Senior judge reprimanded for Facebook posts about his trials
A senior judge in Minnesota was reprimanded Friday for posting on Facebook about trials he was overseeing.
The reprimand (PDF) issued by the Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards said the posts by Judge Edward Bearse cast doubt on his impartiality and violated rules requiring jurists to be “dignified and courteous with litigants” and refrain from putting personal interests above the duties of the judicial role. At least one mistrial resulted from the judge’s posts.
However, the board also said Bearse was remorseful and hadn’t been familiar with privacy settings on the social media site, reports the Associated Press.
He said he had thought his Facebook posts were available only to some 80 friends, family and church members, but in fact they were public, the board notes. As Bearse now realizes, he should not even have shared the posts within that limited group.
The judge didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, the AP article says.
