Opinion ID: 1085207
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Commission's Charges of Misconduct

Text: In its verified complaint, the Commission asserts that several statements Respondent made in the Motion for Change of Judge, Motion to Reconsider, First Affidavit, and Second Affidavit violated Indiana Professional Conduct Rule 8.2(a), which provides: “A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge . . . . 3 Specifically, the Commission asserts that the following statements Respondent made in support of his Motion for Change of Judge violated Rule 8.2(a): Statement A. Such large scale litigation, and the results therefrom, could adversely impact Notre Dame's bottom line, which in turn could have a negative impact on Notre Dame's current and future employees. It is in Professor Manier's interest to see that this does not occur. In short, Judge Manier and her husband are simply too intertwined with, and invested in, the University of Notre Dame and its mission to be allowed to preside over these cases. Statement B. Judge Manier's inability to admit the intellectual and political (in the sense of policy setting) consanguinity between her husband's career mission and Notre Dame's current mission, calls into profound question her ability to navigate the waters of defendants' legal defenses related to their contractual rights to be where they were when they were arrested. Statement C. Judge Manier's ruling applying the injunction to Mrs. Kendall can be explained in only one of two ways: either Judge Manier did not understand the privity requirement of Trial Rule 65, or she did not feel duty bound to apply the rule because she was biased in favor of the abortuary. Statement D. Judge Manier's refusal to allow Marsh into the case, when she knew Mrs. Kendall wanted out of the case, demonstrates to me that she was willing to ignore the applicable legal standards in order to move the case in a direction that negatively affected Marsh's legal rights without giving him the ability, as required by Trial Rule 24, to have a voice in the process or defend the same. Verified Complaint at 2-4 (emphasis added to show the segments the hearing officer ultimately concluded to violate Rule 8.2(a).)