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By Bill Altreuter

One more for the Perils of an Elected Judiciary file. According to the Buffalo News "Joseph G. Makowski is expected to resign his seat as a State Supreme Court justice?possibly in the next few days? amid a state judicial investigation and a potential grand jury probe of written claims he made trying to clear a friend in a drunken-driving case". The manner in which soon-to-be Mr. Makowski has been brought low is characteristic of his style on the bench. I have seldom encountered a more arrogant, imperious judge, and it figures that he appears to have reckoned that he wouldn't get called out for throwing his weight around. As a judge this cat has made a career out of making lawyer's lives miserable, and although the local judicial administration had taken steps to reign him in somewhat there is only so much that can be done short of taking the guy off the bench altogether. Now it seems like his own hubris has accomplished that, and with any luck he'll be disbarred and darken our glamor profession no further. Talk about your fairy tale endings.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).