| ► Columbus Dispatch - 02/06/10 - On this case, most justices decided to bail |
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By James Nash, Dispatch Statehouse Reporter
A self-appointed judicial watchdog who has blistered Ohio Supreme Court justices as "ethical hobbits" and "judicial prostitutes" now has a case in front of the very court he's spent more than a decade criticizing.
David Palmer's strategy? Get the justices off the case.
So far, Palmer, a former Powell resident who now lives in California, has been mostly successful. Five of the seven Supreme Court justices have voluntarily stepped down from his case. The chief justice, who normally would appoint replacements, removed himself, citing Palmer's "spurious and untruthful" allegations against him.
Palmer's unyielding rhetoric has gummed up the normally smooth-turning wheels of justice at the state's highest court. With five of the seven justices off the case, someone -- presumably Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, the more tenured of the two remaining justices -- will have to find visiting judges to substitute for the ones who left the case.
And even then, Palmer might challenge the replacements.
The case that's now vexing the Supreme Court has its roots in the 1987 car accident that seriously injured Palmer's wife, Ok Sun Palmer. The Palmers retained a Toledo lawyer, David Pheils Jr., to represent them. The relationship went sour after a colleague of Pheils improperly drew checks from Mrs. Palmer's account, according to court papers.
The Palmers fired Pheils. But David Palmer didn't stop there. He printed fliers with disparaging comments such as "king of sleaze" and taped them to Pheils' office and mailboxes.
Pheils sued Palmer for defamation and won judgments totaling more than $400,000. Part of the case turned on whether Palmer's wife assisted him in distributing the fliers. Palmer said no, but his former lawyer hired an investigator who produced surveillance video that showed Mrs. Palmer carrying grocery bags and walking without assistance. The video was shown at trial.
In the case now before the Supreme Court, Palmer is asking justices to decide whether the video should have been shown to jurors since it did not prove that she had anything to do with distributing the fliers.
Palmer says his past crusades against justices -- he has accused them of violating campaign-finance laws and of misusing state cars -- make it impossible for him to get a fair crack at justice.
"Clearly, I'm not looking for special treatment. I am merely seeking a fair hearing presided over by fair and impartial jurists," Palmer said. "If that's too much to ask, then so be it."
Palmer said he's OK with having Pfeifer appoint replacement justices, who would be drawn from the pool of 69 state appeals-court judges. If Pfeifer himself steps down from the case, only one Supreme Court justice will remain: Robert R. Cupp, who took office in 2007, which is after Palmer moved to California and eased off his campaign against Ohio justices.
A court spokesman said there's no record of whether that many justices have removed themselves from a case before.
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