Court Opinion

ID: 9527193
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:28:13.396352+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:25:36.972499
License: Public Domain

R. M. Maher, J.
(concurring in part, dissenting in part). I concur in the result reached by my colleagues, but cannot agree with their comments as to trial court participation in plea negotiations. In this case, I disapprove of the manner in which the trial court offered probation to the defendant in the plea negotiations and subsequently expressed his strong displeasure that the defendant did not accept the bargain.
The court rules do, however, permit the judge to participate in the plea taking negotiations, GCR 1963, 785.7(2)(a), (b) and (4)(b), and I do not think it impermissible for the judge to participate even more extensively than is mentioned in the rules. There is nothing forbidding it. But excessive entanglement by the judiciary and possibly retaliatory behavior, or even the appearance of it, I must agree, cannot be tolerated.