Judge Deborah Riga has problems (in addition to the fact that she shares her last name with the capital of Latvia). From the AP:

A former Schererville town judge was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison Thursday for pocketing thousands of dollars from her court driving school program.

Judge Philip Simon also ordered during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Hammond that Deborah Riga pay the Town of Schererville and the state about $12,000 in restitution....

She said she took control of the court's Crossroads counseling program and driving school and set up a bank account in which she secretly had an interest.

Through that, she received about $12,000 in payments from the court's defendants. She also stopped paying rent to the town for her courtroom and made the town pay court employees who should have been paid out of the Crossroads program, Riga has said.

A court with an affiliated driving school? Judges who have to pay rent for their courtrooms? State and local courts can be so darn... weird.

Read more about Judge Riga at the Indiana Law Blog. Apparently her 15-month sentence was "substantially less time than she could have received for sending more than 1,000 of her defendants into programs from which she personally profited."

Ind. Courts - More on: "Former Schererville judge to be sentenced today" [Indiana Law Blog]
Judge kept money from court program [AP]

Quite possibly. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Embattled District Judge Elizabeth Halverson will be required to undergo a mental health evaluation if she wants to bring up personal medical conditions during an August hearing before the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission.

Claiming it doesn't want a "trial by ambush," the commission on Wednesday ordered Halverson to submit to an examination by a Reno-based psychiatrist by July 18 if she intends to argue that her mental or physical conditions contributed to her behavior on the bench, according to the commission order.

Judge Halverson has a few physical ailments too:

In a 2007 meeting with editors and reporters at the Review-Journal, Halverson enumerated several personal health issues. She has difficulty walking and uses a steady supply of oxygen. She's overweight, has been a diabetic for more than 10 years and has experienced severe hypoglycemic attacks.

Halverson said she also suffers from Crohn's disease and the after-effects of cancer. She said she's also been troubled by congestive heart failure and survived a bacterial infection that eroded the bones in her feet. A knee injury restricts her ability to walk, and a shoulder injury limits her arm motions.

Right now you're kicking yourself for not going to medical school -- 'cause you KNOW you want to be all up in her judicial business. Time to play doctor, Your Honor.

In case you're not familiar with it, symptoms of Crohn's disease include "abdominal pain, diarrhea (which may be bloody), constipation, vomiting, weight loss or weight gain." Judge Halverson doesn't seem to exhibit the "weight loss" symptom, but others may be present.

Halverson told to have mental exam if she intends to blame health problems for behavior [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

The New York Times had a piece last week about college graduates being seduced by the large salaries offered by investment banks and consulting companies (Big Paycheck or Service? Students Are Put to Test). The theme of the article is that the best and the brightest are choosing McKinsey over PeaceCorps. Lawyers certainly face a similar seductress in the form of Biglaw.

There were a slew of letters written in response to the piece, including one from New York Supreme Court Justice Emily Jane Goodman. Goodman is no stranger to ATL's pages. She wrote to us last year about the need to up the ante for state judges. Though there's finally been a move to increase New York judges' salaries, Goodman is not a happy camper. She writes to the NYTimes:

To the Editor:

After a career in public service, I regretfully say, I would not do it again.

Philosophy and point of view led me to doing good instead of doing well, so I never expected to become rich. But now that I'm in my 10th year of a frozen judicial salary -- less than summer students are being paid at law firms -- I have concluded that whatever I may have accomplished for the public, I have wasted 25 years of my life by serving on the bench.

Emily Jane Goodman
New York, June 23, 2008

Congratulations, Biglaw associates. At the end of the day, it really is all about the Benjamins.

Big Paycheck or Service? Students Are Put to Test [New York Times]
Letters: What Do Graduates Owe the World? [New York Times]

Earlier: What About State Judicial Pay? Some Celebrity Correspondence from Justice Emily Goodman

There have been two lawsuits filed by New York State judges to get their $136,700 salary increased. The judges have gone 10 years without a raise, due to their salaries being linked to those of New York legislators.

New York Supreme Court justice Edward Lehner has found the plaintiffs to be underpaid in the first of the two suits, and he's ruling for a raise. He's given the New York Legislature 90 days to up judicial salaries. Lehner, of course, would be one of the judges to benefit from the ruling, raising an ethical question.

