Judge’s Relationship With County Attorney No Problem, Panel Says

Thu., June 13, 1996

Associated Press

The fact that Madison County Justice of the Peace MaryAnn O’Malley is dating the county attorney doesn’t preclude her from deciding cases prosecuted by her boyfriend’s office.

That decision by the Judicial Standards Commission rejected accusations of impropriety filed against O’Malley by a defendant in a traffic case.

The commission unanimously found no evidence to suggest O’Malley was biased or guilty of official misconduct because of her three-year relationship with County Attorney Loren Tucker.

“The simple existence of the relationship between the justice of the peace and the county attorney, without some further circumstances tending to suggest a bias, is insufficient to require that the judge be disqualified from cases prosecuted by other lawyers in the county attorney’s office,” the commission ruled last week.

Tucker declined to comment on the decision and O’Malley did not return a reporter’s phone call.

The complaint against O’Malley was filed by George Sandford Jr., who was convicted by the judge of driving with a suspended driver’s license.

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Judge’s Relationship With County Attorney No Problem, Panel Says

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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