Federal judge in Akron disciplined
A controversial AKRON — Akron federal judge has been disciplined by a federal oversight committee and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
The committee, however, stopped short of ordering that U.S. District Judge John Adams be assigned no new cases for two years and have his current cases reassigned, steps recommended earlier during the investigation into Adams’ alleged misconduct.
The U.S. Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference released a 40-page opinion Monday that dealt Adams both a blow and a boon in a four-year, behind-the-scenes ordeal for the federal judge known for ruffling feathers, including a bout with former longtime Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic.
In a brief phone call Wednesday afternoon, a defiant Adams said he won’t step down from the bench.
“This case isn’t about my mental health,” he said. “It is about my efforts to improve court administration.”
The dispute began with a scheduling issue between Adams and a magistrate, but also encompassed Adams’ strained relationship with many of his colleagues that dates back to 2008 and his refusal to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, according to the federal committee’s opinion.
Adams directed further questions Wednesday to Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based group that has been helping him fight the disciplinary case.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a written statement Wednesday that his group and Adams “are considering challenging this flawed decision in federal court.” Judicial Watch is a conservative group that has sued Republican and Democratic presidents alike and is widely known for the lawsuits and public record requests it filed for documents related to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Adams, a former Summit County Common Pleas Court judge and assistant Summit County prosecutor, was appointed to U.S. District Court in Akron in 2003 by President George W. Bush. He has handled several prominent cases, including Akron’s federal environmental lawsuit involving its sewer system.
The trouble began with an order Adams issued in February 2013 to a magistrate who had missed a scheduling deadline in a Social Security case that the magistrate “show cause” for the delay or be held in contempt or sanctioned in another way. The magistrate learned about Adams’ order, issued on a Friday, the following day and spent the weekend finding an attorney and drafting Adams his required explanation.
Adams accepted the magistrate’s explanation the following Monday, but his fellow Northern District judges were concerned about how he handled the matter. The judges sent Adams a letter asking him to vacate the order, which he refused.
Four district judges filed a complaint of judicial misconduct against Adams on Feb. 15, 2013. The complaint claimed that Adams’ order to the magistrate, combined with other disruptive behavior toward his fellow judges, was “conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts.” Adams denied the claims, according to the conduct committee’s opinion.
Adams’ relationship with his colleagues soured in 2008 when the court didn’t select his candidate for a vacant magistrate position. After that, Adams “has repeatedly expressed hostility and contempt toward the court’s magistrate judges, attempted to undermine his colleagues’ administration of the court’s business, and withdrawn from his colleagues,” according to the committee’s opinion.
Among the claims outlined in the opinion: Adams refused to communicate with magistrates since 2008, requiring them to go through his staff. He complained to a judicial committee about the court’s spending decisions. And he stopped attending court events and administrative functions, besides occasionally taking part by phone.
A special committee appointed to investigate the complaint expanded its probe in May 2014 to include whether Adams may be “suffering from an emotional or mental disability.” The committee requested that Adams submit to a psychiatric evaluation. He refused.
After the special committee submitted its report, the Judicial Council ordered that Adams be publicly reprimanded for the magistrate’s order, undergo a psychiatric evaluation, have no new cases assigned to him for two years and his current cases transferred to other judges, have his actions monitored by the special committee for two years, and voluntarily retire if he continued to refuse a psychiatric evaluation.
Federal judges are appointed for life under the U.S. Constitution and can only be removed through impeachment by Congress.
Adams challenged the council’s decision, prompting the opinion released this week by the Committee on Judicial Conduct.
This committee agreed that Adams was guilty of misconduct, should be publicly reprimanded and should undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The committee, however, vacated the previous order that Adams not be assigned new cases and that his current cases be transferred.
The Cleveland WASHINGTON — Clinic is cutting another tie to President Donald Trump, canceling plans to hold its 2018 Florida fundraising gala at the Trumpowned Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.
“After careful consideration, Cleveland Clinic has decided that it will not hold a Florida fundraiser at Mara-Lago in 2018,” the hospital system said in a statement. “We thank the staff of Mara-Lago for their service over the years.”
The Clinic and its CEO, Toby Cosgrove, had taken criticism for continuing to hold the annual event there.
The exit follows a decision by Cosgrove and top executives of some of the nation’s leading corporations on Wednesday to disband a business advisory council that reported to the president. They said Trump’s recent comments on last weekend’s violence in Virginia by neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan supporters were inappropriate and didn’t represent the values for which they and their organizations stood.
Cosgrove said the controversy has become a distraction, adding that “intolerance, racism and violence have absolutely no place in this country.”
A 32-year-old Charlottesville woman was killed Saturday when a Maumee, Ohio, man with reported Nazi sympathies allegedly plowed his car into a crowded street in the Virginia university town. This occurred during clashes involving white supremacists, shouting racist and antisemitic slurs and holding signs with symbols representing bigotry and hate. They were in Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee.
Although Trump read a statement Monday denouncing bigotry, racism and antisemitism, he told reporters Tuesday there was “blame on both sides” because counter-protesters, some with clubs, were intent on creating conflict. He also said there were “some very fine people on both sides” who just wanted to present their respective views in the controversy over keeping or removing statues of Confederate War heroes.
Corporate leaders, numerous members of Congress and many Americans say Trump is showing a gross and inappropriate sense of moral equivalency.
The Nazis, who killed 6 million Jews in World War II, and Ku Klux Klan, who lynched black Americans throughout the South and whose members still want to maintain racial segregation, embodied evil, and no thoughtful American should stand with them or equivocate about “both sides,” the Trump critics say.
The criticism has built throughout the week, creating public anxiety about Trump’s judgment barely seven months into his presidency. Some of his supporters, however, say he has been misunderstood or was merely inartful in presenting his understanding of the Charlottesville events. White separatist and nationalist leaders have gone further and praised Trump, with former KKK leader David Duke thanking Trump for his “honesty and courage.”
The Cleveland Clinic system, which has a hospital in Broward County, Florida, was under public pressure to move its February fundraiser long before this week. The Mar-a-Lago controversy erupted soon after Trump took office in January and signed an executive order to temporarily ban people from Syria and other Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
This affected medical students and young doctors doing residencies at American hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic. A petition drive and peaceful protests in Cleveland would not dissuade the Clinic because, officials there said, it had a binding contract with Trump’s club for the 2017 event. That event wound up raising about $1 million for the Clinic’s Florida hospital.
The Clinic then said it would consider moving its annual Florida gala to another location in 2018, but later said it decided to continue using the Trump Club because a committee that included donors preferred Mar-a-lago to any alternatives. The hospital stood out in this regard, since several other charitable and medical organizations that have hosted events there had decided to go elsewhere in 2018.
Trump’s strong support for dismantling the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, appeared to factor into those decisions. Trump says the nation will be better off if Obamacare “implodes,” citing high premiums for Americans whose incomes are too high to qualify for subsidies.