Discipline Panel Hears Strong Support for Judge Suspended for Groping Incidents
CONCORD, N.H. -- A judge trying to get his job back after groping five women has widespread support from the legal and law enforcement communities.Supporters of Rochester District Court Judge Franklin Jones packed a hearing Wednesday before the Judicial Conduct Committee to argue that Jones is too valuable to remove from the bench.
"I would ask, what is enough punishment?" said Sally Struble, a Strafford County prosecutor who worked in Jones's courtroom but also saw him grope one of her co-workers. "Is it the public humiliation? Facing his wife and children? Losing his seat on the bench? My personal opinion is that it would be a real shame if he couldn't appear back on the bench at some point."
Jones assaulted the women in May on the dance floor at the Mount Washington Hotel during a state-sponsered conference on domestic and sexual violence. Jones, who said he was drunk, knew the women because they worked as a victim advocates in his courtroom.
Details here from the AP via Boston.com.
Comments
The Judge's action aren't new. The news value is it made news. The story, however, that Domestic Violence is a Huge, unregulated, cottage industry, remains untold. Except here, of course.
http://www.FamilyLawCourts.com/domestic.html
and here's my favorite bad cop story from the section on "bad cops - whatcha gonna do?"
below.
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Panel orders deputy rehired
He was convicted of on-duty trespass into woman's home.
By Mareva Brown -- Bee Staff Writer
December 8, 2004
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A Sacramento County sheriff's deputy who was convicted of trespassing on duty into the home of a woman he hoped to pursue romantically has been ordered rehired by the county Civil Service Commission, despite his department's efforts to fire him.
Timothy James Durel, a 14-year veteran of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, was convicted in August 2003 of a misdemeanor trespass charge after he lied about a 911 call to get into the woman's Carmichael home, where her two daughters were alone.
A federal civil case accuses him of rifling the woman's dresser drawers after ordering the two girls - then 8 and 12 - to stay in the living room.
Sheriff's officials fired Durel last January, after he had been sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to personally pay $5,000 to the victim, Susan Pallotta. Jurors deadlocked on two additional counts of abuse of authority.
His conduct was so egregious that Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne W.L. Chang issued a stern rebuke as she handed down his sentence. "You traumatized those two children," she said, calling Durel's actions a violation of "public trust."
But last month, the county's five-member Civil Service Commission overturned the sheriff's decision and ordered Durel, 39, reinstated. Last week, Durel was issued a gun and badge and told to report for duty in the jail system.
Kathleen Campini Chambers, a spokeswoman for the county's Civil Service Commission, said Tuesday officials are prohibited from commenting publicly about personnel actions, including any reasons for reinstatement. She confirmed that Durel's appeal had been upheld by the commission.
"We're pleased that he's returning to work," said Durel's attorney, Christopher Miller. He said Durel did not want to make any public comments.
Pallotta's attorney, Stewart Katz, and sheriff's officials are far from pleased.
"I find it pretty troubling," Katz said. "Is this who you would want coming to your house on a 911 call?"
Pallotta said she sold her house at a loss and fled Sacramento County after the incident, and a therapist for one of her daughters said the girl had recurring nightmares about Durel.
At his trial in 2003, Durel admitted he had become interested in Pallotta after being sent to her home May 1, 2002, to handle a neighbor's complaint. He returned July 17, 2002, in hopes of striking up a relationship with her.
When she wasn't home, he said, he told her daughters he had received a 911 call from their home and needed to check the residence. The girls objected, but Durel entered the home anyway.
In a harsh letter to the Civil Service Commission dated Monday, Assistant Sheriff David Lind called the orders to rehire Durel and four other recently fired deputies a "series of administrative catastrophes," which will cost the department more than $300,000 in back pay.
"The morale of this department is suffering," Lind wrote. "Management is incredulous. Line troops are scratching their heads."
Among the other four reinstated deputies was one who was fired for excessive force. Another was fired for conduct unbecoming an officer and two others were fired for on-duty thefts. Lind would not release their names.
One of the deputies fired for theft was turned in by co-workers who testified against him at the Civil Service Commission hearing.
After the commission overturned his termination, the deputy filed a civil claim against a supervisor and a deputy, Lind said in an interview this week.
Lind said rehiring deputies who have been fired for issues of honesty could be a real problem if the deputies ever need to testify in a criminal trial.
For that reason and others, all five of the rehired deputies will be assigned to duties within the county's jail system.
County Supervisor Roger Dickinson said that while he is unfamiliar with the specifics of Durel's case, any time employees are convicted of serious crimes, it can raise troubling issues in the workplace.
"Those are concerns about morale and what type of discipline you can administer as an employer," he said. "And, particularly with law enforcement, there are concerns with what the credibility of that person will be on an ongoing basis."
Durel, whose record is unblemished other than the Pallotta incident, will be working a graveyard shift at the main jail. He will not be in a position where he is alone with female prisoners, officials said.
On Tuesday, however, Katz asked a judge to revoke Durel's probation because he is five months behind on his restitution payments to the Pallottas.
The deputy had been ordered to pay $200 a month toward his $5,000 of the restitution. The Sheriff's Department agreed to pay his victim an additional $208,475 to settle the federal civil suit.
"It makes you wonder how much misconduct we don't know about if a criminal conviction for abuse of authority doesn't cost you your job," Katz said.
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Posted by: Bonnie | January 8, 2005 12:52 PM