagree with the wisdom of the Court’s issuance of the statement, it does not appear to raise an issue of Judicial Conduct and Ethics for our Commission. As my duties include interpreting statutes and providing legal opinions to the Commission related to its duties, it is my opinion that the motion adopted at Friday’s meeting is likely outside the scope of the statute.”

The commission chair, Judge Eric Marston, appeared to have engineered with Greenstein a rolling of the 5-3 majority, which had voted in favor of a motion to invite an executive session conversation with the Supreme Court about their “Statement to Alaskans.” The motion, made

4 by Commissioner Robert Sheldon, was phrased in such a way that the Supremes could simply have refused the invitation.

On Tuesday, the commission argued back and forth, with Marston taking issue with Sheldon, and with Judge Paul Roetman of Kotzebue often not audible due to technical issues, and then went into executive session to discuss the matter further.

The quickly scheduled meeting on Tuesday had not been legally advertised by the executive director, noted Commissioner Sheldon. There was no agenda for today’s meeting. Sheldon said that Greenstein was taking on the role of a commissioner, rather than as the director and he called it an “opaque, rushed and sloppy process” by which the meeting was called.

Ultimately the body decided to postpone the entire question to the March regularly scheduled meeting.

Before executive session, one judge serving on the commission, William Carey of Ketchikan, noted he reluctantly had voted for the invitation to the Supreme Court justices, but that he would not do so again after having second thoughts. That puts the current commission at a 4-4 position on the matter, with one member not yet on the record.

Toward the end of the meeting Greenstein said that one of the commissioners, Jeannine Jabaay, had a term expiring in March and is being replaced by the governor, which puts her vote, which was in favor of the invitation, in a questionable position for the March 26 meeting.

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Colorado Another district court judge says inappropriate conduct by other judges is the norm in Adams County denverpost.com · by David Migoya https://www.denverpost.com/2020/11/25/adams-county-district-court-judge-inappropriate- conduct/

An Adams County district court judge last year demanded an investigation into a variety of inappropriate conduct – some of it threatening – by other judges, including the chief judge, which she says has been occurring there for years.

In a 10-page, single-spaced email to the top lawyer for the Colorado Judicial Department, District Judge Sharon Holbrook in September 2019 laid out several examples of “retaliation, fraud, harassment, sexual harassment, and threatening behavior” by a number of judges, some now-retired, she said have been condoned or ignored within the 17th Judicial District since at least 2017.

The allegations, known publicly for the first time, are the latest in a string of issues involving judges and their conduct in the judicial district that encompasses Adams and Broomfield counties. It is composed of 16 district court judges and nine county court judges, all appointed by the governor, and is the fourth largest in the state.

In her email to Terri Morrison, the department’s chief legal counsel, Holbrook recounts several incidents of misconduct by other judges that were the result of Holbrook and two other female judges jointly filing a formal complaint against another judge. One incident led to state investigators warning the three women about concerns for their safety. Another incident included muttered “sexist nicknames” from males judges that included “mean girls” and a common slur referring to women.

The three women had co-filed the complaint after senior judges in the district and human resource personnel did nothing about it. The judge was eventually admonished privately for his behavior by the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, but his name was never made public, and he remains on the bench.

Holbrook also wrote to Morrison that at one point another female judge “begins to come into Holbrook’s office as often as possible … to prevent (verbal) abuse” whenever a particular male judge was there, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Post.

The Denver Post spoke with several other judges and courthouse personnel who either witnessed the incidents first-hand or were told about them after they occurred. All of them spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they feared retribution or were concerned for their job.

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Holbrook’s allegations included other incidents of judicial conduct already detailed in Denver Post stories over the past several weeks. The Post last month wrote of a district court judge who described similar problems within the judicial district. Voters on Nov. 3 chose not to retain that judge, Tomee Crespin, who alleged she was the target of a systemic campaign to drive her out. Her term ends in January.

Holbrook’s email also mentioned an inquiry into a judicial laptop containing pornographic images that was kept from law enforcement, which The Post reported about last month.

“There are more than two years worth of HR (human resource department) complaints and exit interviews that substantiate” her allegations, Holbrook wrote Morrison.

Although much of the behavior in Holbrook’s email occurred under former Chief Judge Patrick Murphy, who retired in July 2019, she wrote that it was an incident last summer with current Chief Judge Emily Anderson that prompted Holbrook to step forward and finally demand a general inquiry.

Holbrook described frustration with a process that treats judges differently than other state employees because they are constitutional officers appointed by the governor and not subject to the same rules as others.

“I have complied with the reporting requirements of HR. You can probably understand my frustration at the lack of responsiveness to a serious situation,” Holbrook wrote Morrison. “I hope that my situation can be addressed and corrected in a way that does not create further damage to our branch, but instead offers meaningful solutions.”

A department memo circulated among judges statewide in late October now requires all complaints by any judge regarding another judge be filed with the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline within the state Supreme Court.

It’s unclear whether Holbrook or Morrison took the matter to the disciplinary commission because its inquiries are secret and its sanctions frequently do not identify the judge.

Holbrook, who has consistently received high marks from the district’s judicial review committee, did not respond to Denver Post efforts to reach her.

Morrison, through a department spokesman, said she is “not at liberty to discuss matters pertaining to her role as legal counsel.”

In the incident with Anderson, Holbrook said the chief judge refused her suggestion to discuss an issue at a more convenient time and called Holbrook “an inappropriate name and jabbed her finger at my face,” according to the email.

