Post by WaTcHeR on Apr 25, 2006 12:25:12 GMT -5
The Corrupt "Cadillac-kickback" Judge Case
By Doug Schafer
Candidate for Washington State Supreme Court
In February 1996, Doug Schafer reported to appropriate disciplinary and law enforcement officials well-documented evidence of the dishonesty and fraud that a Pierce County lawyer had committed both before and after he became a Superior Court judge in January 1993. That judge still continued to hear and decide cases over 3½ more years before he was finally removed for his dishonesty and fraud. Among other things, he had accepted over $31,000 in secret Cadillac payments from a banker friend to whom he sold a Tacoma bowling center as he exploited a deceased client's estate that was bequeathed to a rural public hospital. The friend paid $660,000 for the bowling center that then was appraised at $1.8 million. Our state Commission on Judicial Conduct actually covered-up most of the judge's misconduct, recommending merely his four-month suspension from the bench. However, our State Supreme Court judges reviewing his case (once vigilant state legislators began to consider removing the judge themselves) saw enough of what they described as his "pattern of dishonest behavior" to warrant his removal as a judge, which they finally did in September 1999.
The disciplinary officials of the Washington State Bar Association never seriously investigated that judge's dishonest and fraudulent conduct as a lawyer--that went well beyond the judicial misconduct that the judicial authorities had exposed. After the Supreme Court declared that he was too dishonest to be a judge, the State Bar in early 2000 cut a deal with him to recommend that he keep his law license with merely a two-year suspension. The state supreme court approved the State Bar's lenient recommendation rather than disbar the former judge, as Doug publicly had urged. The former judge's law license suspension ended in May 2002, and he is again an active lawyer in good standing. (Details of the corrupt judge's case are posted on Doug's website "To Kill a Messenger--for Reporting a Corrupt Judge" at http://DougSchafer.com.)
By Doug Schafer
Candidate for Washington State Supreme Court
In February 1996, Doug Schafer reported to appropriate disciplinary and law enforcement officials well-documented evidence of the dishonesty and fraud that a Pierce County lawyer had committed both before and after he became a Superior Court judge in January 1993. That judge still continued to hear and decide cases over 3½ more years before he was finally removed for his dishonesty and fraud. Among other things, he had accepted over $31,000 in secret Cadillac payments from a banker friend to whom he sold a Tacoma bowling center as he exploited a deceased client's estate that was bequeathed to a rural public hospital. The friend paid $660,000 for the bowling center that then was appraised at $1.8 million. Our state Commission on Judicial Conduct actually covered-up most of the judge's misconduct, recommending merely his four-month suspension from the bench. However, our State Supreme Court judges reviewing his case (once vigilant state legislators began to consider removing the judge themselves) saw enough of what they described as his "pattern of dishonest behavior" to warrant his removal as a judge, which they finally did in September 1999.
The disciplinary officials of the Washington State Bar Association never seriously investigated that judge's dishonest and fraudulent conduct as a lawyer--that went well beyond the judicial misconduct that the judicial authorities had exposed. After the Supreme Court declared that he was too dishonest to be a judge, the State Bar in early 2000 cut a deal with him to recommend that he keep his law license with merely a two-year suspension. The state supreme court approved the State Bar's lenient recommendation rather than disbar the former judge, as Doug publicly had urged. The former judge's law license suspension ended in May 2002, and he is again an active lawyer in good standing. (Details of the corrupt judge's case are posted on Doug's website "To Kill a Messenger--for Reporting a Corrupt Judge" at http://DougSchafer.com.)