Opinion ID: 1202009
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: assignment by judge clark

Text: Crease contends that Judge Clark's assignment of this case to Judge Friedel created an appearance of impropriety because Judge Clark had prosecuted Crease's trial and would be a witness at the hearing. The judicial disqualification standard, as set forth in State v. Strayer, 242 Kan. 618, Syl. ¶ 3, 750 P.2d 390 (1988), is whether the charge of lack of impartiality is grounded on facts that would create reasonable doubt concerning the impartiality, not in the mind of the judge himself, or even, necessarily, in the mind of the litigant filing the motion, but rather in the mind of a reasonable person with knowledge of all the circumstances. The Court of Appeals held that there was no appearance of impropriety, reasoning: [Crease] made a similar argument before this court in Crease v. State, unpublished opinion No. 63,638 filed June 22, 1990, to which this court stated that the action was a purely administrative function and there was no appearance of impropriety. [Crease] states that the Court of Appeals' reliance on Collins v. Kansas Milling Co., 210 Kan. 701, 504 P.2d 586 (1972), is distinguishable because, not only was Judge Clark prejudiced, he was also to be called as a witness before the assigned judge and have his credibility judged. However, [Crease] offers no authority to support this distinction. Also, the possibility that Judge Clark would testify was also before the Court of Appeals on that appeal and did not change the opinion. The administrative judge assigned the case to Judge Clark, who, as the presiding judge of the criminal division, assigns criminal cases for hearing. Clearly Judge Clark was disqualified from hearing the case and better practice would have been for the administrative judge to have assigned the case for hearing, thus eliminating this issue. The best practice would be to request a judge from outside the judicial district to be assigned if the local judge's testimony is material. Here, Judge Clark's testimony was of little importance. He understandably had little recollection independent of the record. He did recall seeing one black juror leave the judge's chambers and enter the jury room. We consider that of little significance because Judge Friedel based his decision that only one juror was involved on the record of Judge Hodge's meeting with the attorneys, which showed Judge Hodge only referred to one juror. We do not find reversible error on the facts of this case. Affirmed.