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Holbrook wrote that after she went to her own office and closed the door, Anderson knocked, then “put her foot in the door trying to open it and force her way in” when Holbrook answered, according to the email. Holbrook wrote that she reported the incident to the department’s HR director and later told Anderson to stop writing emails that tried to “re-write the history of the event.”

Anderson told The Post that Holbrook hasn’t made any complaints to her or district administrators regarding other judges and that Holbrook was lying about their interaction.

“Judge Sharon Holbrook’s description of the conversation is untrue,” Anderson wrote in an email to The Post. “Not one thing she says happened actually occurred.”

Anderson said she’s committed to seeing all the judges in the district succeed — including Holbrook.

“I am committed to overseeing an inclusive bench in the 17th District, and I stand on my 30- year record of helping women and diverse attorneys become leaders and judges and successes in the legal profession,” she wrote The Post. “This record includes helping, supporting, and lifting up Judge Holbrook over several years.”

Troubles start in 2017

The harassment Holbrook and other judges in the district say they experienced began in late 2017 when she first approached Murphy about the district judge they would eventually file the formal complaint about.

“Over the next several months, many other district court judges would go to (Murphy) to also complain about (the judge),” the email says. “When it was clear that nothing would be done – and after a female magistrate had come to me crying and asking for help – myself and two other female judges filed a complaint with the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline.”

That complaint, filed in March 2018, contained allegations of inappropriate conduct with female interns, misuse of court scheduling calendars for personal benefit, and inappropriate demeanor with staff and colleagues, according to the email.

“This set the stage for the retaliation and hostility that would be pervasive for us over the next two years, and that continues today,” Holbrook wrote.

Murphy refused to comment about the inquiry, telling The Post it was a “private matter.”

During the commission’s inquiry, other judges “begin to give whistleblowers everything from cold shoulder to outright hostility,” Holbrook claimed in the email.

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Holbrook’s email outlines “almost daily” visits by Murphy to her office. At one point Holbrook “is crying, asking him to stop.”

Finally, two investigators for the disciplinary commission contact Holbrook and the two other judges who filed the complaint to say they’re looking into “Murphy regarding retaliation against” the judges.

“They cannot disclose any details, but they are so concerned for the safety of the whistleblowers that they give them their direct numbers to call if needed,” Holbrook wrote. “They indicate that this circumstance is rare, to their knowledge this has never happened before in an investigation of this nature.”

Said Murphy in an email to The Post: “I never retaliated against anyone.”

In another incident describing inappropriate conduct by male judges, Holbrook wrote that in September 2019 she was cornered in her office by a male county court judge unhappy about a contrary opinion she expressed at a meeting of several judges earlier that day.

It took a male magistrate to convince him to leave, according to Holbrook’s email. She said a commander with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office assigned to the courthouse told her that she “should have pulled the security button as the encounter was scary, threatening and meets the definition of the crime of false imprisonment.”

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Colorado Judges who misbehave in Colorado are largely shielded from public scrutiny denverpost.com · by Shelly Bradbury https://www.denverpost.com/2020/12/13/colorado-judge-discipline-secret-misconduct/

The former Weld County District Court judge who was censured by the Colorado Supreme Court last week is just the fourth judge in the state to receive public discipline in the last decade — highlighting the largely secret process used to correct judges who violate ethical or professional rules.

Colorado shields judges accused of misconduct in the vast majority of cases, and its discipline process offers judges more privacy than in 35 other states, according to the National Center for State Courts.

Because of the state’s constitution, the public is barred from knowing which judges committed what offenses except for in the most egregious cases, or in cases in which the misconduct becomes public apart from the confidential proceedings.

Colorado judges were disciplined privately 51 times between 2010 and 2019 for offenses ranging from failing to issue timely rulings to having a sexual relationship with a member of the court staff, according to annual reports from the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline.

Critics say the secrecy undermines public confidence in the state’s judges and allows judges to escape public scrutiny for their missteps, while proponents argue the confidentiality protects judges from false accusations and encourages genuine and honest participation in the discipline process.

“We need to be able to trust that judges are maintaining the highest level of professionalism in their job duties,” said Chris Forsyth, executive director of The Judicial Integrity Project, a Colorado group focused on reforming judicial discipline. “The lack of transparency undermines that.”

But William Campbell, executive director of the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, said he felt confidentiality is “defensible and necessary.”

“If it’s not done in a spotlight, people are more willing to complain to us and have us look at it, and judges are more likely to be thoughtful in their response, rather than thinking they’ve got to have a good quote for the newspaper,” he said.

Discipline for the nearly 400 judges and justices who sit on county and district courts, Denver’s juvenile and probate courts, the Colorado Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court is all handled through the commission, which consists of a volunteer board led by Campbell, who is paid.

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The commission takes in close to 200 complaints a year, and Campbell dismisses about 90% of them as soon as they are received for procedural reasons, like the issue not falling under the commission’s jurisdiction or the complaint being a matter of law that should be handled in an appeals court, rather than by the disciplinary commission.

The remaining 10% of complaints are reviewed by the volunteer board, which decides whether to discipline the judge, and whether to do it privately or publicly. Most judges are disciplined through “informal proceedings” that often result in a private admonition, reprimand or censure.

The details of discipline usually become public only if the commission moves a case into “formal proceedings,” and even then only are made public at the very end of the process, when the commission makes a recommendation to the state Supreme Court on what discipline is warranted.

