Court Opinion

ID: 9628550
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:24:11.828066+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:07.325837
License: Public Domain

Miller, J.,
concurring: I agree with the majority’s disposition of this case and with the Chief Justice’s opinion, with one exception. I think it preferable, as did the Court of Appeals, for a trial judge to recuse himself from the trial of criminal cases or, as suggested by Judge Abbott, to offer to do so on the record, when his son is an attorney on the staff of the local prosecutor.
Sedgwick County has the largest prosecutorial staff in the state. Judge Ballinger’s son was chief of the consumer fraud division in that office and, as I understand it, handled no chapter 21 prosecutions. Even so, in the public’s eye Mr. Ballinger was a prosecutor.
Should the rule be different in larger counties than it is in smaller counties where there are but two lawyers in the county attorney’s office? I think not. I would make the same suggestion regardless of the size of the prosecutor’s staff. Recusal in such cases gives the appearance of propriety and impartiality and is, in my view, the preferred course.
Like my esteemed associates and the learned judges of the Court of Appeals, I do not for a moment question Judge Ballinger’s fairness and impartiality; and I find no reversible error in this record. But I respectfully suggest that the preferred course of action for a trial judge, should a similar situation again arise, is recusal or offer of recusal. Such action would best reflect the spirit of the Canons.