Florida Chief Justice: "You Are a Bad Judge"

The Orlando Sentinel has the report and a video of Seminole County Judge Ralph Ericksson being reprimanded by the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.  This is reporter Rene Stutzman's story:

"Showing no emotion and saying not a word, Seminole County Judge Ralph Eriksson this morning stood before the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee and was publicly reprimanded for being a bad judge.

The reprimand was delivered by Chief Justice Charles Canady. For four minutes, Canady calmly and without emotion read to Eriksson his list of failings. It was a long list. Eriksson had decided to punish an attorney one day in 2007. The lawyer had asked for a new judge, and Eriksson responded by throwing the lawyer's client in jail.  That, said Canady, was an abuse of power. The lawyer was only trying to exercise a legitimate legal right. And Canady rebuked Eriksson for being mean and dismissive to several people who appeared before him one day in 2007 in back-to-back domestic violence injunction hearings.

Eriksson had earlier complained about having to handle those hearings. He had never done it before and had said it wasn't part of his job.  Still they appeared, individuals who had filed paperwork, saying they were afraid for their safety. They had no attorneys, and Eriksson mocked and berated them and hustled them out of his courtroom, denying their requests for protection.

Canady described that behavior as 'intolerable' and said Eriksson had punished innocent people, turning away those who needed help, because he was dissatisfied with a work assignment.

Those actions, Canady said, had violated five of Florida's canons of judicial ethics, including failing to make sure every person had the right to be heard and failing to handle cases fairly.

Eriksson, 63, of Longwood, has insisted that he never intentionally did anything wrong.

He has been a judge for 15 years and is set to retire at the end of the year, when his term expires, but his legal problems are not over.  The state agency that polices judges, the Judicial Qualifications Commission, has filed another set of charges against him. This time, he's accused of repeatedly defying an appeals court by ordering former defendants to jail for refusing to pay court costs.  In JQC pleadings, Eriksson has said he did nothing wrong."
______________________________
I originally reported on Judge Ericksson back in January comparing him unfavorably with one of the best Small Law judges I ever knew.  It can not be overstated how important the municipal courts are, these are the venues where most citizens have their interaction and form their impressions about the Rule of Law.  I've been blessed to know some great small law judges.  They are truly giants.

Crazy Judge!

The Oakland Press, (Michigan) is reporting on the local county Judge who has got himself in front of the disciplinary authorities for ordering non-jurors to sit through trials on pain of jail time.

Judge Leo Bowman (pic) apparently frustrated at prospective jurors who show up late or with children in tow has taken to punishing these citizens by making them sit through the trial anyway.  In one case, Carmela Khury, a prospective juror who could not find a baby sitter showed up with two young children and ordered to sit through a murder trial and Judge Bowman told her she was going to go to jail.
The Michigan Supreme Court intervened telling Judge Bowman that he has no authority to exercise this summary authority. 

This is the sort of thing you see all the time with certain judges in various venues, petty tyrants who use their limited powers to prove a point at the cost of individual liberty.  While you can understand any given judge's frustration over delays or the inadequacy of a jury venire, how is it these be-robed men and women find themselves exercising powers they don't possess?  Seriously, something occasionally happens to good and honest people who armed with a law license slip a robe on.  The brain swells, the lawyer begins to view themselves as possessing God-like powers of wisdom and grace, unfortunately these human beings are just crazy and deluded.  But boy can they do a lot of damage to the respect for the law.

Seminole County, Florida's Jailin' Judge

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting  on this "jailin' Judge" Seminalole County Judge Ralph Eriksson who ha jailed over 20 citizens in the last 5 months BECAUSE these indigent citizens were not able to pay their court costs.  That's not all, if the Judge doesn't like your lawyer, that's jail.

This pinhead (pic), thinks it makes sense to obligate the taxpayers  for jail services to house poor persons in flagrant violation of, let's see, how about the U.S. Constitution, the Florida Constitution, and about every other document since the Magna Carta.  An Appellate Court routinely reverses these jailings, and has ordered Eriksson to cease and desist, which as you will see from Rene Stutzman's Orlando Sentinel account, Eriksson ignores thus fra with impunity, but his day is coming:

"Seminole County Judge Ralph Eriksson improperly jailed more than 20 people during the past five months, finding them in contempt of court and locking them up for failing to pay court costs, court records show.  In each case, an appeals judge ruled Eriksson violated their constitutional rights and ordered their release.

In fact, Circuit Judge Donna McIntosh provided Eriksson with written appeal orders, explaining why he was wrong and specifying his errors.  That didn't stop Eriksson.  On Dec. 15, he jailed four more men, including 22-year-old Stephen Antonio Kelley, who lives near Casselberry and said he had not paid $600 in court costs because he could not find a job.

Asked Eriksson: 'What did you do with all of the jewelry you were wearing to court on December the 7th? ... If you wanted, you could sell that and clear [your fines].'

Said Kelley: 'That was a gift from my mother.'

Eriksson ordered Kelley to jail for 30 days. Two days later, McIntosh freed him and three others Eriksson jailed the same day for contempt.  'Kept doing it'

So far, the appellate judge has freed at least 21 inmates and halted the arrest of more than 20 others, records show. Those 20-plus people were behind on court-cost payments, something that prompted Eriksson to order them back to court. They failed to appear, and Eriksson then ordered their arrests.

The Public Defender's Office in Seminole County is fighting and succeeding in getting the inmates freed and the arrest warrants canceled.'That's what's frustrating,' said Judy Kinney, lead public defender in Seminole. 'We prevailed on all of them, and he still kept doing it.'

Eriksson, 62, a judge for 15 years, did not return repeated phone calls for comment.

What Eriksson is trying to do is get people to pay overdue court costs. Each person he found in contempt and jailed generally owed hundreds of dollars, was months behind on payments or paid nothing, court records show.His tactics sometimes work: Former defendants often see Eriksson in action, sending others to jail for contempt. At later hearings, a great many of them hold up receipts, showing they have paid off, just that morning, what they owe.Each person found in contempt by Eriksson had 'many, many, many' chances to pay, Assistant State Attorney Pat Whitaker said.

But Eriksson, despite being told repeatedly by McIntosh that he's not doing it right, persists in taking shortcuts that violate people's constitutional rights, public defenders say.'Our system of justice does not allow imprisonment for debt,' Assistant Public Defender Jeffrey Leukel wrote in court pleadings.

This is not Eriksson's first brush with controversy.  In 2008, the Judicial Qualifications Commission — a state panel that polices judges — put Eriksson on trial and concluded he should be punished for jailing a man in 2007 because he was angry at the man's attorney.

The JQC said Eriksson also should be disciplined for being 'cavalier and insensitive' to several domestic-violence victims who appeared before him and asked, without benefit of an attorney present, for court protection.The panel recommended Eriksson be publicly reprimanded. Eriksson filed an appeal, and it's unclear when the JQC will make its recommendation. Once it does, the Florida Supreme Court could decide the matter."
________________________________
Again, we are at "small law," and Judge Eriksson gives us the other side of the coin--why?  Because, if we don't care, if we don't pay attention we all lose.