State: Path to impeach always thorny

Benjamin Franklin asked the same question in 1787 that some Florida lawmakers grappled with last week as they talked about impeaching two Tampa Bay circuit judges.

"What was the practice before this,' Franklin asked during the federal convention that produced a new U.S. Constitution, "in cases where the chief magistrate rendered himself obnoxious?"

As Florida lawmakers consider this fall whether to begin impeachment proceedings against Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Charles Cope and Hillsborough Circuit Judge Robert Bonanno, they will be drawing lessons from Florida's long and colorful history of impeaching public officials.

Cope awaits a criminal trial in California next month on misdemeanor charges, accused of trying to get into the hotel room of two women who say he stole their room key.

Bonanno was caught in the chambers of another judge after hours, and the Florida Supreme Court is considering a public reprimand. A grand jury said he was "unfit" to be a judge and should be removed.

A House committee is undecided on whether to begin impeachment proceedings against them and meets Tuesday to resume discussion on the matter.

If anything, Cope and Bonanno might find a measure of consolation in that history. In the past 163 years, just one public official has been convicted by the Florida Senate after the state's House of Representatives impeached him. (Yes, all officials impeached in Florida's history have been men.)

That official, Circuit Judge Sam Smith of Lake City, had already been convicted in federal court of drug conspiracy in 1978. So it came as little surprise when the Senate voted unanimously to convict him on four articles of impeachment.

Smith's case wasn't helped by the tape recording of him and the Suwannee County sheriff discussing a plot to sell marijuana.

"God almighty, good God Almighty, 5,000 pounds," Smith's voice reverberated through the Senate chambers.

The House has mustered the necessary two-thirds vote to impeach an official just a half-dozen times since 1870, Smith's case being the latest.

Bottom line: Impeachment is a rare bird indeed.

"It's so hard to get the two-thirds vote necessary for anything in the Legislature, much less impeachment," said Frederick Karl, a former Florida Supreme Court justice who now practices law in Tampa.

Karl participated in two impeachments as a state representative in the 1950s and served as special counsel to a House committee that began impeachment proceedings against three Supreme Court justices in the mid 1970s.

"It's a bit surprising that impeachment hasn't been used more through our history," Karl said. "But people who are subject to impeachment are usually powerful political figures, so the Legislature is historically cautious about who they go after. Generally, they go after someone soft and weak, someone in disfavor politically or with the press."

To begin, relatively few officials are subject to impeachment: the governor, lieutenant governor, cabinet members and judges.

What has constituted an impeachable offense through history has varied greatly. The state's Constitution isn't very specific, saying simply that a misdemeanor in office provided proper grounds.

In short, said Karl, an impeachable offense is whatever the Legislature decides it is.

The House began the first-ever impeachment proceedings in 1870 against Circuit Judge James T. Magbee. He gave offense to lawmakers for, among other things, fining a citizen $100 for contempt after the man published an article criticizing a speech delivered by Magbee.

Magbee, who ordered the man jailed until the fine was paid, resigned and lawmakers halted proceedings against him.

The only Florida governor to be impeached was Gov. Harrison Reed, who in 1872 was charged with misapplication of public funds and receiving unlawful compensation. The Senate, however, dismissed the case because Reed's term was expiring anyway.

The first impeachment of the 20th century involved Circuit Judge George Holt in 1957. The Miami judge ran into trouble over ethics violations but was acquitted by the Senate.

Then came the impeachment of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Richard Kelly in 1963.

Accused of intimidating and embarrassing lawyers who appeared in his court, Kelly was spared when the House fell seven votes short of impeaching him.

Representatives weren't pleased when they picked up the newspaper the next day and read comments some thought arrogant and inappropriate.

One lawmaker said he overheard Kelly say, "The lawyers of Pasco County have made me walk a bed of hot coals, and I shall see that they walk their bed of hot coals in turn."

The House voted again. This time, Kelly was impeached. But the Senate later acquitted him.

Kelly was elected to the U.S. House in 1974 but was defeated six years later after his indictment in the Abscam scandal.

In 1975, Supreme Court Justices Hal Dekle and David McCain resigned while being investigated by a House impeachment committee on separate charges, including allegations both pulled strings to help friends.

McCain, accused of lobbying a lower court to overturn the bribery conviction of a political supporter, resigned the day before the House almost certainly would have impeached him.

The case, which included evidence McCain may have accepted a $10,000 bribe, ultimately got him disbarred.

All in all, impeachment proceedings in Florida have been messy and time-consuming affairs.

After Kelly's lengthy impeachment, lawmakers began talking about leaving the serious discipline of judges to another group and formed the Judicial Qualifications Commission in 1966.

"Lawmakers viewed impeachment as a very cumbersome process," said Brooke Kennerly, the JQC's executive director. "And the whole process was extraordinarily expensive."

Karl said lawmakers have traditionally used impeachment as a last resort.

"It is totally political," he said. "It can become petty. But it's a system that I think we should keep. There are safeguards, a good deal of restraint and overview that tends to weed out emotional actions."

And Karl said he agrees with Franklin, who noted the historical precursor to impeachment was assassination.

And Franklin, speaking of a head of state, said that because of assassination he was "not only deprived of his life but of the opportunity of vindicating his character."

In 163 years, one official has been convicted by the Senate after impeachment. The House considers it.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk