Judge Michelle Heward of Ogden, UT; incompetent boob

The state of Utah presented Michelle E. Heward with a law license in 1987 after she graduated from the university of Utah Law School.

It should be noted that Gov. Gary Herbert was duped into appointing Michelle to a seat on the Second District Juvenile Court in 2010. Michelle didn’t get the appointment because she was the most qualified lawyer in the greater Ogden area. She got it because he had proven to be a reliable lackey for the local political hacks.

The Departmental Disciplinary Committee found Dick guilty of the following misconduct.

In one matter, Michelle was assigned to preside over the initial criminal case of Cooper Van Huizen in Juvenile Court who was charged with barging into a home and robbing the occupants of cash, a cellphone and marijuana. He was the youngest member (16-years-old) of the group that raided the home.

At an initial Juvenile Court hearing, Michelle ordered that Van Huizen be tried as an adult even though the evidence established that he was not the leader of the home invasion or wield a gun.

After being convicted and sentenced to 1 to 15 years in state prison, Van Huizen’s attorney appealed the convicted based on Judge Heward’s husband, Gary Heward, was the chief criminal deputy prosecutor in the Weber County Attorney’s Office and was involved in the prosecution of Van Huizen.

The Court of Appeals reversed the conviction and its ruling said the following in regards to Judge Heward’s conduct.

• “A judge should act at all times in a manner that promotes — and shall not undermine — public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.”
• “A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in any proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
• Impartial means the absence of bias or prejudice in favor of, or against, particular parties or classes of parties, as well as presence of an objective and open mind in considering matters that come before a judge.”

Presiding over this matter when she knew her husband was part of the prosecution team should have alerted any judge with a modicum of intellectualism and ethics to have withdrawn from the matter.

As a direct consequence of Michelle’s incompetence, the conviction of Van Huizen is overturned; his case is being assigned to the Juvenile Court, and the matter beings all over again. Put simply, the taxpayers are being billed for Judge Heward’s incompetence.

Unfortunately, Judge Seward cannot be disciplined or tossed off the bench for being incompetent. In fact, in many instances judicial incompetence is a stepping stone to higher office.

As we speak (ca. February 2017), Seward continues to sit as a Second District Juvenile Court judge in Ogden, Utah.