Here is the judges' constitutional claim:

Judges have argued that the Legislature has unconstitutionally linked the salaries of lawmakers and judges, stonewalling the judges from pay increases in line with inflation. Judges say that lawyers fresh out of law school working at New York City firms earn more than they do.

Awww. They have Biglaw envy.

A Justice Orders a Pay Raise for New York's Judges [New York Times]

Over 3500 votes are in, and the winner of the Lady Justice ATL caption contest is...

The setting is the Shreveport federal court in Lousiana, and the man taking a moment to reflect is Caddo District Judge Michael Walker. Unfortunately, he and fellow judge Vernon Claville were not as intimate with Lady Justice as they should have been. They were convicted last month on racketeering charges. From the Shreveport Times:

Walker, who oversaw the drug section in Caddo District Court, and Claville, a juvenile judge, were convicted of racketeering charges stemming from a corruption investigation that began nearly five years ago. The government said the pair took cash payments from Travis McCullough, an informant, to lessen the cost for inmates to be released from jail.

Both judges have been sent to correctional facilities. But KSLA News reports that they will still receive state pensions when they "retire" on July 2. Good old Louisiana.

Federal jury convicts two Caddo judges [Shreveport Times]
Two Caddo judges on trial [Shreveport Times]
Convicted Caddo judges now in federal jail, will still get pensions [KSLA TV]

Earlier: ATL Lady Justice Caption Contest Finalists: Time to Vote!

Over the holiday weekend, Adam Liptak had this interesting New York Times article looking at how judges are selected, in the United States and the rest of the world. He points out that judicial elections, widely used in state judicial systems in the U.S., are a rarity in the rest of the world:

The question of how best to select judges has baffled lawyers and political scientists for centuries, but in the United States most states have made their choice in favor of popular election. The tradition goes back to Jacksonian populism, and supporters say it has the advantage of making judges accountable to the will of the people. A judge who makes a series of unpopular decisions can be challenged in an election and removed from the bench....

Nationwide, 87 percent of all state court judges face elections, and 39 states elect at least some of their judges, according to the National Center for State Courts.

In the rest of the world, the usual selection methods emphasize technical skill and insulate judges from the popular will, tilting in the direction of independence. The most common methods of judicial selection abroad are appointment by an executive branch official, which is how federal judges in the United States are chosen, and a sort of civil service made up of career professionals.

Selecting judges based on.... skill? Silly rabbit, judgeships are for politicians (with law degrees).

More discussion, below the fold.

Judge Carlton Vines presides over traffic violations and DUIs in Chattooga County, Georgia. It's a tiny county with a population of just over 25,000. The local newspaper, The Summerville News, has an ongoing investigative series examining the county's drunk-driving phenomenon and growing number of DUI arrests.

Unfortunately, Judge Vines has become a part of the phenomenon. He was arrested in November of last year for driving drunk and leaving the scene of an accident after swerving into another car. The coppers just released the dash-cam video from the arrest. The man was trashed, slurring, and stumbling... though still cogent enough to refuse the breathalyzer.

From WBS TV:

Vines pleaded guilty to DUI charges in April. He has since spent three nights in jail, paid fines, done community service and was on house arrest.

On the tape, Vines can be heard admitting he has had "over the limit." At one point on the tape, an officer asks, "Do you remember the wreck you were involved in?" Vines can be heard responding, "I'm not going to admit or deny it but I will take responsibility."

A nolo plea -- or just good drunken logic? Vines is under voluntary suspension, and the Georgia State Judicial Commission gets to decide whether he returns to the bench.

Judge Vines makes some bizarre comment about sharecropping at the end of the YouTube video. Can someone from rural Georgia please explain?

Caught On Tape: Georgia Judge Arrested For DUI [WSB TV]
Drunk Judge Arrested [YouTube.com]

Twelve Angry Men, move over; now there's someone meatier. A juicy judicial celebrity sighting, from the Las Vegas Sun:

Suspended District Judge Elizabeth Halverson returned to the Regional Justice Center on Friday -- for jury duty.

