A Times Editorial

Questionable courthouse behavior

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 16, 2000

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Edward Ward, who sent e-mail under the name of "Lover Boy," claims he didn't intend to sexually harass women at the courthouse.

"You looked like $1,000,000 (before taxes) this a.m. when you were climbing the stairs," Ward wrote a judge's aide. He asked a female judge to "sneak" down to an Ybor City restaurant, drink a margarita "or two or three," duck out of sight and "do an exotic close dance." These e-mails were not isolated cases of poor judgment. They were part of a pattern of correspondence Ward engaged in until his female targets finally complained.

Ward faces charges from the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, which concluded he engaged in sexual harassment after kissing a judge without her consent, inviting a judge's aide into his office for beer and sending the suggestive e-mails. Ward's correspondence was an obvious abuse of the power of his office. It also was notable for the slavishness of his overtures. "I was spying on you today," he wrote, signing off as "Fast Eddie." Ward even asked if the women minded his attention.

Ward might have curbed his behavior long ago if courthouse officials had done more when complaints first arose. In August 1998, Chief Judge F. Dennis Alvarez was told Ward sent "unwelcome e-mail messages of a sexual nature." A year later, records show, Judge Vivian Maye told Alvarez that Ward had made unwelcome sexual advances to her and her assistant. That did not stop Alvarez from telling reporters last October he was unaware of "any" complaints against Judge Ward -- a contention provably false by the record thus far and one deserving the JQC's attention.

The JQC will determine whether Ward has the discretion, propriety and reserve required of those who judge others from the bench. His own e-mails provide evidence that Ward will find all but impossible to explain away. At the same time, the JQC has ample reason to investigate whether any other courthouse officials deserve punishment for having been complicit in Ward's misconduct.

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