► Associated Press – 05/31/01 – Justice must tell his side Print E-mail

Associated Press – May 31, 2001 – Justice must tell his side

Justice must tell his side

3-judge panel to review case against Moyer

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Associated Press

Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the state Supreme Court must respond to complaints that he violated judicial rules when he talked about a fellow justice's fall election campaign, according to court documents.

 

A three-judge panel will review Moyer's response and the complaints against him before deciding whether to investigate further.

 

Two people who filed complaints against Moyer received letters from the court's Disciplinary Counsel informing them that their grievances had been forwarded to an appeals court judge who, by court rule, must assemble the panel.

 

"We'll see what happens--at least there is a glimmering that they system does work," Patrick Saunders, chairman of the Huron County Democratic Party, said yesterday. "Everybody has to obey the rules, even if you are the chief rule maker."

 

David Palmer of Maumee, representing a group he calls the Committee to Expose Dishonest and Incompetent Attorneys and Judges, also filed a complaint.

 

Yesterday, he said he was pleased that the grievance has reached the level where "it's at least worthy of a review for possible misconduct."

 

The Disciplinary Counsel is not permitted to discuss individual complaints, Lori Brown, first assistant counsel, said yesterday.

 

Moyer said he will respond to the complaint but wouldn't comment further, spokesman Joe Smith, said yesterday.

 

The complaints originated in April after Justice Alice Robie Resnick accused Moyer of violating the judicial conduct code by publicly favoring her opponent in the Nov. 7 election.

 

Resnick, a Toledo Democrat, is running for a third six-year term against Judge Terrence O'Donnell of Cleveland, a Republican who sits on the Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals.

 

Before swearing in new members of the Ohio Republican central and executive committees at a meeting in April, Moyer told the group that he and O'Donnell shared the same philosophy of judicial restraint, according to the complaints against Moyer.

 

Although he didn't mention Resnick's name, Moyer criticized rulings by the court majority, which included Resnick, for overturning laws the legislature passed, the complaints said.

 

Moyer has denied endorsing O'Donnell, saying he was only talking favorably about him.

 

Ohio's code for judicial conduct says judges or judicial candidates should not "make speeches on behalf of a political organization or another candidate at a political meeting or publicly endorse or oppose a candidate for another public office."

 

Resnick, who didn't file a formal complaint, declined to comment.

Punishment for justices found to have violated judicial conduct range from a public reprimand to disbarment, Brown said.

 

 

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