Subject: King County Superior Court Judge Jim Bates Should ResignDate: Sun, 06 Feb 2000 19:38:16 -0800
From: Doug Schafer <d_schafer@bigfoot.com>
To: "Editor (ltrs to), Seattle P-I" <editpage@seattle-pi.com>,
"Editor, Seattle Times: Ltr to" <opinion@seatimes.com>
CC: "Editor Dave Seago, Tacoma News Tribune" <sds@p.tribnet.com>,
"Eymann, Dick" <rceymann@fgej.com>,
"Isaki, Lucy P." <lucyi@atg.wa.gov>,
"Ferrell, Wendy K. (OAC's Judicial News)"
<Wendy.Ferrell@courts.wa.gov>,
"Dallaire, Gregory" <gdallaire@gsblaw.com>,
"Ramerman, Judge Dale" <dale.ramerman@metrokc.gov>To the Editors:
The "Honorable" King County Superior Court Judge James W. Bates, Jr. should do the honorable thing of resigning. The Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC) last Friday accepted his stipulation to a 1-month suspension for his sexually decadent courthouse behavior, largely to spare the victims and witnesses the ordeal of a public hearing.
In 1998, the CJC had recommended a 4-month suspension for the "Honorable" Pierce County Superior Court Judge Grant Anderson for having secretly accepted a Cadillac, but higher authority (the State Supreme Court) wisely booted him from office 17 months later. In Judge Bates' case, I expect that higher authority will act more swiftly, in the form of a boot by the voters next fall. I guarantee that he will not run unopposed for his judicial office. I further guarantee that if he seeks re-election, I will ensure that the details exposed by the Seattle Times in its reports published on October 27 and 28, 1998, will be graphically before the voters. It will be an ugly and dirty campaign, because his conduct was ugly and dirty and unbecoming of a judge. I don't think the voters need or even want more evidence of the judicial unfitness than what was reported about Judge Bates. If he is "honorable," he will resign promptly to allow the governor to appoint a qualified person to fill his remaining term and seek re-election as an incumbent.
Judge Bates' written PR spin (for public relations, not professional responsibility) on the CJC stipulation is that the "alleged" misconduct was 9 to 19 years ago and was acceptable behavior for judges at that time. Over the past decade, he says, he's learned to separate his personal life from his life in court (mentioning his "two beautiful children" to show what he's learned), and has worked hard as a responsible judge "never realizing there had been a problem."
Judge Bates has a poor memory. The Seattle Times articles from Oct. 27 and 28, 1998, report that Judge Bates then had for weeks repeatedly denied knowing that a case manager in 1991 had complained about his lewd courthouse comments to her. But, after Presiding Judge Bobbe Bridge issued a statement on Oct. 26, 1998, confirming that in 1991 Judges Charles Johnson and Anne Ellington had taken seriously that employee's complaints, and the former had met with Judge Bates about them, Judge Bates' memory was remarkably refreshed. The next day, he issued a statement admitting that he had met in late 1991 with Presiding Judge Johnson about that case manager's complaints, saying, "I took the matter to heart. I apologized to the clerk and believed the matter was resolved 7 years ago." But now, in Feb. 2000, he claims that he never even realized there had been a problem.
He also may never have realized that another judge began in 1991 moving sex-crime trials away from him when possible. Perhaps he'll honestly tell us how many autopsy photographs of female homicide victims he's handled since 1991, but I doubt that he will. I submit that Judge Bates needs more than just self-examination and reflection, as his statement claims he has engaged in as a result of "these allegations." He needs professional help. And we don't need him as a judge. He can become a rent-a-judge (arbitrator) for those who choose him.
Nearly as troubling to me as Judge Bates' behavior is the fact that several judges knew of his "problem" well before the victims complained to the CJC in 1998, but chose not to report him to appropriate authorities. This cover-up happened only a few years after King County Superior Court Judge Gary Little had been exposed in 1988 for his long-standing pedophilia problem, that had long been covered up by judges and lawyers. The well-publicized 1989 Chicago Bar's report following the FBI's Operation Greylord that netted convictions of 18 corrupt judges laid considerable blame for the corruption upon the "Conspiracy of Silence" that pervades the lawyer-judge fraternity. Until lawyers and judges begin reporting misconduct by their peers, such judge and lawyer scandals will periodically erupt (though many that should, will not), and they will not deserve or get the respect and support from the public that they desire. It is time for mandatory reporting of lawyer and judicial misconduct.
Douglas A. Schafer, Idealistic Lawyer
Tacoma, Washington
http://members.aa.net/~schafer/ [webnote: now http://www.DougSchafer.com]
Office: 253-383-2167