► Columbus Dispatch – 05/16//00 – Complaint alleges chief justice Thomas Moyer violated canons Print E-mail

Columbus Dispatch – May 16, 2000 – Complaint alleges chief justice Thomas Moyer violated canons

By James Bradshaw
Dispatch Statehouse Reporter
 
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer denies that comments he made constituted an endorsement
 
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court was charged yesterday with violating judicial canons at an April 14 meeting of the Ohio Republican Party’s state central and executive committee.
 
Before swearing in new committee members, Chief Justice Thomas Moyer told the groups that voters have an opportunity this year to change the philosophic makeup of the court by electing Judge Terrence O’Donnell of the 8th District Court of Appeals in Cleveland.
 
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said Judge Terrence O’Donnell, the Republican running against Justice Alice Resnick, would exercise judicial restraint and restore balance to the court. Conservatives have criticized the court for 4-3 rulings overturning acts of the Ohio General Assembly.
 
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer did not mention Justice Alice Resnick by name but she voted with the majority in decisions he criticized.
 
Justice Alice Resnick said last night that she was “really disappointed by Chief Justice Thomas Moyer’s comments,” but did not plant to file a complaint.
 
“I don’t want to file against a colleague,” Justice Alice Resnick said.
 
David Palmer, a self-appointed watchdog of the courts from Maumee in Lucas County, said yesterday that his daughter hand-delivered his complaint to the office of Disciplinary Counsel Jonathan Coughlan.
 
The complaint alleges that Chief Justice Thomas Moyer violated a rule that says a judge “should not make speeches for a political organization or candidate at a political meeting or publicly endorse a candidate for public office.”
 
Dave Leland, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said the party considered filing its own complaint but decided not to after learning Palmer had filed one.
 
“He basically alleges the same things we would have said, so I’m just going to with that one.”
 
Jonathan Coughlan said the confidentiality of his office forbids him from commenting.
 
Under guidelines adopted bin 1985 to separate justices from disciplinary proceedings involving a colleague, a complaint against a member of the Ohio Supreme Court is to be forwarded to the chief judge of the Ohio Courts of Appeals, who is Edward Cox of the 7th District Court of Appeals in Youngstown.
 
Cox, a Democrat, would then appoint a three-judge panel of appeals court judges to investigate and evaluate the complaint.
 
Chief Justice Moyer said yesterday he does not believe he violated the cannons by discussing a philosophic split on the court that is common knowledge and assess that Judge Terrence O’Donnell’s philosophy would match his own.
 
“It was not an endorsement,” Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said.
 
 “I thought I was talking to our core group of supporters and encouraging them to not forget judicial candidates,” Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said.
 
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said he would have couched his language differently had he known a reporter was present.
 
“I know I cannot make statement even looking like they support a candidate at a public meeting,” Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said.
 
A losing adversary in Chief Justice Thomas Moyer’s 1992 election – Cleveland lawyer J. Ross Haffer, who ran as a independent – accused Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of violating the judicial code of conduct by accepting political contributions from judges, which Haffey said violated the ban against judges endorsing candidates.
 
That charge was not pursued on a determination of the court’s Board of Grievances and Discipline that contributions and endorsements are not synonymous.
 
Palmer said he attempted to file a complaint against Chief Justice Thomas Moyer in 1998 for accepting a $2,000 contribution from the wife of retired judge Richard McQuade two weeks before a case involving the judge was appealed to the Supreme Court. The disciplinary office said he had cited no violations of the judicial-canons.
 

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