Opinion ID: 1496361
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Conduct for which Discipline is Sought

Text: Mr. Madison represented the plaintiff in a personal injury case filed in September 2002. The case was set for a jury trial in Jackson County circuit court beginning Monday, August 15, 2005. Because of a unique family situation that arose, the judge informed her staff that she was unable to be present for the scheduled trial that day. She asked them to attempt to find another judge to try the case in her place, as is the practice in Jackson County when a judge is unable to hear a case for some reason. Unfortunately, it turned out that another judge was not available that day, and the matter had to be continued. The judge's staff did not provide details to Mr. Madison or other counsel regarding the reason the originally assigned judge could not be present, although he claims that someone told him that it was not an emergency. Mr. Madison took great offense at not being told the reason for the judge's absence. He thought that it was his right to know exactly why the judge did not appear and that the failure to appear caused his client to believe that the court must be involved in a conspiracy against her. [4] Mr. Madison, therefore, sent the judge a letter, stating in part: I am extremely disappointed in your conduct. You arbitrarily failed to show for this extremely important trial without excuse or apology.... Apparently, you think that you are the most important person in this process and are beyond such apology and explanation. He also accused the judge of having filed a bar complaint against a black attorney because that attorney did not appear for a hearing of which he had no notice and wondered if the judge ever had made such a complaint toward a white attorney. In the final paragraph of the letter, Mr. Madison asked the judge to recuse herself from the case. At Mr. Madison's hearing, the judge testified that when she received Mr. Madison's letter, she found the accusations of racism insulting and offensive. She testified that she did not know who Mr. Madison was and did not know the black attorney against whom she allegedly filed a bar complaint. [5] She could not read the entire letter at first because she found it very hostile. She recused herself as Mr. Madison requested and so advised Mr. Madison by return letter. Despite her recusal, a few days later, Mr. Madison sent her a second letter, [6] parts of which stated: [Y]our system of justice allows you on the one hand to berate and unjustly file a bar complaint against an African-American attorney, [name omitted] for being late to an un-noticed hearing and on the other hand nonchalantly failing to appear to preside over a very serious case in which a person, who was seriously handicapped negligence alleged in the petition, has their very life hanging in the balance..... Your indulgence in Argumentum ad Hominem towards me is not justice. It is a denial of justice. But for the gravity of the harm done, I would do what most have done. I would have ignored the tyranny.... I want you to be clean. I passionately desire to show my client that you are not drunk with power.... I do have profound doubts concerning your fitness to preside fairly over cases. Because the judge already had recused herself, she did not respond to the second letter. Two months later, and despite the case's reassignment to a different judge, Mr. Madison wrote her a third letter that stated in part: Your decision to withhold an honest explanation for your absence has propelled us all into inauspicious entanglements.... If you had timely explained your absence, [my client] would not have been cast into dark paranoia about you and the defendants conspiring to deny her justice. That paranoia not only lead [my client] to settle her case for pennies on the dollar, it has lead her and her family to a firm belief that your system of justice is corrupt. That belief will permeate the community and people will know you and the 16th Circuit for this act of infamy. Your robe is forever stained because you have failed to avoid impropriety or even the appearance of impropriety. It is the opinion of attorneys and non-attorneys that you and your evil network will seek vengeance upon me for challenging you in this manner. The judge testified that on receiving the third letter, she feared Mr. Madison's letters never were going to stop. She had learned that Mr. Madison had a conviction for felony aggravated assault and became worried about her physical safety and that of her family. She began locking the door between the jury box and her chambers, something she never had done before. She advised her staff and the sheriff's office to let her know if Mr. Madison came into the courthouse. At her request, the sheriff's department began to watch over her each evening when she walked from the courthouse to her car.
