The number of judges who don't always do the right thing has been an eye-opener for lay member Richardson. For me, it has just been surprising the amount of misbehavior that occurs among judges, the rudeness of judges in their courtroom, the sexual harassment. There's a finite number of judges, and our agenda is full every month. One point that needs to be made is that although there is a lot of misbehavior, it's only a small percentage of judges. But we have had some people come in and kind of thumb their noses at us.
Some people are back before our group three or four times.
One trip to the JQC was all it took for J. Allison DeFoor, a former member of the Bar Board of Governors, to pay attention to a lapse of judgment. In 1986, when he was a Monroe County judge, the JQC reprimanded him for the appearance of a conflict of interest for having a financial interest in a company that provided house-arrest ankle bracelets that were used for criminal defendants. There's probably no way to make it very pleasant from the recipient's end, but the integrity of the system is what is important. Even if nothing changed by way of result, it helps the appearance. It's certainly not to be recommended.