The secret discipline process stands in stark contrast with the court system as a whole, which was built on public proceedings, said Paul Chessin, an attorney who has argued for more transparency in the attorney discipline process.

“There is a long tradition that judicial proceedings are public, because that instills the public’s confidence and trust that the system is working,” he said. “Proceedings in secret do the opposite. Then, there is a perception that the actions taken are arbitrary or capricious or perhaps could be playing favorites.”

Colorado is one of just 12 states where the process is confidential until a recommendation for public discipline is filed, according to the National Center for State Courts. In most states, the allegations against judges become public when formal charges are filed or once a judge has had a chance to respond to formal charges.

“Colorado is in the more anti-transparency, privacy-protection rank,” said Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow with the Brookings Institution and former president of the Federal Judicial Center.

He said the discipline process must walk a line between protecting the reputation of judges and the court system from baseless accusations and bringing legitimate misconduct to light. Most judicial disciplinary bodies in the U.S. receive a high number of false or frivolous complaints, he said.

“Judges have to accept the fact that when they accept the judicial office, they’re going to be expected to have the public know about their lives in a way that non-judges don’t, but you don’t want to make the transparency so transparent that it scares away people who would otherwise be willing to serve,” he said.

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Although most complaints are dismissed in Colorado for procedural reasons, there’s no way for the public to check that, Forsyth said. He’d like to see the process be open to inspection from the initial request for investigation. He pointed to Ryan Kamada, the ex-judge in Weld County who on Monday was publicly censured for tipping his friend off to a drug investigation and making inappropriate comments about people in his courtroom.

“Now we are hearing litigants who said they complained about this guy,” he said. “Were there complaints filed with the Judicial Discipline Commission before all this happened? … We don’t know.”

Besides Kamada, the three other judges who have been publicly disciplined since 2010 are Laurie Booras, who called another judge “the little Mexican,” Robert Rand, who made misogynistic and inappropriate comments, and Lance Timbreza, who was charged with driving under the influence.

While Campbell defended the confidential system, he said the office has increased its transparency since he took charge 11 years ago. The commission created a website to reach a wider audience, and began giving a summary of discipline cases without identifying the judges involved in its annual reports, he said.

“We try to take something that is required to be done in private, and as much as we can, disclose what is going on,” he said. denverpost.com · by Shelly Bradbury

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Louisiana New Orleans Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell will run out the clock on slew of misconduct complaints: records nola.com · by JOHN SIMERMAN | Staff writer https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_b9e43c8c-3e5e-11eb-ad8b-4bed1efe88c2.html

The Louisiana Supreme Court set up new rules this year to quell public criticism over its secretive system for disciplining judges accused of misconduct.

But the first judge to face public charges under those attempts at transparency, Orleans Parish Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell, is about to run out the clock. He'll be leaving the bench and a stack of ethical complaints behind him -- with no public disciplinary hearing, much less a blot on his judicial record.

Cantrell, the father-in-law of Mayor LaToya Cantrell, officially steps down at year’s end as the city's primary setter of criminal bail bonds. He’s 73 and past the state constitutional age limit of 70 for judges to serve a new term. Juana Marine Lombard, a former Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control commissioner, won the Nov. 3 election to succeed him.

Juana Marine-Lombard easily wins race for New Orleans magistrate In June, the Louisiana Judiciary Commission set a mid-November hearing date for Cantrell to answer to four ethical misconduct charges stemming from an investigation that began in 2017, according to Judiciary Commission records.

It appeared then that Cantrell would face the commission in a public hearing. He would have been the first judge to do so under rules the Supreme Court put in place this year in the face of mounting criticism over the secrecy of a process that historically has brought to light only a tiny percentage of complaints against judges -- while barring mere mention of the existence of a judicial complaint.

Cantrell requested, and received, an extension to this week, saying that COVID-19 concerns had slowed depositions and subpoena returns. A new hearing date was set over three days to begin Monday. Recently, it was recently “continued without date.”

Judiciary Commission records show that on Nov. 19, the hearing officer assigned to Cantrell’s case, 4th Judicial District Judge Wilson Rambo, from Ouachita and Morehouse parishes, agreed there was little point left to a commission hearing, given the fact that Cantrell would soon be leaving office. It wasn't enough, he determined, to overcome concerns about the spread of the virus.

Rambo wrote that those health concerns “far outweigh the need to conduct a hearing in a matter in which … final resolution before the Commission loses jurisdiction ultimately will be impossible.”

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Rambo blamed “inherent procedural delays under the applicable rules” for leaving the charges against Cantrell to wither on the vine.

Dane Ciolino, a Loyola Law School professor who has represented numerous judges and lawyers in misconduct proceedings, said the Supreme Court might refer an unresolved complaint against a judge who leaves the bench to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which fields complaints against lawyers. But once a judge takes off the black robe, the commission holds no power over them.

“After resignation or retirement of a judge, the Judiciary Commission matter becomes moot,” Ciolino said.

The Judiciary Commission, the enforcement arm of the Louisiana Supreme Court when it comes to judicial misconduct, took no position on either the delay that Cantrell requested or his more recent request to table his case altogether.

Among other things, Cantrell was accused of “willful misconduct” and “persistent and public conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute.”

