Suspended judge the quarry 'of people ... trying to get me'
By Chip Drago
Mobile Bay Times
Throughout much of his first year on the bench, a recently suspended Clarke County circuit judge stewed about the powers arrayed against him, including "Mobile judges and lawyers," according to testimony gathered in an investigation of his judicial conduct.
The probe of Circuit Judge Stuart C. DuBose led to a 113-page, 60-charge complaint returned last week and referred by the Judicial Inquiry Commission for trial before the
Court of the Judiciary.
Less than a month ago in the courthouse in Chatom, DuBose referred to "people who are trying to get me" and pledged "not to go gently into that good night," according to the complaint. DuBose "swore to God" and to JIC that he did not utter that statement, according to the complaint.
The judge confirmed to JIC, the complaint states, that he had told some attorneys that despite his advancing years and physical infirmities, "...if need be, if I got differences, I can stomp a mud hole in an ass and walk it dry."
DuBose has 30 days to respond to the charges. He is suspended with pay until the charges are resolved.
The matter has not yet been set for trial. Former District Attorney Tom Sorrells of Dothan will prosecute the case, serving as a supernumary prosecutor assigned by JIC.
A unanimous COJ verdict against DuBose would result in his permanent expulsion from the bench. DuBose also however has the right to demand mediation of the charges before the Judicial Inquiry Commission.
DuBose did not return calls seeking comment, nor did his attorney, Farley Moody of Calera.
The complaint reflects only the prosecution's interpretation of the evidence.
With the furies of his private practice still swarming, DuBose was sworn into office in mid-January a year ago.
Despite his victory in a notably rancorous campaign with Jackson attorney Chris Bailey for the Democratic nomination and the absence of a Republican nominee, DuBose's investiture as a judge remained in doubt because of a lingering complaint from his private practice.
The State Bar Association's disciplinary committee accepted a "conditional" guilty plea from DuBose in connection with the preparation of a will for a wealthy man he never met. The 45-day suspension of his license was scheduled to begin the day after his formal election to the judgeship -- Nov. 7 -- and end before he would actually take office. The timing of the suspension was crucial because only licensed attorneys can win election and take office as judges. Had DuBose's license to practice law been suspended on either date, his eligibility would've been in jeopardy.
DuBose's dilemma was apparently solved, but not so, said the Alabama Supreme Court which reviews all bar disciplinary actions and found that DuBose's punishment wasn't severe enough. The high court returned the issue to the bar for further review. In the interim, DuBose was sworn in as a judge, throwing into doubt the bar's standing to discipline him. The bar has jurisdiction over attorneys, but not judges.
The matter remained in limbo, but now the cloud over DuBose has shifted from his conduct as a private lawyer to his conduct as a judge.
JIC's charges go to the Court of the Judiciary which handles ethics complaints involving the state's judges.
A prickly attorney, DuBose continued to bristle as a judge, if evidence cited in the 113-page, 60-count complaint is any guide.
Among the judge's many bete noires, the complaint suggests, were Mobile attorney Pete Burns, local Circuit Judges Charlie Graddick, Jim Wood and John Lockett, Alabama Power Company, the Balch & Bingham law firm and "the sons of bitches in Montgomery."
Much of the complaint in essence boils down to accusations that DuBose used his office to protect himself politically and personally by playing favorites and through intimidation.
Highlights of the complaint include:
- The estate squabble with former client Cheryl Weaver who was represented in her complaint against DuBose by Burns and Topie Cassady of Cassady & Cassady in Fairhope/Evergreen. DuBose acted as the attorney for both the beneficiary, Weaver, and the estate itself which, perhaps predictably, led to conflict.
The suit ultimately landed on Lockett's docket. Lockett last summer, finding that DuBose violated the terms of his settlement agreement with Weaver, ordered DuBose to pay his ex-client $1.19 million and convey to her three parcels of land.
DuBose called the order "illegal and immoral." He said it must not become public or he would be ruined. He communicated with Lockett without the other parties' knowledge in an attempt to influence the court and later lied about it to the JIC, JIC charged.
