Court Opinion

ID: 9691346
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 20:26:39.018172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:17.351112
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I agree that the evidence supports a finding of judicial misconduct. The making of unsolicited sexual advances by a judge toward the judge’s own court reporter demonstrates a serious abuse of the power inherent in the judge’s position. In my *860view, however, we have no precedent for the severity of the ordered discipline based on the facts of the case. To be sure, we must determine an appropriate discipline by measuring the misconduct against the ethical standards contained in the Code of Judicial Conduct but we must, just as surely, compare that misconduct to the misconduct in other cases where this court has been called to discipline judges.
We have ordered only public censure where a judge admitted paying for sex with a prostitute as well as making public statements to the press regarding his involvement. In re Mann, No. 50982 (Minn., March 4, 1980) (unreported Supreme Court order). We ordered public reprimand where a judge conducted judicial business while inebriated on several occasions, at times failed to conduct business because of inebriation, and sexually harassed and embarrassed female employees and female attorneys on repeated occasions by making suggestive comments or kissing and touching female staff. In re Sears, No. 81-1262 (Minn., July 26, 1982) (unreported Supreme Court order). That these earlier cases affirmed stipulations, or that one case involved alcoholism, in no way assured that public confidence in the impartiality and integrity of the judicial system was any less harmed than in the present case. Even with our statement that our action in those cases should not be read as precedent for the proper disciplinary response to sexual misconduct by a judge, the fact remains that our treatment of the judges involved in those cases was far more lenient than suspension from judicial office without pay for one year. Though suspension from office may be warranted, a shorter period of time would be sufficient for protection of the public interest.