While waiting for an assignment, Halverson, who can't roll through the courthouse on her motorized scooter without attracting attention, turned quite a few heads, including those of several prosecutors at the district attorney's office, which is on the same floor as the jury service room.

Las Vegas lawyers: If you're hoping to have Halverson on your jury, sorry. Her Honor wound up being assigned to a civil trial that was subsequently postponed, "bringing an abrupt halt to her brief public service on the other side of the bench."

Suspended judge can't even get out of jury duty [Las Vegas Sun]

Technically Larry Hutchins is -- or was -- a mere magistrate, as opposed to a full-blown judge. But we think his alleged conduct entitles him to Judge of the Day. From the Greenville News (via the ABA Journal):

The South Carolina Supreme Court today reprimanded a retired Spartanburg magistrate after finding that he used a racial slur to refer to people a clerk might be dating and allegedly asked another clerk if she would be willing to have sex with another magistrate and secretly videotape it for use against him.

The court agreed with the Commission on Judicial Conduct’s findings and issued a reprimand for former Magistrate Larry M. Hutchins, who retired in 2004. The justices said Hutchins has repeatedly asked that his suspension or retirement be lifted.

That's unlikely, in light of this:

According to the court, a former clerk of Hutchins testified that in May 2003 he asked her if it would be difficult to get a magistrate not identified in the ruling over to her apartment. "Respondent then asked her to ‘go all the way’ with the judge, to videotape it, and respondent mentioned the availability of small cameras," the court wrote.

Secret videotaping? Perhaps to be expected from a Dunkin' Donuts employee -- or, in this day and age, the federal government -- but not from a state-court judge.

The woman refused and reported the proposal to the chief magistrate, the court said.

Also, Hutchins allegedly called a clerk superviser [sic] and said that one of the clerks was dating black men, using a racial slur, according to the court.

He added, according to the court, that there was "no telling what we might catch using the same bathroom as her."

Huh? And why would a male judge be using the same bathroom as a female clerk?

Justices reprimand retired Spartanburg magistrate [Greenville News]
Magistrate Reprimanded for Using Racial Slur, Seeking to Record Sexual Encounter [ABA Journal]

Here is a Tale of Two Judges: the Honorable Alex Kozinski, the relatively new chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and the Honorable Elizabeth Halverson, district judge in Clark County, Nevada.

Both are judges in the western United States. Both are colorful figures and well-known judicial mavericks. And both have been in the news lately. Chief Judge Kozinski graces the cover of California Lawyer magazine, which describes him -- and rightfully so -- as "brilliant, charming, and provocative." Meanwhile, Judge Halverson has been all over the national media in the past few days, thanks to this less-than-favorable AP report (picked up by many news outlets).

In light of these similarities, we decided to conduct a head-to-head comparison of the two jurists. Check it out, below the fold.

You gotta love South Florida. It's such a fun, crazy place. It has South Beach, the nightlife, the fashion, the wild news-making Broward judges... Joining the ranks of Judges of the Day from Broward County (Jay "Soul Glo" Spechler, Cheryl "Beelzebub" Aleman, and Jeffrey "Wide Receiver" Levenson) is Circuit Judge Ana Gardiner.

The Broward-Palm Beach New Times has a story accusing Gardiner of flirting, partying, and getting it on with defense attorneys and prosecutors.

Defense attorney John Cotrone stood before Broward Circuit Judge Ana Gardiner in her marble-laden courtroom and dropped in what seemed like a jab at her honor.

It came after Gardiner, the chief criminal judge for the 17th Judicial Circuit, asked for an amended file on Cotrone's case. The lawyer pointed out that she had asked for the file "every time I'm in court on this."

Gardiner, a petite woman whose dark hair is tinted an artificial red, might have been displeased at being shown up by Cotrone. But instead she looked away and smiled.

"Is there a point to reminding me of that?" she asked Cotrone in her slight Cuban accent.

Gardiner shuffled through some papers on the bench before smiling again and goading Cotrone: "I may not have as good a memory as you — even though you are older than me."

It sounded almost like... flirting.

Like awkward high school flirting.

