New chief judge named for family unit

Judge Ray Ulmer will serve out the year as administrative family judge for the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit.

By ANITA KUMAR

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 28, 2001

CLEARWATER -- Judge Charles Cope, accused of trying to enter the hotel of two women while attending a judicial seminar in California, is no longer the top family judge in Pinellas and Pasco counties.

Cope resigned as the administrative family judge for the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit earlier this month, just before taking an indefinite leave of absence to enter an inpatient alcohol rehabilitation program. He served as the administrative judge in 1998 and then again for more than seven months this year.

He is expected to return to the bench in a few weeks but will no longer help run the family law division, whose 10 judges preside over divorces, child custody cases and a new program that handles all of a family's legal matters.

Chief Judge David Demers gave Cope's job to Judge Ray Ulmer, who will serve until Jan. 1, 2002, when a new judge will be appointed. Ulmer, who was appointed to the bench in 1974, served as chief judge for two years in the 1990s and lost the race for chief in February.

Cope, 52, began to seek counseling for a drinking problem after his April arrest and then entered an inpatient rehabilitation program two weeks ago, his Florida attorney, Lou Kwall, said.

Cope, a married father of three, was charged with two misdemeanors, prowling/loitering and peering into an inhabited dwelling. Carmel (Calif.) police say he tried to enter the hotel room of a 64-year-old woman and her 31-year-old daughter at 12:30 a.m. April 5.

Prosecutors offered Cope a deal, but neither they nor Cope's attorneys would reveal terms of the proposed plea. His California attorney, Tom Worthington, said he did not agree with the possible terms of probation.

Cope's case has been postponed twice as he tries to work out a deal with prosecutors. It could be resolved at the next hearing, set for next week, or set for trial if the two sides are not able to work out an agreement. The charges carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

Cope, who called the incident a "huge misunderstanding," has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys have said the judge was simply taking a walk through Carmel and that someone else tried to get into the women's room.

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