From the bench, he launched or threatened contempt-of-court proceedings against defense attorneys who requested bond for their clients in amounts below a $2,500 floor that he’d adopted. That sparked a federal civil rights lawsuit that forced an overhaul of the court’s funding scheme.

The commission also charged Cantrell with committing an “egregious legal error” when he ordered a murder suspect extradited in 2016 without a proper hearing. And it accused him of running an illegal short-term rental out of his former law office in the Central Business District.

Cantrell’s attorney, James Gibson, did not return a message seeking comment on Monday.

Ciolino pointed to the case of Jefferson Parish judge Alan Green, who was convicted in 2005 as part of the FBI’s “Wrinkled Robe” investigation into corruption at the Jefferson Parish courthouse in Gretna.

Green went before the Judiciary Commission that same year for a hearing following his conviction. He resigned a week after the commission recommended his removal from office, but before the Louisiana Supreme Court was set to consider it.

The Supreme Court later ruled that the disciplinary charges against Green were moot because of his resignation.

In Green’s case, the court referred his misconduct charges to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which prosecutes attorneys accused of ethical misconduct for the court. Green went on to resign permanently from the practice of law in lieu of discipline.

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Nevada Tobiasson to face allegations 'designed to humiliate' | Nevada Current nevadacurrent.com https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2020/12/10/tobiasson-to-face-allegations-designed-to- humiliate/

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melanie Tobiasson, who faces a hearing Monday before the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission, says Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo falsely accused her of drug trafficking to intimidate her, and out of retaliation for Tobiasson speaking out about alleged corruption in the police department.

Tobiasson attributes the allegation to “several people who are confidants of Joe Lombardo who claim to have heard it directly from him,” including one of her attorneys.

“I was told that was an angle he was taking,” Tobiasson said last month in a deposition with the Judicial Discipline Commission, in preparation for the hearing.

She said Lombardo reportedly put out a BOLO – a “be on the lookout” order for her car.

“And according to these multiple sources, his thing was he was accusing me of somehow being involved in drug trafficking because I had burner phones,” Tobiasson testified.

Lombardo, through Metro, declined to respond, citing the ongoing JDC case.

Tobiasson says in the deposition she was directed by FBI agent Kevin White, who was investigating allegations of corruption in Metro’s Vice department, to obtain “a second phone, because they would look at my phones. Clearly they did. And he didn’t want them to know that we were talking because he felt they would try to keep us from talking.”

“As part of its investigation of the Respondent’s improper conduct, Metro obtained judicial authorization in approximately July of 2017 to place a pen register on the Respondent’s phones which included her prepaid burner phone,” the JDC’s complaint reads. “A ‘pen register’ is a device or process which records dialing information transmitted by telephones.”

“I think a lot of things have been done as retaliation and intimidation and punishment for speaking out about corruption,” Tobiasson said.

Even Lombardo admits Metro dropped the ball and ignored tips from Tobiasson.

In an interview with the JDC’s investigator, Metro Homicide Det. Jarrod Grimmett described a meeting with Lombardo and detectives about a September 2016 murder outside a clothing store Tobiasson told police may be an underage club.

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“‘You get information and you did nothing with it, and now we got a murder? You know, I mean, what the hell?’” Grimmett said, paraphrasing Lombardo. “Pretty much how the meeting went. A lot of yelling and screaming and a lot of spit flying by the Sheriff. Because he was upset. ‘A judge gave you some valid information and you did nothing with it.’ And the vice detective (Kelly Bluth) says, ‘yeah, I walked in there and something wasn’t right,’ is what he said. Something wasn’t right. And he (Lombardo) says: ‘And then what the hell did you do about it? Nothing. And now we have a murder.’”

A month after the murder, on October 25, 2016, according to Tobiasson and witness testimony, then-Vice Detective Justine Gatus revealed to a Metro officer and his teen daughter that Tobiasson provided confidential information that she suspected the girl, a friend of Tobiasson’s daughter, was being trafficked by Shane Valentine, who the judge says also targeted her daughter.

“They (police) had put a target on my daughter’s back,” Tobiasson testified.

Within hours, Valentine’s alleged competitor in the sex trade, Nehemiah Kauffman, and his girlfriend, Sydney Land, had been executed in their apartment.

Now, the judge says she’s the scapegoat for Metro’s failure to make arrests in the murders, and the prime suspect in the unsolved case, Valentine, is being portrayed as her victim. Her efforts to protect her daughter and thwart sex trafficking could get her booted from the bench.

Tobiasson and her attorneys say the complaint against her is riddled with factual errors upon which the allegations against her are based.

She’s alleged to have conducted her own investigation of the double murder, which the JDC says prompted Metro to investigate her.

“Once Metro learned of Respondent’s improper personal involvement in an ongoing murder investigation, Metro had opened an investigation to determine whether Respondent had violated any criminal statutes,” the JDC’s complaint alleges.

“I never improperly became personally involved in a double murder investigation,” Tobiasson testified. “I was concerned the guy that Vice and Homicide were telling me was involved in the murder, Shane Valentine, was going to kill my child, also. So I felt I had every right as a mother to know where Shane Valentine was so I could protect my child.”

She’s alleged by the JDC to have obtained text messages between homicide detectives and Connie Land, the mother of murder victim Sydney Land.

“She provided them to me unsolicited the day we first met,” says Tobiasson, adding she was later unable to open the messages. “So I asked her to send them to me again. I told her I was working on something. I didn’t tell her it was the FBI that was asking me for these documents.”

