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Downey, five others shuffled

Circuit court veteran Brandt Downey will move to civil court. Five other judges also will be shuffled.

By CHRIS TISCH
Published June 11, 2005

LARGO - As many in the courthouse community anticipated, Circuit Judge Brandt Downey was reassigned Friday from his criminal court bench to a civil court in Clearwater.

The move comes two months after Downey, a 17-year veteran of the criminal bench, took a sudden leave of absence that court administrators initially attributed to personal and family problems.

But Administrative Criminal Judge Dee Anna Farnell later told the St. Petersburg Times that Downey left the bench after she and Chief Judge David Demers summoned him into a meeting to discuss sexual harassment allegations and reports that Downey accessed pornography on his office computer.

Downey returned to the bench two weeks later, but has been the subject of some controversy since.

The Public Defender's Office, for instance, sent letters to all of its clients in Downey's division advising them of the allegations and asking them if they wanted to recuse the judge from their cases.

"Judge Downey is being transferred to civil because under the circumstances the transfer is best for him and best for the circuit," Demers said Friday in a statement. "It is my job to make those decisions, and that is what I have done."

Demers' spokesman, Ron Stuart, said: "The circumstances are the personal problems that he took the leave to deal with and the controversy surrounding his return to the bench."

Five other judges also were shuffled Friday. Stuart declined to say if the other moves were because of Downey's reassignment. Usually, judicial reassignments are made in January.

"Occasionally, we make changes in assignments in the middle of the calendar year, and this is one of those occasions," Demers said in his statement.

Judge Crockett Farnell will move from civil court to criminal court, where he will take over as criminal courts administrator from Dee Anna Farnell, his wife.

Dee Anna Farnell will move to Judge Lauren Laughlin's division. Laughlin will move into Downey's old division.

Judge Phil Federico, another veteran of the criminal bench, will be moved to family court in St. Petersburg, where he will take the spot currently occupied by Judge Linda Allan. Allan will take Federico's spot in criminal court.

But the reassignment of Downey, a fixture on the criminal bench for so many years, was the buzz of the courthouse. Downey has weathered controversy before, though he never has been reassigned.

In 1999, Downey dressed down a jury that acquitted a defendant, telling jurors they should have convicted the man of drug dealing. He apologized, but earned a lashing from the 2nd District Court of Appeal.

Last year, Downey made a comment to a jury during the sentencing portion of a death penalty case that resulted in a new hearing. Earlier this year, he ordered bailiffs to wrap duct tape around the mouth of an unruly murder defendant.

The appeals court also has frequently overturned Downey's rulings. In fact, they overturned two of his cases Friday and ordered new trials in both cases.

In one case, the appeals court ruled Downey allowed improper hearsay evidence admitted in a grand theft trial. In the second, the court ruled Downey allowed the prosecutor to present a surprise witness without conducting a proper hearing first.

"He seems to have more than his fair share" of reversed rulings, said Public Defender Bob Dillinger.

In 2002, the appeals court granted a new trial to a man accused of molesting a young girl after ruling that Downey improperly cleared the courtroom for the girl's testimony.

That same year, the appeals court ordered a new trial for a murder suspect because of Downey's "blatant disregard" for a higher court's instructions on how to pick a jury.

In 2001, the appeals court rebuked Downey for sending a woman to jail after she missed a court hearing in which she was a witness. The woman claimed she never received a subpoena, but Downey didn't believe her and sentenced her to four months in jail without a hearing or a lawyer. The appeals court called the case "troubling."

Just this week, court papers revealed Downey failed to notify attorneys during a murder trial this spring that a juror had passed him a note with concerns that a fellow juror was sleeping.

Dillinger, who represents that defendant, has been seeking a new trial based on accounts from audience members who claimed to have seen the juror sleeping. When a prosecutor recently asked bailiffs if they saw the juror asleep, the bailiffs revealed that the note had been passed.

Dillinger deposed those bailiffs Friday.

He also wanted to depose members of the court's information technology staff because he thought the workers could provide information about what Downey was doing on his computer during the trial - and if it could have distracted him.

But Dillinger said Friday he abandoned that plan after the bailiffs testified they didn't see Downey using the computer at his bench during the murder trial.

Still, Dillinger was pleased that Downey, who is up for re-election next year, was reassigned.

"I think it's appropriate that Judge Downey has left the criminal justice center. There's just too many distractions in a place that is this busy, and it's just in everyone's best interest at this point," Dillinger said.

Chris Tisch can be reached at 727 892-2359 or tisch@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 11, 2005, 00:25:17]