Judge Charles W. Cope says two women who accused him of misconduct in California made false reports to police.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
Published January 9, 2004
A judge who was publicly reprimanded last year by the Florida Supreme Court for his behavior with two women in California has filed suit against them.
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Charles W. Cope filed a malicious prosecution lawsuit in Monterey County, Calif., against the mother and daughter who in 2001 accused him of trying to break into their hotel room after they said he stole the key.
The daughter, Lisa Jeanes, said Cope had earlier made an unwanted sexual advance toward her on a Carmel beach. Cope denied the charges.
While the most serious charges, including those involving the alleged key theft and attempt to get into the room, were eventually dismissed, Cope pleaded no contest to a charge of public intoxication.
The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Monterey, Calif., seeks punitive and economic damages in excess of $25,000. It said Jeanes and her mother, Nina Jeanes, made false reports to police and committed acts that "were malicious, oppressive and done with conscious disregard to the rights and welfare of others."
Cope, 54, who received a year of paid leave after the allegations were brought to light, also seeks damages for lost wages and says charges against him were "terminated in his favor."
Lisa Jeanes, a Beallsville, Md., veterinarian, said she burst into tears when she learned of the lawsuit Tuesday.
"Both my mother and I are horrified," Jeanes said on Thursday. "It makes me sick to my stomach. I really thought the whole thing was over and I had moved on with my life. I'm angry. I'm horrified. Plus I'm really scared of the man."
The lawsuit was first filed in August. But Jeanes said she didn't learn of the suit until this week, when she was served with papers. Her mother has not yet been served, she said.
"I feel like it's time to get the boxing gloves on for Round Two," Jeanes said.
Cope, who presides over Family Court matters in Clearwater, and his lawyer did not return calls for comment. Nina Jeanes, a physician from Gaithersburg, Md., declined to comment.
"From what I know of the case, the lawsuit won't survive long," said John Mills, the lawyer who prosecuted Cope in Florida for the Judicial Qualifications Commission, a watchdog of judicial behavior.
"What I've said all along is that the way Judge Cope has handled the allegations against him has done much more harm to the judiciary than any of the conduct he was charged with," Mills said.
After a trial in 2002, a panel of the JQC found Cope guilty of public intoxication and inappropriate intimate contact with a woman. The panel cleared him of more serious charges.
In August, the Florida Supreme Court publicly reprimanded Cope.
Cope, a married father of three, traveled to Carmel, Calif., in April 2001 to attend a judicial conference. Nina and Lisa Jeanes were vacationing.
Cope encountered Lisa Jeanes, then 31, and her mother, then 64, outside their hotel room. Cope and the women later acknowledged being intoxicated.
Cope would testify he later went on a beach walk with Lisa Jeanes. Cope said they returned to his room and engaged in foreplay. Jeanes denied the judge's version of events, saying she ran from Cope after he tried to kiss her.
The next night at about midnight, the Jeaneses said they were awakened by Cope trying to open their door by using a key. Only the door chain prevented him from entering, they said.
California prosecutors charged Cope with prowling, petty theft, battery, aggravated trespassing and peering into an occupied dwelling, all misdemeanors.
In an August 2002 plea deal that brought Cope a $1,000 fine but no jail or probation, the charges were dropped and Cope pleaded no contest to public intoxication.
California prosecutors said they only agreed to the plea to spare Lisa Jeanes the hardship of a trial after Cope's lawyer grilled her at the JQC trial. They said they still thought Cope was guilty.
Cope is up for re-election at the end of the year. He has not yet announced whether he will run.
