Tampabay: Agency files charges against judge

The state agency that oversees judges filed six charges against Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Charles Cope stemming from his April arrest in California, including that he lied to police.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission accuses Cope of trying to enter the hotel room of a mother and daughter with a room key he took from them while attending a judicial seminar in Carmel, Calif.

He is charged with public intoxication, theft, prowling and inappropriate conduct of an intimate nature for propositioning the daughter. Most of the allegations mirror the five misdemeanor charges filed against him by California prosecutors.

"By your own admission, you were so intoxicated that you could not remember what you did or where you went," according to the JQC's complaint. "The inappropriate nature was exacerbated by the fact that your conduct occurred while attending an out-of-state judicial conference at taxpayers' expense."

Cope, the former administrative family judge in Pinellas and Pasco counties, has declined to say much since his arrest. On Friday, he referred questions to his attorneys.

"There's a lot more to be said," Cope said, "and I'm not in position to say it right now."

The commission also charged Cope with lying to Carmel police about where he had been when he was stopped on a street, and with returning to the bench after the seminar without telling anyone he had been arrested until after it was reported in the St. Petersburg Times in July. Upon his return, he asked for nearly $1,500 in reimbursements for the trip.

"Your arrest and the surrounding circumstances might have led a reasonable litigant appearing before you to question your impartiality and your ability to serve as a judge," the charges state.

Cope, 52, a married father of three, began a paid leave of absence in August so he could enter inpatient alcohol rehabilitation. He completed the program, covered by state health insurance, but has yet to return to work.

Attorney Bob Merkle, a friend who will assist in Cope's defense in both cases, said the judge was not interviewed by JQC investigators but has passed a lie detector test.

The charges state that Cope only told former Chief Judge Susan Schaeffer about the arrest when she asked him and "did not disclose or agree for anyone else to disclose" the arrest to the commission until it became public.

Cope's attorneys have previously said Cope reported himself to the commission, as he did in 1996 after a drunken driving arrest, but they would not confirm that Friday.

Though it's unclear whether judicial canons require a judge to report an arrest to the commission, they do require that a judge who knows the "substantial likelihood exists that another judge has committed a violation shall take appropriate action."

Schaeffer and her successor, Judge David Demers, could not be reached for comment.

In July, Schaeffer told the Times that Cope informed her of the arrest not long after it happened and that she told Demers, when he took over as chief July 1, generally that Cope had a problem but without mentioning a criminal charge.

The commission's decision to file charges against Cope this week means that at least five members of its investigative panel determined probable cause exists that he violated the Code of Judicial Conduct.

Cope has 20 days to file a response, and then the two sides will begin collecting documents and interviewing witnesses in preparation for a trial.

"I'm not looking to work out a deal," Merkle said. "I'm looking to exonerate him."

The commission proceedings likely would take months and would not occur before Cope's criminal trial in California in late February.

Brooke Kennerly, executive director of the commission, declined to comment on the specifics of the charges Friday but said the outcome of the criminal trial will have no impact on the case.

If Cope were to be found not guilty of the misdemeanors, the commission still could find that he violated judicial canons, Kennerly said. Furthermore, a conviction on a misdemeanor charge is not automatic grounds for a judge's discipline, she said.

The commission makes recommendations to the Florida Supreme Court about whether a judge should be privately or publicly reprimanded, suspended or even removed from office depending on the violation. Or the agency could do nothing.

Cope, who has sought counseling for problem drinking before, was charged with drunken driving in Naples in 1996 after police stopped him for erratic driving. The charge was later dismissed.

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