Mr. Madison appeared on March 16, 2005 in Jackson County circuit court representing a landlord seeking back rent and possession of an apartment. Mr. Madison did not bring a witness for the landlord. The tenant appeared and disputed the amount claimed due. The judge told Mr. Madison and the tenant to go into the hall to try to settle the matter, an approach he usually found to be effective. While Mr. Madison later claimed he and the tenant had gone to the hall and discussed the matter, neither the judge nor his assistant observed Mr. Madison leave the court-room. They saw him return to his seat in the courtroom and begin staring at the judge in such a manner that the judge's administrative assistant became concerned about Mr. Madison's demeanor. She continued to watch Mr. Madison so that, if needed, she quickly could press the panic button used to summon the sheriff's department in emergencies. Ten minutes later, the judge called Mr. Madison's case a second time. Mr. Madison told the judge that the tenant admitted she had not paid rent but claimed the landlord's agent had excused her rent for a period of time. The judge offered several future dates for trying the case, making it clear that he believed Mr. Madison would need a witness to make his case in light of the tenant's anticipated denial of the debt. Mr. Madison rejected the suggestion, stating that he was unavailable on the proposed dates, believed he could handle the matter with cross-examination rather than with his own witness and still hoped to handle the return today. In deference to Mr. Madison's wishes, the judge came back to the case after he had cleared the rest of his docket, at which point Mr. Madison was becoming increasingly agitated. The judge put the tenant under oath and questioned her himself, as he said was his practice in cases involving pro se parties. [7] At the conclusion of the judge's questioning, he ruled that all but the last month's rent had been excused. He did so without expressly inviting Mr. Madison to cross-examine the tenant. Mr. Madison never asked that he be allowed to cross-examine the tenant either. Instead, he began arguing with the judge, telling him that he was wrong on the law. The judge advised Mr. Madison that it was not his intention to argue about the judgment, whereupon they had the following exchange. MR. MADISON: Judge, I justI object. There's no basis in the law for you to excuse her rent, and JUDGE: Sir, I'm not making any comment in regard to the evidence. You're out of line in regard to arguing with me in regard to the judgment. It has been rendered already. Now, as an attorney, you know that there are appropriate manners within which you can present any claims or arguments that you have with the court. And what I'm doing at this time, as stated before, is entering a judgment in favor of plaintiff for the possession of the property and $350 for the rent plus costs. And that is the judgment. That's it. That's it. Okay. MR. MADISON: There's no basis in law. No basis in law. JUDGE: Mr. Madison, this is a question of fact, not law. MR. MADISON: She admitted that she didn't JUDGE: Mr. Madison, we had an issue. You have the means by which to take it up. Don't argue with me. MR. MADISON: I'm not arguing. I'm just telling you the law, Judge. No way around it JUDGE: We can go back to MR. MADISON:Judge Sawyer [it is unclear to whom Mr. Madison was referring] at the appellate court, whatever. JUDGE: Mr. Madison. MR. MADISON: Judge JUDGE: Get out of this courtroom. Okay. That's it. I'm through talking to you. MR. MADISON: No basis in law for that. The judge's administrative assistant testified that Mr. Madison's tone was very defiant during this exchange. It is unclear from the recording whether Mr. Madison's voice was sufficiently loud to be deemed yelling, as Mr. Madison was not standing near the microphone, but it is clear that his tone increased greatly in volume during the exchange. A lawyer present in the courtroom during this time testified at Mr. Madison's hearing that he remembered thinking to himself then that he would never talk to a judge like that. An employee of this lawyer who also witnessed the events testified that Mr. Madison had an arrogant attitude, that his behavior was disruptive and disrespectful, and that people in the courtroom were shocked. This employee also testified that Mr. Madison's facial expressions and body language conveyed that he was very irritated with the judge and that Mr. Madison didn't think the judge knew what he was doing. While Mr. Madison says this testimony all should be discounted because none of the witnesses could recreate the exact words used or reasons why they thought his behavior was inappropriate, this Court finds their testimony credible, as did the panel. Although it is obvious from Mr. Madison's statements that he was very upset with the judge's ruling, which he felt was not legally supportable, he specifically chose not to appeal the ruling. Instead, later that day Mr. Madison sent a letter to the judge that stated, in part: you were not faithful to the law. you showed contempt for the law and for this lawyer in your ruthless abuse of power and contempt for the rule of law, you silenced me and ordered me out of your court. your decision was unfair and blatantly without legal basis. An appeal would find that you abused discretion and violated the Code of Judicial Conduct. The consequence of your unethical conduct is the loss of money to my client.... So, you wrongfully took from my client $1,005.00 today and gave it to the defendant. Mr. Madison later testified he wrote the letter simply because he wanted to tell the judge that what the judge did was wrong. He stood by the accuracy of his letter before the panel and before this Court, arguing that the statements in the letter were factually correct and only made after research and investigation. Yet, although the letter accuses the judge of misconduct and unethical behavior, Mr. Madison did not file a complaint with the Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline, and, although he says he would win on appeal, he did not file an appeal.