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03/04/10 Ethics Complaint v. Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor accepts/solicits prohibited contributions from Court employees
Below is a verbatim copy of an ethics complaint filed this date with Ohio Disciplinary Counsel Jonathan Coughlan in regards to Justice Maureen O’Connor’s prohibited acceptance of and/or solicitation of campaign contributions from employees of the Ohio Supreme Court.
Dave Palmer
The Watchdawg
URL: www.noethics.net
March 4, 2010
Jonathon Coughlan
Disciplinary Counsel
Ohio Supreme Court
250 Civic Center Drive, Ste. 325
Columbus, OH 43215-7411
Re: Justice Maureen O’Connor misconduct re: Violations of Code of Judicial Conduct
Canon 7 – (2) (a) (i) and (ii) – Campaign Solicitations; Use of Campaign Funds
Dear Mr. Coughlan:
Canon 7 prohibits candidates from receiving “a contribution from any employee of the court who does business with the court in the form of a contractual or other arrangement in which the person, in the current year or any of the previous six calendar years, received as payment for goods or services aggregate funds or fees regardless of the source in excess of two hundred fifty dollars.”
Retired Judges are Court Employees
Below you’ll find a table that lists the contributions that Justice O’Connor received from retired visiting judges, all of whom she well knew were “court employees.” This fact is proven by the verbatim language obtained from the Ohio Judicial Conference web site under an article titled: “2005 Judges’ Retirement Forum – Assigned Judges—Avoiding Social Security Taxes” as set forth below.
“In the early 1990s, the OJC negotiated with OPERS, the Supreme Court, and the Social Security Administration, a process for treating retired, assigned judges as employees of the court, rather than self-employed contractors. Not only did this change eliminate the requirement that retirement income be subject to social security tax, it garnered for the judges so serving liability insurance and an additional benefit from the state contribution to what is now reemployment annuity in OPERS.”
The Text Boxes below deal with the following prohibited contributions:
Text Box 1 – Retired Judge Contributions to O’Connor
Text Box 2 – Court employee Contributions to O’Connor
Text Box 3 – Contributions to O’Connor from Justice Stratton
Text Box 1 Retired Judge Contributions to O’Connor
Text Box 2 Supreme Court Employees
It is undisputed that attorney Mike Close was employed by the Supreme Court to represent it in regards to complaints I filed as to abuses involving state cars provided to justices and double-billing, etc. by retired visiting judges. While Mr. Close represented the Court he was a partner with Wiles, Boyle, Burkholder, meaning the firm/partners shared in the fees paid by the Court for Mr. Close’s work. Therefore, any contributions from the firm/partners/associates are in violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct.
Additionally, attorney Michael Murman has received thousands of dollars from the Court and/or Disciplinary Counsel of the Ohio Supreme Court as an appointee to investigative panels, meaning any contributions he made were also prohibited.
Text Box 3 Contributions/Expenses paid from
Justice Stratton Campaign Committee to O’Connor
It would of course be laughable for Justice O’Connor to claim that she was unaware that Justice Stratton was an employee of the Ohio Supreme Court. As to the contributions from Stratton and/or expenses she paid on O’Connor’s behalf, see Text Box 5 below.
It is indeed a rather sad commentary on the state of the judiciary in Ohio when a sitting justice who is now seeking the office of Chief Justice finds it convenient to thumb her nose at the prohibitions as set forth above. Hopefully, Justice O’Connor will not attempt to place blame on others and/or claim “ignorance of the law.” As we all know, “ignorance of the law” is not a valid defense; albeit it is, unfortunately, in many instances a stepping stone to higher office.
Please provide me with a copy of Justice O’Connor’s reply to this ethics complaint along with the names of the appellate judges that are assigned to the panel to review this complaint as soon as possible.
Thanks for you time and attention to this serious matter and I look forward to your prompt reply.
_________________
Dave Palmer
The Watchdawg
Folsom, California
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