Ill. judge gets anger management time-out.

UPI ^ | 5-9-02 | UPI

[Liberty Teeth]

Ill. judge gets anger management time-out

CHICAGO, May 9 (UPI) -- A Cook County circuit judge who invited high school students to question a police officer under oath in his courtroom has been placed on indefinite leave and ordered to enter a mentoring program to temper his temper.

Judge Ronald Himel has drawn the wrath of prosecutors who accused him of being unduly biased against them.

Court officials have assigned a panel of judges to mentor Himel to improve his judicial temperament. The judge has used expletives in court and once hugged a defendant whom he had just acquitted.

"He's still a judge and he'll come back a better judge," Chief Judge Timothy Evans said. "This is about getting help to a judge who needs help and to make certain the judiciary is performing appropriately.

"He (Himel) recognized a problem does exist."

Himel, 60, had long been considered brash, but criticism of him sharply increased during the recent trial of three sheriff's officers accused of beating a jail inmate to death. Himel called prosecution witnesses unreliable and inconsistent. He frequently interrupted testimony and argued constantly with prosecutors, who sought to have him removed from the case. The request was denied and Himel acquitted the defendants.

Himel also had been criticized repeatedly by the appellate court. He was once cited for interrupting a defense attorney's closing argument 45 times. In another case, he suggested defense witnesses were "thieves" and "drug addicts."

Allan Sobel, executive vice president of the American Judicature Society, told the Chicago Tribune asking a sitting judge to take a leave of absence for further training is unprecedented.

The Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times reported Himel is under investigation by the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board for his behavior.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

[Liberty Teeth]

"The judge has used expletives in court and once hugged a defendant whom he had just acquitted."

Isn't that sweet.

[SalukiLawyer]

He frequently interrupted testimony and argued constantly with prosecutors, who sought to have him removed from the case.

I'm sure they'll send him to the judicial re-education camp and he'll come back in a few months "a better judge" that will never again exhibit "pro-defense" leanings.

[Liberty Teeth]

Do judges normally get this animated?

[another cricket]

You must have missed the first part. This was a case of the state vs the state in the form of police officers.

during the recent trial of three sheriff's officers accused of beating a jail inmate to death.Himel called prosecution witnesses unreliable and inconsistent. He frequently interrupted testimony and argued constantly with prosecutors, who sought to have him removed from the case.

Having a judge behave in this way makes it look bad to the community. I will bet you that rumors are flying about "the fix was in" on this case.

The acquitted officers will always have a cloud of suspicion hanging over their heads now, whether it is deserved or not.

a.cricket

[SalukiLawyer]

it is never state vs. state, even when defendants are police officers :-) But down here judges are much more civil.

[Rollee]

I recall reading that the deceased was arrested for a domestic violence situation, had a history of beating his wife & children, violence in general, prior arrests, was an alcoholic and had liver disease. After his arrest, he was taken to the police station and started to insult his cellmates. Three officers tried to quiet him down and he fought and insulted them as well. Some of the witnesses, who were being held for various charges at the same police station that night, recanted their testimony regarding the beating in question. There was testimony from a coroner that the bruising on the deceased's body could have been from a fight earlier in the day, or from a fight with his cellmates. The coroner also testified that the liver disease could have contributed to his death. I don't know much about the judge.

[HENRYADAMS]

Any pictures of the "Judge?"