Neither Gardiner nor Cotrone was willing to comment for the piece, but one of Coltrone's friends stepped in to "help out:"

[W]ell-known defense attorney Fred Haddad, a longtime friend of Cotrone's, contacted New Times in an attempt to dissuade the newspaper from publishing the story. He claimed he was calling of his own volition. "She's one of the good ones," he said of Gardiner. "This is going to cause [Judicial Qualifying Commission] investigations, and nobody needs that."

He didn't deny that his friend was involved in a romance with the judge. Instead, he argued that judges and prosecutors and defense attorneys have been drinking together and having sex with one another for years in Broward County.

"What's the big deal so long as it doesn't affect their decisions?" he asked.

This guy is a "well-known defense attorney," and that's the best defense he could come up with. Really?

Judging Ana [New Times via JAABLOG]

Judge Elizabeth Halverson has graced stomped through these pages many times before. But this is her first appearance of 2008. The LA Times recounts some Halverson highlights:

Her former bailiff said he was forced to heat and serve her lunch, check the temperature of her ice water, brush lint from her robe, help her put on her shoes, massage her neck and cover her with a blanket before her nap.

An assistant said Halverson, of the 8th Judicial District Court, made her answer questions -- under oath -- about courthouse gossip.

She's been stripped of her criminal cases. She has been suspended with pay. She has a hearing this month that may result in her being removed from the bench. But she's STILL running for reelection. We apologize to Halverson fans out there, but we will not be running a "Re-Elect Halverson" campaign, even if she does provide great blog fodder...

Halverson also referred to her husband as "Evil Ed," her former bailiff testified, and told Jordan to "pull out your gun and shoot him."

"I'll dispose of the body," Jordan quoted the judge as saying.

Halverson's newer staffers told commissioners she acted respectfully and professionally. But commissioners said that didn't excuse her treating Jordan and others in a "truly bizarre and inappropriate manner."

Two people are challenging the suspended judge in the August election. Halverson said she entered the race because community members encouraged her to hold onto her judgeship.

"Do I think the public will see the truth about me?" she said. "Yes, I do."

The truth is out there. I mean, seriously, how could she dispose of her husband's body? She is a LARGE woman, with an oxygen tank, who can't even get her own nap-time blanket. She was making a joke. Obviously.

Update: A commenter sent us to this bizarre kid-sploitation reelection video.

Judge Elizabeth Halverson courts trouble in Las Vegas [Los Angeles Times]

Since yesterday, when the big Eliot Spitzer news broke, we've been on a bad-behavior kick here at ATL. So let's keep going down that path. A tipster sent us a juicy story, with this intro:

This is wild. And by wild, I mean INSANE... He's 61. She's 25. He likes booze, cocaine, and turtlenecks.

Police drew their guns and broke open a door to get former District Court Judge John Brennan to stop choking his 25-year-old girlfriend, according to Albuquerque police reports released Monday.

According to the reports, Brennan, 61, appeared to be extremely intoxicated, denied that he attacked the woman and was wearing only a mock turtleneck and gray underwear when confronted by officers.

Brennan was arrested on charges of domestic violence, kidnapping and aggravated battery against a household member in connection with the Sunday incident. He made his first appearance in Metropolitan Court on Monday.

More details -- and yes, once again, allegations of prostitute involvement -- after the jump.

This has been all over the news. We like the ABA Journal's version, 'cause it's the crispest:

The Atlanta judge overseeing the prosecution of alleged courthouse shooter Brian Nichols has stepped aside from the case after he was quoted [in a New Yorker article] as saying, “Everyone in the world knows he did it.”

The New Yorker piece was by one of our idols, prosecutor-turned-writer Jeffrey Toobin (who launched our blogging career, with this Talk of the Town piece). Judge Fuller and Jeff Toobin were interviewed by the Fulton County Daily Report about the controversy:

"I had a specific agreement with Toobin," said Fuller on Tuesday, before announcing his recusal. "Our conversation was to be on background only, and there would be no direct quotations or attributions, unless they were floated by me first."

Not so, said Toobin, reached in New York. "I don't know what to say," he said. "I mean, it was clearly for attribution; we even had a New Yorker fact-checker call and confirm it. ... I have great respect for Judge Fuller, but that was not at all my understanding."

