Bad day on the bench, or par for the course?The Fourth DCA recently came down hard on the 19th Circuit's Bob Belanger, for ragging on a lawyer outside the presence of the jury. It's an important case, since any lawyer can tell you how a badly behaving judge can negatively impact the lawyer/client relationship, particularly during stressful substantive proceedings.
FromRebecca Ann Caldwell v. State:
Appellant complains that the trial court’s comments to defense counsel during his cross-examination of the state’s witnesses improperly abridged her constitutional right of confrontation/cross-examination and amounted to fundamental error. We disagree ...
We do not repeat these remarks, because we do not wish to memorialize them in this opinion. However, we do not condone them. In our view, the trial court’s remarks to defense counsel during his cross examination were undignified and inappropriate. See Fla. Code of Jud. Conduct, Canon 3B(4) (2012) (“A judge shall be patient, dignified, and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom the judge deals in an official capacity. . . .”). As the Michigan Supreme Court explained:
Pert remarks and quips from the bench have no place in the trial of a criminal case, do not comport with judicial dignity and the injurious effect of such, though thoughtlessly uttered, may prove exceedingly damaging to the party entitled to a fair trial.
The accused had a right to be represented by an attorney and have the attorney treated with the consideration due such an officer of the court and belittling observations aimed at the attorney are, necessarily, injurious to the one he represents.
People v. Neal, 287 N.W. 403, 405-06 (Mich. 1939) ...
Going so far as to publicly chastise a lower court judge, and to cite a Canon they obviously believe was violated, is an extraordinary step by an Appeals Court, and obviously a big problem for Belanger given the reporting requirements of Canon 3(D)(1). And now that Belanger's news, we here at JAABLOG want to know more about him. Please drop a comment if you have any insights, or what it was he actually said to get him in hot water in the first place.
Enquiring minds want to know ...
(Thanks to Dear B.G.)