Robed chums can share his track record of insolence
By HOWARD TROXLER
Published January 14, 2004
Our state Constitution has given judges and the judicial branch the power to police themselves. But for whatever reason, Charles W. Cope Jr., a circuit judge in Pinellas County, survives.
He has survived two alcohol-related arrests. Along the way he has blamed police, prosecutors and women who had the bad luck to cross his path on a California beach.
In his frenzy to save himself the last time, he tried to trash the women who accused him, even demanding that the daughter testify under oath about her sexual history.
All of this was justified because the woman was, in Cope's word, "a rattlesnake."
See, everything that happens to Cope is somebody else's fault.
He reached a plea-bargain in California for public intoxication for his exploits out there. That bit of business cost the taxpayers a year's leave of absence for him, with pay. But he breezily called it a "convenience" plea and denied that he had a problem.
The Florida Supreme Court let him off with a reprimand. The chief justice solemnly told Cope that he had "gone astray."
But you know, Cope got to keep the robe. He claimed exoneration. He even asked the state to pay his legal bills.
You would think that by now the man would be on his knees, thankful to be (1) still living off the public's dime, (2) still eligible for a pension and (3) not a convicted criminal.
A little humility goes a long way. The public has an exceptional capacity for forgiveness.
But, no. Now we learn that last August, even while waiting to be reprimanded, he sued the mother and daughter whom he encountered on that beach in California. The suit is pending.
There is a weird denial in the man's soul. I would never speak so harshly of a private human being in that way. As a fellow human being, Charles Cope deserves our love and support and wishes for healing.
But as a judge, he is claiming the right to be paid with the public's money, and the power to wield power over other citizens, while refusing time and again to assume the mantle of character that goes with the job.
It is important to point out that Charles Cope has not gotten where he is by himself. He has had plenty of help from his colleagues. Now they look away and hope he simply won't run for re-election this year.
The current and previous chief judges of the circuit, David Demers and Susan Schaeffer, are Cope's enablers. They have coddled him, at times kept his secrets. The rest of the judges elected Demers and Schaeffer.
In that sense, every judge who sits on the bench shares the blame as long as Charles Cope sits on the bench with them uncontrite.
So do the justices of the Florida Supreme Court. That is their boy, staggering around on the beach drunk. That is their precious Florida judiciary, stumbling down the street.
* * *
To quote Popeye: Well, blow me down. House Speaker Johnnie Byrd last week declared that he wasn't so sure, after all, it was such a great idea to pass the law that jacked up everybody's telephone bill. Byrd said now he is in "deep research mode."
This is just a dumb citizen speaking, but gosh, shouldn't he have been in "deep research mode" during, you know, the LEGISLATIVE SESSION?
One of two things is true:
(1) Byrd is a little slow in figuring out what everybody in the state tried to tell him last spring, and which he might have learned had he allowed the House actually to hear from opponents, instead of just ramming through whatever the telephone lobbyists wrote.
(2) Or Byrd has suddenly realized, in sort of dim, amoeba-reacting-to-light fashion, that you can't consistently rob and hurt 16-million people on behalf of corporations, and then expect them to elect you to the U.S. Senate.
I suppose there is a third possibility, which is that he just needs more campaign contributions, and has decided to shake down the previous suspects all over again. In that case, this sudden "good-guy" strategy is sheer genius.
Maybe next Byrd will threaten to protect the environment, regulate growth, allow citizens to sue businesses that hurt them, and improve public education in Florida. Man, would that get the corporate money flowing!
