Opinion ID: 1880792
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: July 22, 1993, Incident

Text: Robert Wheeler, a court employee, testified that during 1993, he answered Prochaska's telephone, and when asked if he wanted to leave a message for Prochaska, Jones stated, tell her to get her fat fucking ass over here and sign these papers. Wheeler did not know how to tell another judge that information and relayed the message to his supervisor, Theresa Sims. Sims subsequently told Prochaska the message. Prochaska testified that in addition to the message relayed to her through Sims, Jones also called her and said in a loud angry voice to [g]et your fucking ass over to the clerk's office right now and do your work that's been sitting there for two days, or a complaint will be filed against you with the Judicial Qualifications Commission by 4:30 this afternoon. According to Prochaska, two people who were not court personnel and a court employee were present and heard a portion of Jones' statement over the speaker phone. Sheril Doll, the court employee present at the time of the call, testified that there were two other people in the office at the time and that she heard Jones tell Prochaska to get her fucking ass over to the other side to sign some papers. The record indicates that Jones does not remember the exact words of the message taken by Wheeler or what he told Prochaska on the phone. However, Jones also testified that he left the phone message hoping it would light a burr under her saddle and admitted that he wanted to get Prochaska moving by embarrassing her. Jones further testified that when he called Prochaska, he might have said cute ass instead of fucking ass, but that he did not know for sure which term he used. Jones testified that he made the comments out of frustration because a stack of unsigned papers had accumulated and it was Prochaska's duty to sign them. However, Prochaska testified that there were no papers to sign that were her responsibility and that there were two stacks of papers that were Jones' responsibility. Jones admitted that regardless of which term he used, or why he used the language he did, he was wrong in doing so.