Public won’t pay legal bill for dismissed justice of the peace, panel rules
Errol Massiah, axed from post for sexual harassment, stuck with $616,000 legal tab
The public should not have to cover the hefty legal bill of a former justice of the peace fired for sexual harassment, a disciplinary panel concluded this week, saying it would be an “affront to the public confidence in the judiciary.”
A panel of the Justices of the Peace Review Council, an independent body that investigates complaints into JPs, had to decide whether it should recommend that the provincial government pay none, part or all of Errol Massiah’s $616,000 legal tab. One of his two lawyers, Jeffry House, declined to comment.
Massiah, who was appointed in 2007, was sacked in May by the government following a recommendation by the review council, which found he displayed a consistent pattern of sexual harassment at the Whitby courthouse between 2007 and 2010. Comments he made to women include telling a female prosecutor she was “looking gooood” and in another instance, leaning in behind her ear and saying “Ooh, lady in red.”
Massiah had not been serving on the bench since 2010, but continued to collect his annual $122,000 salary until he was fired this year.
The panel wrote in its decision on costs that “where there has been a finding of judicial misconduct, a recommendation for compensation does not automatically follow, and it is only in exceptional circumstances that the public purse should bear the legal costs of a judicial officer who has engaged in judicial misconduct.”
Massiah’s misconduct was serious, the panel found, and “his conduct in advancing many pre-hearing motions, which were without merit, frequently appeared to be a deliberate attempt to prolong the process.”
One of the arguments put forward by his legal team in favour of compensation was that financial security is a component of judicial independence, but the panel concluded that not recommending compensation does not violate that principle.
It also rejected the submission that “judicial immunity” gives him a “right” to be compensated.
Previous panels have sometimes recommended that the public compensate justices of the peace who have been through the disciplinary process. The government recently accepted a recommendation to cover a portion of ex-JP Santino Spadafora’s legal fees — about $15,000.
Spadafora was facing allegations of having made fraudulent expense claims, but retired — twice — before disciplinary hearings could get underway. A previous disciplinary panel suspended Massiah for 10 days without pay and ordered him to take gender-sensitivity training in 2012 for sexually harassing women at the Oshawa courthouse. One court clerk claimed he had said: “Damn girl, where did that figure come from?”
The public picked up his $123,000 legal tab from the first hearing.
Disciplinary panel rejected motion by defence, which says ‘judicial immunity’ gives Errol Massiah ‘right’ to be compensated