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Tobiasson is also alleged to have dismissed charges against a “known organized crime associate” even though a transcript of the hearing clearly states the District Attorney declined to prosecute.

And the JDC says she failed to publicly recuse at a domestic violence hearing for Valentine, the man she says threatened to kill her daughter. Tobiasson says she disclosed the potential conflict to the attorneys, who agreed she could approve a previously negotiated plea and not call attention to herself or her daughter. As a result of the plea, Valentine was released from custody.

She’s also facing discipline for publicly disparaging police, a charge to which she readily admits.

“Based on my experience, yes, I do believe that there are vice and other detectives who protect certain criminals at the expense of people who are being victimized by those criminals,” she said in a November deposition.

‘I wish I’d never heard of him’ “Fuck you, bitch,” said the Snapchat message from someone known as ‘Sugar Shane” that Tobiasson says her daughter shared with her in December 2015. “You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. I’m going to take you out and teach you to work the Strip. You’re going to make money for me.”

“And fortunately, my daughter came home that night. Fortunately, he didn’t beat her up or force her to do exactly what he said he was going to do,” she testified. “But he said it and I saw it.”

“I reported that to the police. I did not investigate him. I did not ask for him to come into my life. I wish I had never heard his name, your name, any of these names. But I did. And it wasn’t because I was out investigating,” Tobiasson testified in the deposition for the JDC. “It was because my daughter and many, many, many other juvenile girls were being targeted and I became aware of it, thank God, because my daughter actually talked to me…”

Tobiasson testified she’s been “vilified and crucified” for reporting to police “that somebody was trying to pimp out my daughter and threatened to kill her if she told her mother.”

Tobiasson says she did what any mother would do if her daughter were threatened. She told the police.

Tobiasson, the wife of a retired cop, had informally complained in 2015 to detectives about a clothing store where her daughter briefly worked. The judge, who observed underage girls frequenting the store at night, says she suspected it could be an unlicensed club.

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Her concern ended when her daughter quit the job after a few weeks. But the message from Valentine months later prompted another call to the police.

The girl, who admitted to her mother she went to Valentine’s home to obtain a fake ID, revealed she also saw drugs and guns, and disclosed Valentine was a felon.

“I reported crime to the police as a mother and I certainly shouldn’t be precluded from reporting criminal activity to the police as a mother, just because I work as a judge,” Tobiasson testified in the deposition.

Tobiasson says she eventually came to believe Valentine “very intentionally started to target my daughter after the day he walked into my courtroom with three other men during a hearing, trying to intimidate the witness, and I kicked them out of the courtroom, and I kicked them out of the courthouse, and I made sure she was safe.”

The witness was Valentine’s roommate, Morgan Fitzpatrick, the daughter of Clark County Judge Michelle Leavitt. Fitzpatrick testified at that hearing that Valentine ordered two other women to beat her after the three returned from their jobs at an escort service.

“And it was shortly thereafter that one of the girls that worked with him (Valentine) that was friends with my daughter, and I believe by design, introduced my daughter to Shane Valentine,” Tobiasson testified. “And I’m under investigation.”

The JDC’s complaint alleges Tobiasson failed to recuse herself months later when Valentine appeared in her court on a domestic violence charge.

She privately disclosed to the public defender and prosecutor that she had reported Valentine to the police months earlier for threatening her daughter.

A plea had already been negotiated and accepted by Valentine.

“In light of the unique situation they both agreed it was safer for me to just accept the plea,” Tobiasson testified. “I did everything I could to abide by my ethical obligations and protect my daughter’s life.”

She says the DA on the case later “came to me and told me this was the same person who had pimped out the other judge’s daughter.”

When Valentine returned to her court several months later, she recused, prompting Valentine to contact her daughter.

Tobiasson admits that with police failing to act, she “contacted Valentine’s lawyer and told him to tell Valentine that if he called her daughter again she would take care of it herself.”

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But she says she was “puffing” and trying to “sound tough” when she told a blogger that she went to Valentine’s house and kicked his door.

“I went to the house and never got out of the car,” she testified.

‘Known organized crime figure’ Tobiasson says the JDC’s allegation that she dismissed domestic violence charges against a known organized crime figure with whom she associated is a fabrication.

“At the time he was in my courtroom, I had no idea who Tony Danna was. I had never met him, never seen him, never talked to him, didn’t know of his existence,” she testified, adding it was the District Attorney, not she, as the JDC alleges, who dismissed charges against him.

She says the JDC’s prosecutors wrote the allegation “knowing this is 100 percent false.“

“I don’t have any connection to Mr. Danna,” Tobiasson testified, adding she saw him “one time in person.”

“When I met him at the end of July, I did not know, nor did I recognize, nor did I make an association with him as somebody who had been in my courtroom several weeks earlier,” she testified. “I was at dinner with a friend. He came over to talk with the friend I was sitting with, who then introduced him to me. I didn’t recognize the name.”

The JDC complaint alleges the two made some 1,000 “attempts to communicate” during a six month period. Tobiasson says Metro’s records of her phone reveal 700 of those “attempts” were calls to her from Danna, which she did not answer.

“There’s no question what the intention was of this. What this was supposed to look like,” she testified. “It’s supposed to be humiliating and embarrassing and make the suggestion I was somehow having an improper relationship with somebody, which I wasn’t.”

“A known criminal figure. What does that look like? Like she’s maybe trying to get someone to do something for her,” she added.

