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One had a habit of viewing pornography on his office computer. Another spread a nasty rumor with an eye toward damaging a rival's career. A third is accused of callously ignoring a desperate woman's pleas for help.Bad as that behavior sounds, it's worse when you consider that the ones doing the misbehaving are judges. That's right -- people we pay to know the difference between right and wrong. When judges cross the line separating the two, they undermine one of the bedrock institutions of our democratic society, and we all lose. Introducing this year's Broken Gavel Award winners -- three judges who've truly earned the dishonor.
Brandt Downey
6th Circuit Court, Florida
Salary: $139,497
Last year, technicians in Downey's Clearwater courthouse weren't surprised when viruses infected the computer in his chambers. It had already happened once because of his visits to pornographic websites. He'd been warned not to surf such sites again.
The first offense had remained his dirty little secret, but this time word got back to Chief Judge David Demers. Downey met with Demers, then took a leave and agreed to see a psychologist with expertise in treating "addictive behaviors." The psychologist ruled out any disorder and, within days, Downey was back at work. But his problems weren't over.
After Downey's return, Florida's Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC), which had begun an investigation, accused him of sexually harassing two female lawyers. In 2003 and 2004, the panel alleged, Downey had "displayed an inordinate interest" in one of the women -- going out of his way to watch her work, making embarrassing comments about her looks, and at least once asking her on a date.
In the case of the second woman, the JQC backed up its harassment charge with e-mails the agency says he'd sent her, one of which read "U LOOKED GOOD ENUF TO -- OH WELL, WISHFUL THINKING -- C U SOON I HOPE."
Downey denied harassing the women, and both signed affidavits to that effect. The JQC did not disclose the original source of the allegations.
Meanwhile, the JQC hit Downey with another charge -- the undermining of one man's right to a fair trial. When lawyers for a murder defendant heard last year that a juror had dozed off during the trial, they raised the issue with Downey. He dismissed their complaints, saying he couldn't be sure the man's napping hurt his ability to deliberate. But the judge allegedly knew about the man's sleeping before the lawyers did; another juror had sent him a note about it early in the trial. The JQC charged that Downey didn't share the note; he destroyed it.
In May, Downey and the JQC struck an agreement that keeps him on the bench until his term ends in January. He admitted viewing pornography on his computer, but denied the other charges. His pension: $100,000 a year.
Dana Fortinberry
52nd Circuit Court, Michigan
Salary: $138,272
They say justice is blind. When it comes to Fortinberry's feelings about fellow Republican judge Kelley Kostin, it appears hatred is blind too.
The bad blood between the two began to flow in 2002, when they faced off for an open district-court seat in Oakland County. Fortinberry was better known, having run before in the wealthy suburban area north of Detroit. She seemed to treat Kostin's campaign as a personal insult, never once shaking her foe's hand. And even after winning the seat, Fortinberry harbored a nasty grudge against Kostin.
"You might think that having won, Dana could afford to be gracious," says Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, a Republican who urged Fortinberry to shed her hard feelings and back Kostin for the next open judgeship. Fortinberry's answer: She'd do what she could to see that Kostin never got elected.
And that's just what she did. When Kostin ran in 2004, Fortinberry backed another hopeful -- one rated "not qualified" by the local bar association. (Kostin was rated "well qualified.")
The race turned ugly when the county's deputy sheriffs' union endorsed Kostin. Fortinberry responded with a lengthy letter in which she implied that Kostin may have been connected to the death of her husband's first wife. Fortinberry claimed that in 1989, Kelley Ott (Kostin's maiden name) began an affair with lawyer Robert Kostin; that Robert's wife, Judith, learned about it; that shortly afterward, Judith Kostin was found dead at her White Lake home; and that the inquiry into her death was hushed up because the local police chief was Robert's friend. (Judith Kostin did die in 1989. Police ruled the death a suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.)
It was later alleged that this wasn't the first time Fortinberry had made such claims. The state's Judicial Tenure Commission (JTC) charged that four months before she wrote the letter she'd told a similar tale at a police union meeting.
The Kostins were stunned. "I feel like a stalking victim," Kelley Kostin said.
Stung by the attack on its credibility, the White Lake Police Department asked that the state police conduct an independent investigation into Judith Kostin's death. That probe confirmed suicide as the cause of death, and Kelley Kostin went on to win a district-court seat.
In May 2005, the JTC charged Fortinberry with two counts of misconduct. The judge admitted to spreading the rumor about the Kostins without making any effort to find out if it was true, but denied airing the matter at the police union meeting. Her punishment for that admission: a simple Michigan Supreme Court order of "public censure." Fortinberry never missed a day on the bench in connection with the case, and, according to Robert Kostin, never apologized for her behavior toward the victims of her rumormongering. She is up for reelection in 2008.
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