We're with the meticulous Toobin on this one. In fact, we share the suspicion of one of the correspondents who wrote us about this story: Was Judge Fuller's indiscretion intentional? Was it his way of getting out from under a long and complex nightmare of a case?

Judge Recuses From Courthouse Shooting Case Due to New Yorker Quotes [ABA Journal]
Judge Fuller recuses from Nichols case [Fulton County Daily Report]
Judge in Courthouse Shooting Case Steps Down [New York Times]
Death in Georgia [The New Yorker]
New Yorker Quote Leads to Atlanta Judge Recusal [WSJ Law Blog]

* Does the Bush Administration have Blackwater's back? The U.S. pushes for specific legal protections from Iraqi law for civilian contractors. [New York Times]

* West Virginia: a little less corrupt than last week? WV Supreme Court agrees to rehear Massey Energy case (previously discussed here). [AP; WSJ Law Blog]

* D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg steps down early, to make way for Chief Judge David Sentelle. [D.C. Circuit (PDF) via How Appealing]

* NYT endorses Hillary Clinton (but not for the reasons identified in the bumper sticker at right). [New York Times; New York Times]

* A more detailed report on the Georgetown Law event with Justice Ginsburg that we wrote about last night. [Georgetown Hoya via How Appealing]

It's not every day that a member of a state's highest court gets indicted. So of course Justice David Medina, of the Texas Supreme Court, is our Judge of the Day. Justice Medina and his wife were just indicted in connection with an alleged arson fire that destroyed their home last summer. (We previously discussed the case here.)

But wait -- it gets better. District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, a recent Lawyer of the Day, has announced that his office will move to dismiss the indictments. As several tipsters helpfully pointed out to us, both Rosenthal and Medina are Republicans.

This is a little too much bizarreness for this early hour. We'll turn the floor over to a Texas tipster:

Texas is awesome for many reasons -- for example, the locals trying to build nuclear reactors in their garages. And don't forget the alien visitors.

But the justice system just makes Texas awesomer (even though we already knew that -- see here).

First there's the Texas supreme court justice & his wife who were indicted yesterday and are suspected of torching their house after the bank foreclosed on it.

Then, the DA who says he'll seek to toss the indictment.

Did we mention the DA's under investigation himself, and a Harris County judge has requested the AG investigate?

All around, it's pretty solid legal scandal.

Everything is bigger in the Lone Star State -- including the legal scandals.

Update: Here's an article from the New York Times (via the WSJ Law Blog).

Texas Supreme Court Justice indicted in arson of his Houston home [AP]
Texas Supreme Court justice, wife indicted [Houston Chronicle]
Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina Indicted [Texas Lawyer]
Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina indicted in connection with fire [Dallas Morning News]

Earlier: Did A Texas Supreme Court Justice Burn Down His Own House?
Lawyer of the Day: Chuck Rosenthal

Here's a quick update about yesterday's Judge of the Day, the Honorable Holly Hollenbeck. From the Tri-City Herald:

A Benton County judge has apologized for telling a woman with cancer to take a knitted cap off her bald head or leave his courtroom. "Words can't express how sorry I am," Judge Holly Hollenbeck told the Herald on Monday, a few hours after he spoke with Bev Williams by phone and offered an unconditional apology.

Hey look! It's an ATL shout-out:

The story was picked up by Seattle news media, then was spread across the country by The Associated Press. The Drudge Report website, published as a digest of headlines across the nation, reported the story Sunday. A website called Abovethelaw.com also invited comments about the incident, and had drawn more than 60 by Monday evening.

"I'm being vilified," Hollenbeck said. "I made no excuses to her for my behavior. What happened to her was inexcusable."

And what about the headgear rule?

Hollenbeck, who is presiding judge for the District Court, said each judge retains discretion on how to enforce rules about hats and appropriate attire in court. "The rule has been changed (in my court)," he said.

So if you ever get to wear your hat in Judge Hollenbeck's courtroom, you have ATL to thank for it (in part).

Judge apologizes for telling woman with cancer to remove hat [Tri-City Herald]

Earlier: Judge of the Day: Holly Hollenbeck

The men pictured above are not gay lov-ahs. But their relationship may be too close for comfort. On the left: Chief Justice Elliott E. Maynard, of West Virginia, and today's Judge of the Day. On the right: Don L. Blankenship, chief executive of Massey Energy. The setting: exotic Monaco.