Last December the JDC held a two-day hearing in which Tobiasson and her colleague, Judge Amy Chelini, answered for a variety of allegations, including Tobiasson’s fashion choices, the pair’s alleged use of foul language in the halls of the courthouse, and requesting that certain clerks work in their courtrooms.

The Commission took no action following the two-day hearing. nevadacurrent.com

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New York State probe into brawl with Buffalo police could cost Grisanti his judgeship buffalonews.com · by Dan Herbeck https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/state-probe-into-brawl-with-buffalo- police-could-cost-grisanti-his-judgeship/article_5474fa0a-416d-11eb-b9d0-dbe9cc1a0b79.html

Seven judges in New York State have been disciplined in the past decade for making threats, hurling insults or asking for special treatment during encounters with police officers.

Three of those judges lost their jobs because of remarks they made to police.

Now the State Commission on Judicial Conduct is trying to decide if acting State Supreme Court Judge Mark J. Grisanti should be penalized for his angry confrontation on June 22 with Buffalo police officers.

Spouting profanities and dropping the names of highly placed people, the shirtless Grisanti, 56, argued with police and at one point shoved an officer who had grabbed the judge’s wife, Maria, and put her in handcuffs.

No one was arrested after the fracas, which began when Grisanti called 911 about a dispute with some of his North Buffalo neighbors over street parking.

But the judge’s actions and remarks were videotaped with a police body camera. The videotape was made public by a legal news wire called Law360 and several media organizations in Buffalo, including The Buffalo News.

To see what sanctions Grisanti might face, The News examined more than 200 Commission on Judicial Conduct cases, including seven against judges accused of behaving poorly during out-of- court encounters with police.

The commission removed one of the seven judges from office. Two of them resigned under pressure.

Four of the seven judges were publicly reprimanded by the commission but allowed to keep their jobs.

If the Judicial Conduct Commission finds that Grisanti’s actions constituted ethical misconduct, he could face a range of punishments, including removal from his job, which pays $210,900 a year.

Attorney Terrence M. Connors, who has represented many judges before the commission, confirmed that he represents Grisanti in connection with the misconduct probe. Connors declined to speculate on what the commission will do, but he described Grisanti as “an

20 effective, hard-working judge with an unblemished record,” who should be allowed to keep his job.

“I just hope that these few minutes, out of Mark Grisanti’s entire life, do not destroy the career of a very diligent and productive judge,” Connors said.

What happened to other judges

In its analysis of Commission on Judicial Conduct records, The News did not find any cases that were exactly like the Grisanti case.

But The News found seven disciplinary cases since 2010 that arose from remarks made by judges during confrontations or other interactions with police. Five of those cases involved judges who were facing arrests for driving while intoxicated.

State Judge William B. Rebolini of Long Island resigned in May, following an investigation into his actions during a 2018 DWI arrest. The commission said Rebolini “asserted his judicial office with the officer at the scene, in an attempt to avoid his arrest or other adverse consequences.” The judge pleaded guilty to driving while impaired by alcohol.

A judge from Rochester City Court, Leticia Astacio, was removed from office in 2018. The commission said she was verbally abusive to the state trooper who arrested her for DWI. She was convicted of a misdemeanor DWI charge.

Astacio “aggravated the situation by her profane and angry reaction to the investigating trooper,” the commission said.

“Nobody, including a judge, is above the law,” added Joseph W. Belluck, the commission’s chairman, after Astacio was removed from her $187,200-a-year judgeship.

In Livingston County, Nunda Town Justice James R. Mann resigned last year after admitting he intervened with police to help a former relative who was stopped for a possible DWI arrest. The driver was let go without being charged.

In Wayne County, Palmyra Town Justice William Abbott was censured last year for remarks he made to police while demanding that an officer help him get into his locked private vehicle. Abbott threatened that he would refuse to handle future arraignments for the Newark town police if the officer would not help him. Abbott admitted that he “lent the prestige of his judicial office to advance his own private interest.”

Carl J. Landicino, a State Supreme Court judge from Brooklyn, was censured in 2016 for conduct during a 2012 DWI arrest.

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Arrested after a trooper saw him “speeding and driving erratically,” the commission said Landicino “repeatedly invoked his judicial office” in hopes of avoiding arrest. The commission said Landicino failed three sobriety field tests.

During and after his arrest he repeatedly identified himself as a judge, asking a trooper whether this is “how you treat a Supreme Court judge?”

Landicino pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of DWI. The commission said there was “no doubt that he was seeking favorable treatment simply because of his judicial position.”

Grisanti dropped names

During Grisanti’s videotaped altercation with police, he repeatedly dropped names in an apparent effort to persuade officers not to arrest him or his wife.

Grisanti repeatedly told officers that his daughter and son-in-law are city police officers. He also told officers that his cousin is a deputy police commissioner and that Mayor Byron W. Brown is his “good friend.”

“Hey, you arrest my (expletive) wife, you’re gonna be sorry,” Grisanti bellowed at an officer who was handcuffing the judge’s wife. “If you don’t get the cuffs off her right now, you’re gonna have a problem.”

Although the judge was placed in handcuffs and put into a police cruiser, he was released with no criminal charges.

"You're dropping everybody's name with a badge, and you're expecting special treatment," one officer yelled at Grisanti.

Grisanti repeatedly apologized for shoving an officer, explaining that he was upset at the way his wife was treated.

