End of Horton’s time on appeals court bench is long overdue

Franklin County Court of Appeals Judge Tim Horton will be off the bench by the end of the month, and it’s about time already.

Horton’s conduct has been a discredit to the judiciary for years. In December, the Board of Professional Conduct recommended that his law license be suspended indefinitely after concluding, based on hearings while Horton was a common pleas judge, that he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct, required employees to do campaign work on county time and filed inaccurate campaign finance reports.

Horton already pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor criminal charges related to the campaign-finance allegations and served 10 days in jail in 2017.

Critics say he has remained on the bench until now only by stalling the professional board action — appealing his criminal conviction even after he had promised not to as part of his plea deal.

Bear in mind the conduct in question: sexually harassing a clerk, later bailiff, and making her work for his campaign on taxpayers’ dime; having sex with an intern in his car and inviting his buddies to fondle her at a party; plus the campaignfinance violations.

Long before the legal troubles, Horton had shown himself a lousy judge by demanding that two rape victims, one a 13-year-old child, appear in his courtroom to face the accused in their cases. When the other, a 19-year-old woman, began to break down on the stand, Horton threatened to cancel the defendant’s guilty plea if the woman couldn’t “gather (her)self” in “about two minutes.”

The Ohio Supreme Court will decide whether to suspend Horton’s law license as the conduct board recommended. Perhaps he hopes that resigning his judgeship will induce the court to go easier on his license.

What’s beyond dispute is that the bench is better off without him.

Active-duty military deserve free admission

Columbus already had lots of reasons to be proud of the National Veterans Memorial and Museum, but now it has another: For all of 2019, admission will be free to active-duty military members.

The museum at 300 W. Broad St. has been free to veterans since it opened on Oct. 31. The original plan was to give veterans only $5 off the $17 price of adult admission, but an unhappy public reaction changed that.

“Additional partners” stepped up to make possible free admission for veterans. Then last week, the museum announced that three more donors — the Ohio Department of AMVETS Service Foundation, the American Legion Department of Ohio Charities and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ohio Charities — will pay for admission and parking for current military members through the end of 2019.

All those who donated to make the museum possible deserve the community’s thanks.

Backers raised more than $82 million in donations, headed by $40.6 million from Abigail and Les Wexner. Supporters in government lobbied for and won federal recognition as a national memorial and museum.

The founding donations included money to operate the museum for its first year and start an endowment for ongoing operation, but we hope the people of Ohio, especially central Ohioans who have easy access, will support it by making donations and visiting often.

The sacrifices made by military veterans deserve our attention and support, and we hope free admission for current military members will become permanent. They’ve paid enough.