Judge tries to get charges dropped

Judge Charles Cope is a victim of lying, politics and misconduct, an attorney for him says.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 30, 2002

A judge accused of trying to get into the hotel room of two sleeping women in California appealed Wednesday to a state judicial commission to dismiss charges against him.

An attorney for Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Charles Cope said reporters are conducting a "public lynching." He also accused the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which oversees judges, of trying to force Cope's resignation by publicly humiliating him.

Attorney Bob Merkle, in a filing with the JQC, said Cope is the victim of a lying witness, JQC politics and misconduct by JQC lawyers.

Merkle's motion said the JQC was under enormous pressure to file charges against Cope because the agency had been assailed by critics as being too lenient against judges in other cases, most notably the case of Hillsborough Judge Robert Bonanno.

"Nothing more nor less than a public and private mugging has been administered by the JQC, grateful that the media is now on its side in such a popular prosecution," Merkle said in the motion.

Merkle said JQC attorneys have admitted to him that most charges against Cope are false.

As Merkle filed his motion, Cope's second attorney, Lou Kwall, filed a motion to withdraw from the case, saying "the circumstances at hand create conflicts that prevent him from continuing to ethically serve" as Cope's co-counsel.

Kwall could not immediately be reached for comment and Merkle would not say what the conflict involved, though he denied it had anything to do with his own motion.

JQC special counsel John Mills said, "These allegations of misconduct are not only paranoid and outrageous but the vast majority of facts asserted by the judge are either directly false or highly misleading."

Merkle portrays Cope as a man unfairly slandered by prosecutors and reporters. Merkle said Cope stepped down from the bench on indefinite paid leave only after the JQC threatened to remove him without pay.

Cope denies all charges against him. He says a woman who claims he tried to enter her hotel room, where she and her mother slept, is lying. The woman also accused Cope of an earlier unwanted sexual advance.

Aside from the JQC trial, Cope faces a criminal trial in California in July on five misdemeanors, including prowling and offensive touching.

Cope also is accused of stealing the women's room key, though the hotel manager where they were staying testified that one of the women reported the key missing before Cope met them.

Merkle said Cope is a recovering alcoholic who admits having too much to drink while in California.

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