Opinion: Judge Holloway's ethical mistake

It is unfortunate that Hillsborough Circuit Judge Cynthia A. Holloway failed to display during her disciplinary trial the character that makes her case different from the other recent scandals that have plagued the Hillsborough bench. The public should not lump her ethical mistakes with those of other Hillsborough judges who have been disciplined by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission in recent years. Holloway wasn't hitting on the staff, having a courthouse affair or wheeling and dealing in back-room politics; she let her emotions influence her conduct in a friend's child custody case.

The judge should have shown remorse, apologized and got on with life. Meddling in a friend's legal dispute is improper for a judge, and Holloway should have shown reasonable concern that her public position would have some impact on the case. Her dressing down of Circuit Judge Ralph Stoddard, who presided over the matter, was enough to earn the public reprimand the JQC is seeking from the Florida Supreme Court. Yet still she fights, quibbles, equivocates.

A reprimand is small in comparison to the damage this fight is causing her reputation. Most people probably could empathize with how Holloway felt, if not what she did. On a human level, it reflects concern for people the judiciary is charged to protect. She could have sent that message, even while taking responsibility for her acts. It would have underscored the respect so many have for Holloway, and reminded the public she is no Judge Ward or Judge Bonanno. There's still time for her to make that distinction.

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