Court Opinion

ID: 9860850
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:34:23.586196+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:26:46.901440
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent from the conclusions and order of the court in the present disciplinary proceeding.
Were it not for what happened thereafter, the majority might be justified in concluding from the remarks respondent made to the county attorney that his reason for filing a motion for change of judge was because he did not enjoy appearing before Judge Cooper. This would not have been a legitimate reason for filing such a motion. By the time the motion was filed, however, I believe that respondent’s client could reasonably believe he had cause to ask for a change of judge based upon Judge Cooper’s comments as to what sentence he might expect if a plea were not effected.
The grievance commission characterized these remarks by the judge as being highly beneficial information for respondent and his client to have in evaluating their position in the ongoing plea bargaining. While the statements of the judge were doubtless made in good faith with that purpose in mind, I cannot agree that the remarks should have been made. Any suggestion coming from the court that an accused is likely to receive a harsher sentence if he or she stands trial and is found guilty than will be imposed on a negotiated plea runs the risk of suggesting to a lay defendant that his case is being prejudged. This is not to say that a motion for change of judge based on such statements by a judge must in all instances be granted. The court in its discretion could deny the motion. But, the statement was sufficient to justify the filing of the motion if this was the client’s wish.
The motion is cast in a form which states that it is the client who questions the judge’s impartiality, and the committee has made no affirmative showing that respondent's client did not hold to this view. It is unfortunate that when evidence concerning Mr. Steuk’s reaction to the judge’s remarks was being offered, counsel for the committee successfully objected to its admission. The record reflects the following in this regard:
Q. Did he [respondent] tell you the judge he was talking to was Judge Cooper? A. Yes.
Q. Did Mr. Hurd come back and talk to you a little bit about the possibility of a plea bargain? A. Yes.
Q. Did he talk to you about what the possible — and, this is a yes or no answer. Did he talk to you about what might happen to you if you went to trial? A. Yes.
Q. What did he say about that? A. Him and Morris and Belson [the county attorney] and Judge Cooper were back in chambers some place and were trying to make a plea arrangement and Morris came back and said that Judge Cooper had told him that if they couldn’t come to an agreement that he intended to sentence me to jail.
Q. All right. And do you remember your reaction to that? A. Well, Morris *107went on to explain to me that the charge that was against me—
MR. COMITO: Your honor, at this point I’m now going to object as being totally hearsay. It would not go into anything showing the state of mind of Morris Hurd and therefore would be totally hearsay....
PRESIDENT OF THE COMMISSION: I believe the objection is good and I’ll sustain it.
While the committee urges that the judge never unequivocally stated that he would sentence the respondent to prison upon conviction, the finding of the grievance committee on this matter was as follows:
During this session, Judge Cooper advised counsel of his view on appropriate punishment for crimes of violence, and indeed specifically stated that if the defendant were found guilty of a crime of violence such as was allegedly involved, then he or any other presiding judge would probably be hard put not to incarcerate him. Judge Cooper may have added that under those circumstances he would put defendant Steuk in jail.
Given the information which respondent understandably and properly conveyed to his client, Mr. Steuk’s desire to file a motion for change of judge is understandable regardless of the precise language which the judge employed. Moreover, the timing of the impartation of the judge’s remarks to Mr. Steuk by respondent serves to explain why the motion was not filed until the eve of trial. Doubtless, Mr. Steuk had to reflect on the matter somewhat before arriving at a decision.
If respondent was guilty of any wrong in filing the motion for change of judge, it was in embellishing the recitals made in connection with Judge Cooper’s remarks to him at the discovery hearing in the Bruene case. But those embellishments do not appear to be as consequential as they are made out to be in the majority opinion. The grievance commission found as follows on this subject:
At a hearing involving said estate that took place on March 30, 1981, Judge Richard Cooper brought to respondent’s attention the contempt powers of the court. The illusion or illusions by the court to its contempt power, in whatever terms expressed, were not stated until after Judge Cooper had admonished respondent on three occasions to keep to the issues of the hearing. All lawyers are aware that contempt powers include the power to incarcerate. Consequently, whether a reference to incarceration was stated by Judge Cooper or not, it is implicit. It is therefore immaterial whether stated in haec verba by the court.
I agree with the commission’s finding that there is always a veiled threat of jail whenever the contempt power is threatened. Respondent’s characterization of what occurred is therefore not totally lacking in factual basis. It certainly does not rise to “dishonesty” as the court suggests.
Nor are those recitals in the motion as to ’ the Bruene matter as completely out of context as the majority suggests. Respondent charged in the motion that the reference to the contempt power occurred while he was pursuing his quest for discovery in the Bruene estate matter. The majority says that this is false because the threat to invoke the contempt powers occurred while respondent was improperly arguing the merits of the case during a discovery hearing. Even if the majority is correct, the difference is not of great moment. Certainly, the extent to which the challenged remarks deviate from the true facts are not sufficient to warrant the harsh discipline which is handed out in the majority opinion.
A reading of the record of the portion of the discovery matter in the Bruene estate which was reported suggests that respondent’s references to the merits of the controversy during the discovery hearing were an effort to give the court the factual background upon which his discovery requests were predicated. In any event, I believe the statements in the motion are employed only to identify the incidents which are claimed to affect the judge’s impartiality.
*108The motion is based on the fact that the altercation occurred without regard to who was at fault in the matter.
I find that the majority opinion is disquieting in two particulars. First, it gives the impression that one who files a motion for change of judge which contains a showing somewhat less than that required to disqualify the court as a matter of law does so at his peril. Surely this should not be the case. Just as the court is given a rather broad discretion in whether to re-cuse itself in any given matter where the grounds asserted are frictions between the court and counsel, so should counsel be accorded a rather broad discretion in seeking relief on behalf of the client.
Also disquieting is the majority’s infer- . ence that the filing of such motion impugns the integrity of the judicial process. The present motion is based upon a recital of facts which, if true, do not facially impugn the integrity of the judge. These recitals are simply assertions which have caused respondent’s client, respondent or both to question whether the judge would be totally impartial. I believe it is a dangerous precedent to react as harshly to the filing of such a motion as the court does in the present case. This decision will have a chilling effect on attorneys representing their clients with the necessary zeal in those instances where the impartiality of the court may, rightly or wrongly, be legitimately questioned.
Based upon what is shown in the present record, I cannot find that the committee has established by a preponderance of the convincing evidence that respondent should be disciplined for filing the motion for change of judge or for the statements which the motion contained.