Miscellaneous

Power Trippin' Judge Wants You To Rub Her Corns

This bit of news is actually a few weeks old, but I just caught it. And let me just say: Woah!

Elizabeth Halverson is a judge. But the way courthouse staffers see it, she expects to be treated like a queen.

Judge Elizabeth Halverson will face hearings next month by a judicial discipline panel.

Her former bailiff, for example, says Halverson made him feel like a "houseboy." He says the judge -- who is obese and uses a motorized scooter to get around -- made him put her shoes on her feet, massage her back, cover her with a blanket for naps and make sure her oxygen tank was filled. He says she asked him, "Do you want to worship me from near or afar?"

Halverson also surrounded herself with her own hired guards, saying she did not trust the courthouse security force to protect her. Another time, she allegedly had her husband sworn in so that she could ask him under oath whether he had completed chores at home.

But despite taking naps, swearing in her husband to ask if he did the chores, and asking the bailiff to put on her shoes, after Halverson was locked out of her courtroom, she still managed to find a defender:

Jeffrey Stempel, a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said he is troubled by what appears to be an attempt to "micromanage" a judge.

"Judicial removal should generally be reserved for corruption and complete incompetence or inability to do the job," Stempel said. "One question you have to ask is, `Is this judge so bad we have to remove her before the voters have a chance to do so?'

Ummm. Yes.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on May 30, 2008 (boomark / email).