Report casts doubt on judge's rehab program

After his arrest, Charles Cope said he successfully completed alcohol rehab. A state agency isn't so sure.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 4, 2002

After his arrest last year in California, Pinellas-Pasco Judge Charles Cope entered an in-patient alcohol rehabilitation program.

His lawyers declared the monthlong program a success.

But a special counsel for a state agency that investigates judicial misconduct filed papers Monday that indicate otherwise.

In the filing by John Mills, special counsel for the Judicial Qualifications Commission, Mills said Cope's treatment records show his wife reported that her husband had rented a hotel room shortly after his release from treatment in September and got intoxicated.

Mills, who declined to comment Monday, said in the filing that the information, "suggests that Judge Cope's treatment was not genuinely sought and/or was unsuccessful."

Cope and his wife could not be reached for comment. But Cope's attorney, Robert Merkle, said Cope has not relapsed.

"The sole reason that (Mills) filed this is to further publicly tar Judge Cope with false hearsay statements," Merkle said. "It's outrageous. Judge Cope hasn't had a drink in months and months."

Cope was visiting Carmel, Calif., in April 2001 for a judicial conference when, according to prosecutors, he stole the hotel room key of a mother and daughter and tried to enter their room as they slept.

Prosecutors said the door's lock prevented him from entering.

Cope has admitted to the JQC that he was intoxicated when he met the women, and when police arrested him the next day. He has denied stealing the key or trying to enter the room.

The daughter, then 31, said she rebuffed an advance by Cope the night before his arrest. Cope said the pair engaged in brief, consensual foreplay.

Cope faces a criminal trial in California in July on misdemeanor charges. He faces a JQC trial June 24 for allegedly violating judicial canons. If convicted by the JQC, Cope faces removal from the bench.

He is on a paid leave until his case is resolved.

Mills' filing Monday suggests that Cope did not give officials at the alcohol treatment program the full story of his arrest.

"For example, the records indicate that his arrest in California was simply for disorderly conduct and that all he did was knock on someone's door," Mills reported to the JQC.

Mills seeks to force Cope to release the full record of his alcohol treatment, or to bar him from selectively releasing records of his treatment.

Merkle said state law prohibits the release of medical information, and he plans to seek sanctions against Mills for including medical records in the filing.

"Those records are absolutely confidential and he knows it," Merkle said.

Records of Cope's alcohol treatment do not relate to the charges he faces and should not be given to the JQC, Merkle said.

"I'm telling you this (relapse) didn't happen," Merkle said.

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