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A Times Editorial
State lawmakers are jumping the gun by beginning an impeachment inquiry against two area judges before the normal discipline process is completed.
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 16, 2001
It is premature for the state House of Representatives to be considering impeachment proceedings against Hillsborough Circuit Judge Robert Bonanno and Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Charles Cope. The Florida Supreme Court, which has the authority to remove them if it finds them guilty of misconduct or incapacity, has yet to hear either judge's case. Cope, moreover, faces a Nov. 26 misdemeanor trial in California; fundamental fairness would suggest that the House wait at least long enough to see how that comes out.
Impeachment is usually a costly and cumbersome process, which is why Florida, like every other state, has an alternative. Here, an agency known as the Judicial Qualifications Commission investigates judges who are suspected of misconduct or incapacity, tries them and recommends action to the Supreme Court. The court can discipline them with a fine or a reprimand, or it can remove them. It is not bound by a JQC recommendation and on occasion has been tougher. Since 1966, when the JQC was established, the court has removed at least 13 judges for misconduct. Others have quit while under investigation, including at least three since 1998.
The system isn't perfect, but it has worked well enough that the Legislature has been inspired to step in only once before. That was in 1975, after the JQC had been unsuccessful in seeking the removal of two Supreme Court justices. The House took over, and with the unofficial blessing of the JQC expanded the probe to include a third justice whom the JQC was investigating but had not charged. Two of the justices finally resigned; a House committee cleared the other.
There were sound reasons for the Legislature to act on that occasion: The Supreme Court obviously wasn't going to clean its own house. But nothing of the sort is evident so far in the Bonanno and Cope cases, and until it is, the House should hold back.
Though the JQC dropped the ball on Bonanno, recommending only a reprimand for a "serious lapse of judgment" in entering the office of another judge after hours, the court is also considering a grand jury report that called Bonanno "no longer fit" and said he should be removed. Last Thursday, the day before Speaker Tom Feeney ordered the impeachment inquiry, Bonanno's attorney, responding to a question from the Supreme Court, urged that the grand jury's testimony be unsealed. As for Cope, he is on paid leave of absence pending the JQC investigation and his trial in California on allegations by two women that he stole their room key and tried to enter their hotel room as they slept. It would be a waste of time and money for the JQC to conduct its own hearing before the trial in California.
It is just as uneconomical for the Legislature to be involved when it might never need to be. Considering Florida's staggering budget deficit, the House should be setting a better example.
The committee to which he handed the job is capable and responsible, but Feeney's motives are suspect. Separately, he's promoting a constitutional amendment that would make the Supreme Court and the entire judiciary subservient to the Legislature. His premature move to pre-empt the court on the Bonanno and Cope cases appears to be cut from the same pattern.