Opinion ID: 1770181
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: fancher incidentdenial of witness fee

Text: The record supports the commission's finding that on or about June 30, 1975, respondent arbitrarily refused to authorize payment of a witness fee ($10.00) due Officer Richard Fancher for an offduty court appearance in obedience to a subpoena issued in a traffic case. The officer had informed the prosecutor that he could not identify the accused due to the lapse of time between the arrest and trial. This caused respondent to become irritated and resulted in his instruction to deny the payment of the witness fee. Such conduct on the part of respondent could be viewed as the use of pressure to have a police officer identify an accused regardless of how dim his memory might be. We consider such conduct detrimental to the administration of justice and to the judicial office.