Hey “Foxy Loxy”, Are you Guarding the Hen House?

             Remember the story of how “Foxy Loxy” led “Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky”, Goosey Lucy” and all the others into his den to feed his family. Well bad things happen to us ‘chickens’ when the Fox is relied upon to guard the hen house. Here is a current example of another “Henny Penny” episode.

            On May 5^th the Arkansas Supreme Court (composed of a group of ex Circuit Court judge types) decided in a 6-1 vote to reject the recommendation of the ‘judicial disciplinary committee’ and to ONLY reprimanded Circuit Court Judge L. T. Sims. The judicial disciplinary committee had recommended that the judge be removed by a vote of 7-1 saying that he had shown evidence of “judicial bias”. Even I understand that to be a bad trait for a judge. But then I’m not on the Supreme Court.

            A little background on all this “Foxy Loxy” charade. Seems that the judge has been recommended for removal from the bench TWICE since 1997, that averages about once every 7 years.

Simes was disciplined in 2004 for appearing in his judicial robe on the cover of a CD he sold for profit. (Must not have been too popular since he was only ‘disciplined’, whatever that is).

In 2009 the Supreme Court suspended Simes without pay until the end of his term for continuing to practice law during his term as a judge. (How would you like to be the opponent in a trial where the opposing attorney is de judge?) The commission had recommended removal for this too; it didn’t happen then either.

Yet the august body known as the Supreme Court (remember that they too had been Circuit Judges like their friend Judge Simes) in this recent ruling stated, “That the Simes’ handling of the sanctions does not evidence a pattern of conduct.” Folks, he has been recommended twice for removal from the bench and disciplined FOUR times! If that isn’t a pattern of conduct, then the sky must really be falling as “Henny Penny” told “Foxy Loxy”.

In this latest ruling the Supreme Court stated the following points:

1.      Sims did violate some rules governing judicial conduct;

2.      But that he did not act “with knowledge that the act is beyond the judge’s lawful judicial power”; (Oh great, we also have an ‘ignorant of the law’ judge);

3.      “or with conscious disregard for the limits of the judges authority”. (And you and I thought that ignorance of the law was no excuse.)

4.      “Judges cannot be disciplined for merely making mistakes.” (Judicial bias is merely making a mistake? By the way, when a private firm has an employee that consistently ‘makes mistakes’ what does the firm do? Fires the bum!)

5.      “Judge Simes did not comply with the law, nor did he act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.” (Based on this alone, why is he still in office?)

6.      But on other points, the SC found that Simes committed “LEGAL errors” that he should not be disciplined for”. (Can you believe it? The SC ended a sentence with a preposition! But more to the point, a dumb judge is OK.)

If any of this sort of surprises you, a review the character and conduct of some of the Associate Justices on the SC might give you some perspective. Meantime, better hope that you don’t come up before the Helena-West Helena Court. Excellent Legal knowledge, Zero judicial bias, No ignorance of conduct limits, and complete disregard of personal gain may not be the key character traits you find behind the bench.

Hey, “Foxy Loxy” how are us little chickens doing in the Hen House? We’re counting on you to protect us!