Lockett on Thursday, Feb. 7 stepped aside as the judge in the estate dispute. He asked the Administrative Office of Courts to reassign the case to another judge.
- A property dispute with Alabama Power Company which was represented in the matter by Balch & Bingham's Jim Byram. Alabama Power claimed to have condemnation rights through property in Clarke County owned by DuBose.
In a filing on the case signed by the "Circuit Judge, First Judicial Circuit of Alabama," DuBose wrote:
"This is a notice to strike the filing by Balch & Bingham, LLP, the biggest law firm in the state of Alabama with over 100 lawyers and nothing else to do but spend the bill payer's money filing meaningless, frivolous, vexatious, misleading, prejudicial, irrelevant and immaterial wrong conclusions of another person, who is obviously bought and paid for by the Alabama Power Company."
Further, the judge expected difficulty in engaging a lawyer "with the guts and capability to fight a legal attempt by the Alabama Power Company to steal a poor man's land one more time."
It might be years before his schedule would accommodate a hearing on the matter, according to DuBose.
"Now, I hope that this is clear, the Alabama Power Company may run a lot of things in this state, but they do not run the First Judicial Circuit Court. ... This whole matter is frivolous, vexatious, harassing, emotionally disturbing, unnecessarily expensive and inconvenient to me ..."
Nevertheless, a hearing was set for mid-December, 2007. A controversy ensued over the transcribing of the hearing and who would and would not receive a copy of the transcript.
Following the hearing, DuBose allegedly told his court reporter Chrissy M. Dunn, "I mean it. Those son of a bitches are not to get a copy of the transcript. You go and you transcribe this thing for me, and you get it to me, and you give me all your stuff."
Dunn nervously nodded that she would, according to Count Two which continues: A few seconds passed. DuBose returned. He was sweating. His face was red. He leaned in across Dunn's desk and pointed a finger in her face. "Would you f--- with me, would you f--- with me?" said DuBose, the complaint alleges.
DuBose denied the encounter. JIC called DuBose's version "misrepresentations of fact."
Dunn then went to District Attorney Spencer B. Walker and told the prosecutor of DuBose's actions.
Later, the complaint alleges, DuBose called Dunn at home, saying "... I've checked into it. You don't have to keep it, so this is what I want you to do. I want you to transcribe just Alabama Power's witnesses. Don't worry about mine, and then bring me your stuff -- everything you have."
DuBose claimed he told Dunn he didn't want any of the hearing transcribed, the complaint states.
The next morning DuBose again called Dunn and ordered her to bring "her stuff" to his house.
The complaint continues:
Dunn called Walker again. Walker said he was about to meet with attorney Ronnie Keahey and the circuit's other judge, James T. Baxter. Dunn went to Baxter's office and while she and Walker were waiting to meet with him, DuBose called her cell phone.
She put the call on speaker mode.
Dunn expressed reluctance to part with original hearing material and asked if a copy would suffice.
"No, you bring me everything you've got, and we'll talk about all this when you get to the house."
What about the judge's directive that she transcribe it? she asked.
DuBose retorted: "Have I said anything to you about transcribing it?"
Dunn's fear of DuBose grew.
Baxter, Walker and Keahey contacted Cooper Thurber, a Mobile attorney, about representing Dunn. Thereafter, she resigned as DuBose's court reporter.
Count Three deals with a divorce case. Bobby Keahey represented the defendant/wife/mother. Robert Montgomery represented the plaintiff/husband/father. Keahey asked for a Clarke County Department of Human Resources' investigation because the plaintiff had felony charges pending in Walker County.
On June 20, 2007, DuBose entered two orders in the case: one, directing CCDHR to investigate the home and report its findings; and two, granting the father overnight visitation privileges with his child.
Allegedly, the second order was granted after DuBose spoke with Montgomery, unknown to Keahey who did receive a notice of the order granting visitation.
According to JIC, DuBose lied when he said a motion for visitation was filed. The case file contains no such motion, the complaint states.
