Rudeness, State Judges

Judge Resigns After Allegations Of Profanity-Filled Rants

"If you don't f**king like the way things are going in this f**king courtroom, then don't come back."

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angry judgeAs readers of Above the Law well know, judges don’t always act judiciously. For example, in the now-infamous “F**kman Ass” transcript, the judge is almost as bad as the defendant (or arguably worse, to the extent that we expect better from judges compared to pro se criminal defendants).

Critics of judicial disciplinary proceedings complain that judges don’t get judged harshly enough. And there’s some truth to that; judges are sometimes guilty of protecting their own, especially colleagues who are generally upstanding jurists with occasional lapses.

But sometimes judges end up leaving the bench over allegations of improper behavior. From Law360:

Facing the possibility of removal, Albany City Judge Thomas Keefe agreed earlier this month to step down and never seek a judicial position again, according to an order from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. Judge Keefe, who has been on the bench since 2003, agreed to resign after a recent removal recommendation.

According to the commission’s initial 2014 complaint, in 2013 Judge Keefe improperly jailed a woman who had appeared repeatedly in his court on misdemeanor criminal offenses with a direction not to “bug” her lawyers while behind bars.

In a later hearing, Judge Keefe told the defendant that he’d meant to discuss the possibility of her entering a drug program “except for the fact you violated my rules by calling your lawyer’s office every single day, multiple times during the day, after told you weren’t allowed to call your lawyer’s office. So, we rolled it over another week.”

That’s not even the most colorful allegation against him. Try this one on for size:

In another incident from 2012, Judge Keefe became incensed about a proffered plea deal — a defendant’s felony unlicensed operation charge was to be dropped to a misdemeanor — and hurled profanity at the district attorney handling the case.

He also repeatedly claimed that the district attorney’s office had “threatened” him into accepting plea deals, and he used profane language when talking to prosecutors, according to the complaint.

The commission also alleged that Judge Keefe repeatedly criticized the ethics of the district attorney’s office’s handling of a 2013 criminal case and berated an assistant district attorney. When the DA asked him to stop, Judge Keefe responded ‘If you don’t f****** like the way things are going in this f****** courtroom, then don’t come back.’”

There’s a good argument that judges should get more involved in plea bargaining and should stand up to prosecutors more often — see, e.g., this insightful essay by Judge Jed Rakoff — but dropping the f-bomb on an ADA is going a wee bit far.

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What does Judge Keefe’s counsel have to say about all this?

Judge Keefe’s attorney, Mark Mishler, called Judge Keefe “an extraordinarily compassionate and hard-working judge” who had at times allowed frustration with the district attorney’s office to bubble over.

The resignation “is a recognition that the work he really had a passion for in criminal court, he would not be able to do again for at least another couple of years” in the event of an unfavorable commission ruling and an appeal, Mishler said.

It’s nice to see a judge who’s willing to hold prosecutors accountable, but Judge Keefe probably could have used a little less “passion” for his work.

NY Judge Resigns Amid Charges of Profanity And Rants [Law360]
Why Innocent People Plead Guilty [New York Review of Books]

Earlier: The Best Transcript Of All Time? You Be The Judge.

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David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].

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