There are several key differences between Grisanti’s case and the seven other cases closely examined by The News.

None of the other judges was accused of shoving or touching a police officer.

The seven other judges all mentioned to police that they were judges. Grisanti invoked his connections with the mayor and others, but never told officers that he was a judge.

Grisanti’s conduct was the only incident captured on a bodycam video, widely viewed by the public.

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The commission’s investigators are reviewing the videotape evidence and interviewing witnesses to the altercation, two sources close to the case told The News.

If found guilty of ethical misconduct, Grisanti could be removed from his job, forced to resign, publicly sanctioned or issued a private letter of caution. If no misconduct is found, no action will be taken.

Grisanti, who handles civil lawsuits, is currently recusing himself from any cases involving Buffalo police.

Grisanti is a former state senator who was appointed to a judgeship by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2015.

In this century, only two of New York’s judges have successfully appealed an order of removal by the commission. One of those judges was a Lockport city judge represented by Connors in 2003.

Grisanti also faces scrutiny over another issue. The commission is also looking into a situation in which Grisanti handled a 2018 case involving a law firm that owed him $8,000 from the purchase of the judge’s former law firm, a source close to the probe said.

Ethics regulations require judges to recuse themselves from such cases, or disclose any possible conflicts of interest to everyone involved.

Connors said he is aware of the case. “It was a case involving a default judgement that was uncontested by everyone involved,” he said. “The judge was rubber-stamping a default order that was not in dispute.”

Robert H. Tembeckjian, administrator of the commission, said he could not comment on Grisanti’s case. Speaking generally, he said judges are required to act in an ethical manner, on and off the bench, and should always obey state laws and set a good example for others.

Tembeckjian called Connors a “tough, honorable adversary” who is one of the most experienced lawyers in the state in terms of dealing with the commission.

“When you represent a judge or a lawyer in disciplinary proceedings, there is a lot at stake,” Connors said. “That includes the person’s career and livelihood.”

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Pennsylvania Allegheny County judge’s resignation sends message against systemic racism, experts say | TribLIVE · November 18, 2020 https://triblive.com/local/allegheny-county-judges-resignation-sends-message-against- systemic-racism-experts-say/

The resignation of an Allegheny County judge on the eve of his misconduct trial for making racist comments should signal to other jurists and the community that the system is changing, experts say.

“This will send a message to other judges that the system as a whole will get to the point that we won’t tolerate this at any level,” said University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris. “I think it shows we’re going to face it — things said, attitudes held are simply not acceptable.”

Mark V. Tranquilli, who won a seat on the Common Pleas Court bench in 2013, on Tuesday submitted a letter of resignation to Gov. Tom Wolf. His misconduct trial was scheduled to begin before a three-judge panel of the Court of Judicial Discipline on Wednesday in Brookville, Jefferson County, where the presiding judge sits.

Tranquilli still faces potential sanctions, but given his resignation prior to the start of trial, it is unlikely his pension will be in jeopardy.

“It has been an honor to serve the citizens of our Commonwealth for the past seven years as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County,” Tranquilli wrote. “My decision to resign is unequivocal, and I will not seek nor will I accept any judicial office or senior judge status in the future.”

The letter was copied to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Saylor and Allegheny County President Judge Kim Berkeley Clark, as well as attorneys with the Judicial Conduct Board.

In a filing with the Court of Judicial Discipline, Tranquilli stipulated to the facts alleged against him by the Judicial Conduct Board, waiving both his trial and a sanctions hearing.

Judge John H. Foradora said during a brief hearing Wednesday — which Tranquilli did not attend — that a formal order completely resolving matters is expected within days.

The board accused Tranquilli, while in a discussion in chambers, of referring to a Black female juror as “Aunt Jemima” following a trial in January.

But the board’s investigation also revealed accusations that in 2015 Tranquilli spoke in Ebonics to a Black couple appearing before him in a custody matter, and that he spoke to defendants before him inappropriately.

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In one instance, he said to a woman during a sentencing hearing for the father of her children, “Are you familiar with the phrase, if you lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas? … So now you have laid down twice with dogs, but you have woken up with two lovely children, probably two lovely children I’m betting you were probably not planning. And for the cost of three shiny quarters in any bathroom in any rest stop in Pennsylvania, you probably could have gone a different direction.”

To another defendant, Tranquilli told the man that if he violated his probation, he would “cast [him] down among the Sodomites … in state prison.”

Tranquilli said in an apology letter sent to his colleagues after the charges were filed against him that when he used the term “Aunt Jemima,” he was referring to a head wrap the woman was wearing. He also cited back-to-back trials for several weeks that left him physically and mentally exhausted.

Tranquilli was placed on administrative leave shortly after the allegations were made. He was suspended without pay by the Court of Judicial Discipline in August shortly after the misconduct charges were filed.

Prior to taking the bench, Tranquilli enjoyed a long career in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, where he spent the bulk of his time prosecuting homicides. Among his notable prosecutions were Richard Poplawski, convicted of killing three Pittsburgh police officers in April 2009, and Leslie Mollett, convicted of killing Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Joseph Pokorny in 2005.

At the time time he ran for judge in 2013, Tranquilli was the deputy DA in charge of the homicide unit.

After winning a seat on the bench, Tranquilli went to work in the family division of the court. He moved to criminal court in January 2018.

