From Disciplinary Counsel v. Carr, decided yesterday:
The [Board of Professional Conduct] panel accepted the parties’ stipulations of fact and misconduct and issued a 58-page report recounting limited—but representative—examples of Carr’s admitted misconduct. The panel found that Carr “ruled her courtroom in a reckless and cavalier manner, unconstrained by the law or the court’s rules, without any measure of probity or even common courtesy” and that she “conducted business in a manner befitting a game show host rather than a judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court.” The panel concluded that Carr’s actions “could not help but seriously compromise the integrity of the court in the eyes of the public and all who had business there.” …
Count One—Issuing Capias Warrants and Making False Statements …
Count Two—Ex Parte Communications, Improper Plea Bargaining, and Arbitrary Dispositions …
Count Three—Improper Use of Capias Warrants and Bonds to Compel Payment of Fines and Costs …
Count Four—Lack of Decorum and Dignity Consistent with Judicial Office …
Count Five—Abuse of Contempt Power and Failure to Recuse …
I can’t do justice to the whole analysis, but it’s quite interesting and readable. Here’s one more excerpt, though (from Count Three, as it happens, not Count Four):
Carr admitted at the disciplinary hearing that her use of capias warrants and incarceration as a means to compel the payment of fines and costs by tying the bond to the amount of the fine and costs essentially created a modern-day debtors’ prison. The board found that Carr eventually discontinued this approach to enforcing the payment of fines and costs and that she gave a “characteristically colorful explanation for doing so” in open court:
You notice I’m no longer the bill collector for the Clerk’s Office. I’m not your b-i-t-c-h. See, you get it? Collect your own money. There you go, player, mm-hmm. Collect your own money, player, mm-hmm. I’m not your b-i-t-c-h. Run tell that, mm-hmm. Mmhmm. How you like them apples? Suckas.
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