Baseball Request Lands Missouri Judge in Hot Water
A disciplinary panel is recommending a reprimand for a Missouri judge accused of initially seeking an autographed baseball as part of a misdemeanor plea deal when he was a prosecutor.
The allegations against Judge Matthew Thornhill relate to an incident about two years ago involving a defendant who apparently claimed her godfather was former football player Terry Bradshaw and that Bradshaw would sign a baseball for Thornhill, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Thornhill later said he didn’t want the baseball.
The panel said Thornhill, an associate circuit judge in St. Charles County, has a solid professional reputation and admits his conduct was stupid. The Post-Dispatch story recounts the alleged details of the case from the court documents.
The documents say the defendant’s lawyer, Brian Zink, told Thornhill about the Bradshaw connection, and also said the woman had helped a regional drug task force, the story says. Thornhill reportedly didn’t believe the baseball story, and told the lawyer he would reduce the charges to misdemeanors in a plea deal if two conditions were met. First, the drug task force had to support the reduced charges. Second, the defendant would have to provide a baseball autographed by Bradshaw.
Zink later called Thornhill to say he had the baseball, but Thornhill told him he didn’t want it. Thornhill transferred the case to an assistant when he learned the FBI was investigating. He didn’t tell his supervisors, though, until he was interviewed by the FBI, according to the story.
The FBI informed Thornhill that the signature on the proffered baseball was a forgery.
