Judge cleared in plagiarism case
Accused of cribbing part of a research paper, Gregory Holder calls the JQC decision "an affirmation of our system of justice."
By MIKE BRASSFIELD
Published June 23, 2005
TAMPA - Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder said late Wednesday that he had been cleared of plagiarism charges by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission.
"I am just absolutely exhilarated having received this news this evening," Holder said in a 10:30 p.m. phone interview. "I am extremely thankful for faith, family and friends that have sustained me throughout this 21/2-year ordeal."
Holder, then an Air Force reservist, was accused of cribbing portions of a research paper by a fellow reservist, E. David Hoard, and submitting it for a course at MacDill Air Force Base in 1998.
"I think this result is an affirmation of our system of justice. The system worked," said Holder, adding that the six-member JQC panel had acquitted him of all charges. "The six men heard the evidence and decided the issues fairly and justly."
His case drew intense interest in the Tampa legal community and beyond because it was the 10-year circuit judge who blew the whistle on several fellow circuit judges in 2000, spurring JQC investigations that led to resignations by several judges. The plagiarism allegations had the effect of turning the tables on a judge with a squeaky clean reputation.
Wednesday's decision came earlier than expected; the JQC panel had said a week ago that it would likely take at least two weeks to decide if the plagiarism allegations against Holder were true.
"This is a very complex case," the panel's chairman, Judge John P. Kuder, said last week. "It's been very arduously tried. The panel has a lot of evidence to consider."
If found guilty, Holder could have been reprimanded or removed from the bench.
His attorney, David Weinstein, told WTVT-Ch.13 in an interview Wednesday that the JQC said in its ruling that evidence in the plagiarism case was conflicting and that memories of long-ago events were unclear.
"It's the decision we expected," Weinstein said.
Weinstein also said Holder had likely been targeted with false allegations because of his reputation as a whistle-blower in the Tampa courthouse.
Holder "took risks, standing up for what he believes in," Weinstein said.
Weinstein had made this a cornerstone of his final argument in Holder's trial last week before a packed courtroom.
Weinstein said the evidence in the case against Holder proved "overwhelmingly" that the cribbed paper that Holder allegedly wrote was not the paper he actually wrote.
"Not one witness has sat on the witness stand and told you that the purported Holder paper was the one that was received by the Air Force in 1998," Weinstein said.
Weinstein said it was more likely that the paper was fabricated by an enemy of the judge. Holder has repeatedly pointed to his participation in a federal probe of courthouse corruption as the key reason behind the plagiarism allegations.
Holder said he acted as a cooperating witness from September 2001 to May 2002 in an FBI-led investigation of the Hillsborough courthouse.
JQC special counsel Charles Pillans rejected Holder's conspiracy theory during his final arguments.
Pillans also raised doubts about a theory that federal prosecutor Jeffrey Del Fuoco fabricated the research paper found under his office door in 2002.
He called "fantastic" defense attorneys' contention that Del Fuoco passed the purported Holder paper onto the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Air Force in order to damage Holder's credibility as a participant in the corruption inquiry.
"There's never been any suggestion of any motive for Mr. Del Fuoco to participate in a conspiracy," Pillans said. "The theory that the paper is a fabrication or the product of a conspiracy is sheer speculation," he added.
Staff writers Graham Brink and Brian White contributed to this report, which includes information from Times files.