From a piece by Adam Liptak in today's New York Times:

A justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court and a powerful coal-company executive met in Monte Carlo in the summer of 2006, sharing several meals even as the executive’s companies were appealing a $50 million jury verdict against them to the court.

A little more than a year later, the justice, Elliott E. Maynard, voted with the majority in a 3-to-2 decision in favor of the coal companies.

Insert West Virginia joke here.

Justice Maynard, who is now West Virginia’s chief justice, and Don L. Blankenship, the chief executive of Massey Energy, were “vacationing together,” according to a motion seeking Justice Maynard’s disqualification, which was filed on Monday.

A spokesman for Massey Energy disputed that characterization.

“Both Blankenship and Justice Maynard were separately vacationing in the Monte Carlo area,” said the spokesman, Jeff Gillenwater. “They were not vacationing together. They did meet occasionally for meals — lunches and dinners.”

And maybe on other occasions, too?

The motion included photographs showing the men together. The time stamps on the photographs, apparently taken by someone who had joined the men during their time together, indicated that they met on July 3, 4 and 5, 2006....

Ten of the photographs attached to the motion were filed under seal. They showed, the motion said, “two females apparently traveling with them as companions.” The men are single.

Motion Ties W. Virginia Justice to Coal Executive [New York Times]

A recent trend: judges who are touchy about courtroom attire. Last week we wrote about Judge William Sosnay, who is no fan of ascots. Now meet Judge Holly Hollenbeck:

Bev Williams of Richland wears a knitted beanie cap to cover her hairless head everywhere she goes, but not in Judge Holly Hollenbeck's courtroom.

The District Court judge told Williams, 43, to take her cap off or leave his court in the Benton County Justice Center on Friday morning.

"I was embarrassed. It made me cry," said Williams, who recently underwent six months of chemotherapy for cancer.

But Judge Holly Hollenbeck -- who's a man, by the way, so he ain't no Hollenbeck girl [FN1] -- has a rebuttal:

"I ask everybody to remove hats," he said, noting the only reason he has allowed one — once — was for a religious reason.

Hollenbeck said, "I am very understanding with people who battle with cancer. My own mother died from cancer. I've had hundreds of cancer victims come through my court, and I've never had one not remove their hat, ever."

He added, "Refusal to remove shows contempt for the court and for the judge."

So what do you think? Is Judge Hollenbeck's position reasonable? Or is this s**t bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s?

By the way, with respect to our earlier poll, almost 55 percent of you don't think an ascot is appropriate courtroom attire.

[FN1] Nor should Judge Holly A. Hollenbeck be confused with motivational speaker Holly H. Hollenbeck, author of Sex Lives of Wives: Reigniting the Passion, and proprietress of PassionSeekers.com.

Judge's strict no-hat rule upsets cancer patient [Seattle Times]

Municipal court is not exactly the pinnacle of judicial office. But we think that Colleen Hartl, until recently a (rather attractive) municipal court judge in Washington state, is still a worthy Judge of the Day. From the AP:

A Federal Way [that's a WA city name] Municipal Court judge has resigned after hosting a holiday party at which she claimed to be having an affair with a public defender who routinely appeared in her court.

Judge Colleen Hartl quit Dec. 19, less than a week after telling her guests -- including five court employees -- that she had sex with public defender Sean Cecil and displaying a text message in which he complimented how she looked in "tight jeans," Michael Morgan, the court's presiding judge, said Wednesday.

So she's proud about how good her butt looks in tight jeans. What's so wrong with that?

Even after admitting the affair at the Friday night party, Hartl showed up for work the next Monday morning and presided over several cases handled by Cecil, Morgan said. At lunchtime that day, Morgan -- who attended the party but left before Hartl's admission -- was advised of the relationship by a court staff member who witnessed the statement. Morgan suggested that Hartl not sit on any cases that afternoon, and she resigned two days later.

Judge Hartl, we like your style.

Update: More here from Federal Way News.

Federal Way judge quits; talked of affair with lawyer [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
Affair with lawyer linked to judge's resignation [Federal Way News]