Complaints get filed on them, but judges rarely are removed
Thousands of complaints have been filed against Oklahoma judges over the years but only a few ever result in a banishment from the bench.
The last time was in 2002.
How a judge can be removed — and how often it happens — has come up again this year after a sentencing in a child rape case sparked widespread outrage.
More than 90,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that Marshall County District Judge Wallace Coppedge be removed for a “dangerously lenient sentence.”
The judge sentenced a church camp cook only to probation in exchange for a guilty plea to raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl. The judge signed off on the plea deal in January at the Murray County Courthouse, where he also presides.
In Oklahoma, a special court takes up accusations against judges that are serious enough to warrant removal.
Voters in 1966 passed a constitutional amendment creating the court after a bribery scandal involving Supreme Court justices became a national embarrassment.
Since then, the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary has removed six judges for oppression in
office or other misconduct grounds, its records show.
The court has suspended and reprimanded other judges after deciding removal wasn’t warranted.
A few times, it has let judges accused of misconduct retire on medical grounds instead. One had “exhibited erratic, and occasionally bizarre, behavior” — such as eating raw hamburger from the bench — as his cancerous condition worsened.
Some years, the court has not had to hear any cases at all.
“It is a good thing,” the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s chief justice, Douglas Combs, said of the inactivity. “You don’t want the Court on the Judiciary to be impaneled very often. And if it’s never impaneled, that’s a great thing.”
Those familiar with the disciplinary process told The Oklahoman more judges don’t face removal because most complaints turn out to be groundless. Some come from criminals who blame judicial rulings for their convictions.
Also, many judges facing legitimate complaints simply quit, The Oklahoman was told. Those include the longtime Creek County judge who clandestinely used a penis pump under his robes while presiding over trials.
Sometimes, an unfit judge is just voted out of office.
“Generally speaking, the public’s ability to elect their judges ... will take care of these things,” the chief justice said.
Typically, a judge will face removal at the special court only after an investigation by the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints.
The council operates as secretly as a grand jury and does not make public the results of its investigation.
“Generally, we receive between 150 to 200 complaints a year,” the council’s new director, Taylor Henderson, said. “That varies up and down a little bit . ... I can’t really be any more specific than that.”
The council’s former director, Eric Mitts, told The Oklahoman in 2010 it gets complaints from people all across the country.
“We have gotten complaints in the past from private citizens, county officers, attorneys, judges, other public officials — there’s no restriction,” Mitts said.
The council often reports to the Supreme Court’s chief justice if it finds grounds for a judge’s removal or compulsory retirement.
The council also can report to the governor, attorney general, the state association of attorneys or the state House of Representatives. Whoever gets the council’s report must independently decide whether to ask the Court on the Judiciary to proceed. The House must do so by adopting a resolution.
The last time a removal petition was filed was in 2011 when Harper County Associate District Judge G. Wayne Olmstead was caught with 57 pornographic movies on his state computer.
Olmstead resigned instead.
The last time the Court on the Judiciary removed a judge was in 2002. It banished Doyle E. Blythe, a Pushmataha County associate district judge, for oppression in office that included holding an improper “euthanasia” hearing at a hospital and publicly endorsing a sheriff’s candidate.
Technically, the court can be asked to begin removal proceedings, even if the Council on Judicial Complaints hasn’t done an investigation yet.
Early last week, a state representative filed a resolution to start a case against Coppedge. By week’s end, Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, decided not to move forward with his resolution at this time.