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The Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge has previously sought counseling for problem drinking.
By ANITA KUMAR and WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 17, 2001
Judge Charles Cope entered an in-patient alcohol rehabilitation program this week after being charged with peeping and prowling -- his second run-in with the law while police say he was under the influence of alcohol.
Cope, a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge who has previously sought counseling for problem drinking, will not attend a hearing today in a California courtroom to resolve the two misdemeanor charges brought against him for allegedly trying to enter the hotel of two women while in Carmel, Calif., to attend a judicial seminar. "He's taking a step to deal with any problems he has," said Lou Kwall, Cope's Florida attorney. "If we as lawyers and judges can't accept (alcoholism) as an illness, who can? We see it every day."
Prosecutors offered Cope a deal, but his California attorney, Tom Worthington, said Thursday that he did not agree with the possible terms of probation if Cope pleaded guilty. The case could be resolved today or be set for trial if a judge is not able to work out an agreement between the two sides.
Whatever happens in Cope's case today, the Florida agency that handles judicial discipline will be watching.
The Judicial Qualifications Commission could recommend to the state's highest court that he be reprimanded or even removed from office. Or the JQC could do nothing. There are no hard-and-fast rules, even if a judge has been convicted of a crime.
"A conviction would probably result in some sort of discipline," executive director Brooke Kennerly said in general terms, not about Cope. "There's no magic formula. It depends on the . . . circumstances, whether the judge lied to defend his actions."
Since 1970, the Florida Supreme Court has removed 14 judges for misconduct in office that included sexual harassment, shoplifting and misusing a state credit card. But in the last five years, just one has been disciplined after being charged with a crime. Others resigned before that could happen.
Cope reported himself to the commission in 1996 after a DUI arrest in Naples. He did the same after the April arrest.
The top family judge in Pinellas and Pasco counties, Cope was elected a circuit judge in 1992 after an unusually controversial race and has handled criminal, family and civil cases.
He presided over the murder trial of a deaf man. He declared unconstitutional a fee for reclaimed water charged by Pinellas County. And he granted a celebrity divorce to a model and a baseball player.
Cope, 52, a married father of three, entered a rehabilitation program Monday and is expected to be there for several weeks, Kwall said. He described the treatment as a followup to other counseling Cope had sought recently -- though not as an in-patient.
That's important information for the JQC because its recommendation is affected by how judges react to allegations against them. For example, Kennerly said, a judge with an alcohol problem who seeks recovery through treatment may not even get a public reprimand.
"The commission is really trying to save good judges and protect the public from bad ones," she said. "If there's a good-faith effort on the part of the judge to correct something . . . then the JQC is sometimes more willing to give a judge a second chance and work with them."
Cope was elected to the bench in 1992 after two campaigns filled with accusations about his hiding his past, collecting donations from lawyers and accepting a controversial endorsement. He is now in the midst of a second six-year term.
He has the reputation for being tough on defendants, requiring child molesters to post warning signs on their front doors. He has been recognized by area lawyers for his abilities.
Now, he is a judge with two arrests on his record.
Both times, police accused him of intoxication. Both times, he said it was a misunderstanding. Both times, he was attending judicial conferences.
Like other judges, Cope is required to complete a certain amount of training. But unlike other judges, he usually does not ask for reimbursements, though he did ask for nearly $1,500 for his California trip.
Pinellas County sheriff's deputies have been called to Cope's Palm Harbor house or to assist his family 13 times in the past dozen years, including times he said he needed protection from people who had appeared in his courtroom.
Just last year, his son called deputies when he returned home at 1:30 a.m. and found his father missing without leaving a note, reports show. The front door was unlocked and the lights and TV were on, reports say. His son called area hospitals and his father's cell phone but could not find him, reports say. Later, a deputy reached Cope on his cell phone and the judge told him he was fine and on his way home.
Cope was first arrested in Naples in 1996 after police stopped him for erratic driving. The charge was later dismissed and the JQC did not publicly discipline him.
The April arrest came after police say he took two women's room key without their knowledge and then used it to try to open their locked door. The room's chain prevented him from entering, police said.
The case was postponed until today to give Cope time to consider the prosecutor's offer. In California, a judge cannot withhold a finding of guilt in a case, Worthington said. Cope could plead guilty or no contest -- both of which would appear as a conviction on his record.
If Cope doesn't accept a deal, his case will be set for trial. The charges carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail.
It's difficult to predict what, if anything, the JQC would do to a judge with a run-in with the law.
That's because so few similar cases have occurred locally and, more importantly, because much of what the JQC does is outside the public eye.
"They can do whatever they damn well please," Tampa attorney Norman Cannella Sr. said. "They can take action irrespective of whether or not someone is charged with a crime."
Sometimes, Cannella said, it doesn't even matter whether a judge is convicted. Take the case of Miami-Dade County Judge Reginald Richardson.
The Florida Supreme Court publicly reprimanded Richardson last year after a jury found him not guilty of soliciting sex from an undercover police officer. But he was punished for trying to use his position to influence arresting officers.
Former County Judge James L. Berfield, the only other judge in recent Pinellas history to be charged with a crime, resigned before the JQC could hold a trial in his case.
Berfield was convicted by a jury in 1997 of official misconduct and two counts of perjury for lying on a financial disclosure form. He received probation.
The commission can recommend privately or publicly reprimanding, suspending or removing a judge depending on the violation. Crimes of dishonesty are generally treated more harshly by the JQC than those that involve other transgressions, especially alcohol-related offenses.
"Perhaps a judge is seen drinking, and now he's going to (counseling); the commission is willing to privately monitor that conduct and try to help the judge," Kennerly said.