Judge’s ‘Mess With Me’ Challenge Brings Ethics Complaint
An ethics complaint contends a Kansas judge lost her temper with prospective jurors in a 2004 case, ordering one dismissed juror to attend the trial anyway and asking others, “Anybody else want to mess with me?”
The complaint (PDF posted by the Wichita Eagle) contends Judge Rebecca Pilshaw of Wichita violated ethics rules requiring judges to be patient, dignified and courteous.
The Commission on Judicial Qualifications filed notice of formal proceedings against the judge on Friday, the Wichita Eagle reports. Her lawyer, Steve Joseph, said he would ask for a public hearing.
The dismissed juror had told Pilshaw she did not believe police officers could be truthful, the complaint says. After Pilshaw issued the “mess with me” comment, the next juror said her religious beliefs made it difficult for her to judge others. Pilshaw dismissed that juror, albeit reluctantly.
Pilshaw told the juror: “You’re contradicting yourself about what you’re saying, and we have had Jehovah’s witnesses that do sit on juries. I believe it’s your personal feelings that you simply don’t want to do it, not because it’s a long trial, but I believe you don’t want to do it. I’ve got quite a few people that don’t want to do it either. But you have said the magic words, so you are released from your jury service. And I feel sorry for the next person that ends up going, because I am going to hit the roof, I think.”
She apologized the next day for being “a little cranky” and permitted any jurors who felt intimidated to leave. Two accepted the offer. The defendant in the case, Dewey Gaither, was convicted of a drug-related murder.
The Kansas Supreme Court upheld Gaither’s conviction in an April opinion. The court said Pilshaw’s conduct constituted judicial misconduct, but concluded “the judge’s apology and offer to excuse prospective jurors purged the taint of the misconduct.”