Defense attorney Joe Otte, who, along with Assistant District Attorney Ted Dutkowski, filed the initial complaint against Tranquilli, said Wednesday that he was prepared to testify.

“Both Ted and I were in that room and remember what was said and how was it said,” Otte said. “I don’t think there were any real disputes about the facts.”

Otte said both he and Dutkowski were equally appalled by Tranquilli’s comments.

“Everyone involved acted with a sense of duty that the public deserves a functioning and legitimate judiciary and the only way to maintain such a judiciary is to enforce the code of judicial conduct,” Otte said.

Harris praised Dutkowski and Otte for filing the complaint.

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“We owe them thanks for exposing this and for showing other judges this kind of thing isn’t acceptable,” Harris said. “They did this at considerable risk to their own careers.”

Defense attorney William Difenderfer, who was openly critical of Tranquilli’s demeanor and temperament on the bench, said Tranquilli did the smart thing in resigning. But Difenderfer also that he should have done it a long time ago.

“As I saw it, there was no way for him to come back, especially in this climate,” he said.

Five or 10 years ago, Harris said, it’s possible that what Tranquilli said would not have led to the same outcome.

But this past year, in particular, has seen the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and a more widely recognized need to address systemic racism.

Harris called the resignation a good outcome.

“What was revealed that he said and felt comfortable saying both on the bench and in chambers, he is frankly not someone we want passing judgment on the people in our county,” Harris said. “I think people will see this as a statement that the bench should be reserved for people of judicial temperament.”

Paula Reed Ward is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paula by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .

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Tennessee FERRIER FILES: Judge reprimanded for messaging women in his courtroom fox17.com · by Dennis FerrierTuesday, November 24th 2020AA https://fox17.com/news/ferrier-files/ferrier-files-judge-reprimanded-for-messaging-women-in- his-courtroom-middle-tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A Middle Tennessee judge has been reprimanded for using social media to contact women including sexual overt messages while the judge was wearing his robe.

Judge Jonathan Young has admitted to sending these messages over the course of five years. Some victims are saying this should have cost him his job.

Judge Young presided over the Lauren Agee wrongful death case. This was the case of a Sumner County woman dying under suspicious circumstances at Center Hill Hill Lake. The judge was highly critical of the case. However, the court of appeals was highly critical of Judge Young, overturning much of his ruling.

Soon after the judge‘s ruling was partially overturned, one of the Agee family members says she got an invitation to connect on LinkedIn from Judge Young.

Advertisement Scroll to continue reading “At first it was terrifying, why is he sending me a friend request and I think at that point I was curious why he was trying to contact me outside of the courtroom,” said Jordan Smith.

Her mother still can’t believe it.

“Why would a judge in a courtroom who is handling my family’s case send a friend request to my youngest daughter who at the time was 22 years of age?” said Sherry Smith.

The Board of Judicial Conduct had many of the same questions in their public reprimand of Judge Young. The Board wrote:

Your social media activities described above run afoul of a number of ethical standards designed to maintain public trust. This reprimand concerns your actions relating to inappropriate messages you sent to multiple women on various social media platforms from 2015 to 2020. The messages include content ranging from flirtatious to overtly sexual. Many of these communications depict you in your judicial robe. We wanted to know more about these sexually overt messages sent to multiple women, were they pictures, texts, we don’t know, we may never know because the Board of the Judicial Conduct keeps these files secret and will only release them when they file criminal charges.

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Shannon Parker had an unnerving discovery when he was in Judge Young’s court asking to modify the parenting plan for his son. Parker says on weekend visitation his son told him the judge had been at his ex-wife’s house. Parker’s lawyer, Sarah Cripps, filed a complaint.

“I was shocked I was enraged, I was hurt. I was hurt for Shannon because he wanted me to pursue some matters, some additional contempts, I said I can’t take your money Shannon because the judge has engaged in inappropriate conduct with the mother of your child,” said Cripps.

The judge admitted to all of the accusations in the complaint and took full responsibility for his actions.

The board wrote him “The sanctions imposed today are among the most severe that can be imposed short of removal from office.”

But what were the sanctions? A 30 day suspended sentence, an order to stop using pictures of yourself in your robe on any social media platform and take an online course in judicial ethics at your own expense.

“In my opinion they should have required him to step down from the bench and vacate the bench," said Cripps. "I don’t think anyone can be secure with a 5-year-course of conduct that constitutes 90 percent of his time on the bench."

Judge Young declined comment on this story. He has recused himself from Shannon Parker’s case - Hardly enough for Mr. Parker.

“A joke it really was, somebody that has crossed so many lines,” said Parker.

Sherry Smith dropped her case rather than go back in front of Judge Young.

“I am outraged. I am furious. The money my family has spent, the time, the anguish, what he put me through, Dennis, what good is a board of responsibility if they don’t do anything,” said Smith.

Verna Wyatt, from Tennessee Voices for Victims, says it's time for the legislature to step in and make sure judges who break ethical standards are removed from the bench.

“The behavior was outrageous, but to me the discipline was more outrageous. If any other professional who is in a position of power and authority did the things that this judge did he would be fired minimally, prosecuted possibly, it makes absolutely no sense to me,” said Wyatt.

How many times has the board of judiciary brought charges against the judge in the past 12 years? 12 times an average of once a year. But as far as recommending removal of a judge, the

28 board has not done that. A spokesman told me the judges have all resigned before the threat of removal. fox17.com · by Dennis FerrierTuesday, November 24th 2020AA

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