Conduct commission disciplines judges for decorum violations
OLYMPIA – A Spokane County judge was admonished Friday for last year suggesting to jurors that they’d wrongly convicted an innocent woman.
The official rebuke – the least severe level of discipline handed out by the panel –was one of three Friday by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. The other cases included a judge forcing a Muslim woman from his courtroom for not removing her head covering and a judge who, moments before a sentencing hearing in a manslaughter case, decided to try to lighten the mood by leading the courtroom in a “Go, Seahawks!” cheer.
In an agreed-to official admonishment, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Robert D. Austin said he hadn’t felt he was criticizing jurors for their verdict. Jurors, however, told a state investigator they felt he was.
The case involved a nurse named Linda Akkerman, who was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance over missing oxycodone tablets. The jury found Akkerman guilty. (The ruling has been set aside due to unrelated allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, which are being appealed.)
After the verdict, Austin reportedly told the jurors that he had been inclined to dismiss the case, but didn’t because he felt confident that they would not convict. Some of the jurors were “remorseful” at the thought they’d wrongly convicted Akkerman, according to the state investigation.
“I was horrified,” said deputy prosecutor David Stevens, who complained about the judge’s comments after he was contacted by a sobbing juror. “If you criticize or commend them, you’re going to change their conduct on the next case.”
Austin, who couldn’t be reached for comment Friday evening, agreed that he’d violated judicial canons prohibiting praise or criticism of jurors’ verdict. He pledged to familiarize himself with the Code of Judicial Conduct.
The other admonishments included:
•Tacoma Municipal Court Judge David Ladenburg: In January, the judge reportedly told a woman to remove her traditional Muslim head scarf or leave his courtroom. She refused and left. Ladenburg told the court that he’d seen no evidence that Islam prohibits uncovering of the head when required for court decorum. He routinely told people to remove hats in his courtroom.
The commission found that Ladenburg had wrongly denied the woman access to court and publicly humiliated her. Ladenburg agreed to take a cultural course.
“He looked into the law and saw he was wrong,” said Reiko Callner, executive director of the commission. “First Amendment rights trump issues of simple decorum.”
•Pierce County Superior Court Judge Beverly G. Grant: On the Friday before Superbowl Sunday, Grant’s courtroom was packed with 100 people for a sentencing hearing of a man in a first-degree manslaughter case. Apparently to break the tension between the dead man’s relatives and the family of the man about to be sentenced to 13 years in prison, Grant led the courtroom – twice – in a cheer of “Go, Seahawks!”
The incident – which was reported throughout the country – offended many of the family and friends in the courtroom. It undoubtedly didn’t help that, in a macabre coincidence, the shooting had happened on the previous year’s Superbowl Sunday.
On Monday, Grant publicly apologized, later adding that “my invitation to salute the Seahawks was misplaced and under the circumstances made me appear insensitive to the victim’s family, friends and supporters.” She reported the incident to the commission herself.
“Her motivation was a positive one,” said Callner. “But it offended and put off people at a very hard moment of their life.”