The father was the subject of an investigation alleging sexual misconduct with a child, a CCDHR caseworker advised DuBose on June 21. Almost immediately, DuBose, after communicating privately with the governor's office and fearing media criticism, rescinded his order granting visitation, the complaint contends. He then set an emergency "fact finding review" for June 29 with DHR, and attorneys Keahey, Montgomery and Gaines McCorquodale.
In a rambling preamble at the hearing, DuBose attempted to repair the impression that the had authorized an overnight visit between a child and "an alleged sexual molester, which this court would not do. But, further, anybody can put a bunch of words on a piece of paper."
According to a record of the hearing, DuBose continued:
"It is extremely upsetting to this Court that this Court be put in a position where it is not informed of the circumstances ... until after the Court has been allowed ... to ill-advisedly or unadvisedly ... to just let a daddy have some time with his youngun, when the filed doesn't reflect anything out of the ordinary and then have DHR rushing over to the court offices -- the Governor's office was calling and being told that the Attorney General was going to be investigating this Court for intentionally and knowingly letting a child be with an accused sexual molester, with Bill O'Reilly getting on the TV at least once a week and disparaging some judge somewhere for doing the exact same thing."
DuBose said the point of the meeting was to ensure that such snafus didn't occur again.
McCorquodale apologized if DHR had done anything to create DuBose's "awkward position," but DHR, unless ordered to do so, didn't ordinarily involve itself in divorce cases when the parties were not residing together. Unless a child is residing with an alleged abuser, DHR doesn't inform the court in a divorce action of a DHR investigation.
Then, according to the record, DuBose stated in part:
"... I am doing the best job that I have done since being in this office today of being cool, calm, collected, and controlled, not mad. But, considering what I have been through, this looked like a set-up to me. This is the kind of lies that have been printed in the newspaper about me, out of context, untrue, allowing people to speculate, comment, add to, and spread vile, venom, vicious lies about me and about this Court."
He ordered DHR to amend its report to reflect that the judge didn't know about the sexual-abuse allegations when he approved visitation.
Montgomery said that he wasn't trying to "hoodwink" the court into granting visitation, that he didn't know of any on-going investigation and his client claimed to be unaware of an investigation.
Then, according to the complaint, DuBose berated Keahey for failing to represent his client. Of course, Keahey's position was that he had not known about visitation having been granted because it was accompl ished without his involvement. In making his point, Keahey noticed that Dunn wasn't transcribing his remarks. Keahey said he wanted it on the record that he couldn't tell the Court about any investigation because to do so, outside of a prohibited ex parte conversation with the Court, would've alerted the father to the investigation.
According to the complaint, DuBose said words to the effect: "You (Ms. Dunn) take your hands off the machine. Don't you write one thing he's saying. I'm running this show. This is my courtroom. We'll do it how I want to do it."
DuBose admitted telling Dunn not to transcribe Keahey's statement, but denied saying "Let's go off the record." The transcript reads: "An off-the-record discussion was held."
Keahey suggested the turmoil possibly could've been avoided if he had been involved in the Court's proceedings.
Ramifications casting himself and his court in an ill light were a "gross misrepresentation," DuBose contended.
"After the hearing on June 29, 2007, Judge DuBose told Ms. Dunn to go home, transcribe the proceeding, and then bring him her recorded materials, i.e., the transcript, her notes, tapes, etc. She complied. Subsequently, Judge DuBose called Ms. Dunn and ordered her to delete the transcript from her computer. She did not obey that order," Count Three reads.
Count Four deals with an exchange between DuBose and Mobile attorney John White in Grove Hill on Oct. 22. White and DuBose are acquainted, so during a recess the Mobile lawyer approached the judge to swap pleasantries.
DuBose told White "about his health problems allegedly caused by injuries received in a recliner accident," which was the basis of his lawsuit against La-Z-Boy.
JIC's charges continued:
"... DuBose mentioned to Mr. White that Mobile Circuit Judge James C. Wood, who presided in the La-Z-Boy litigation, allegedly 'ran off' all of Judge DuBose's attorneys in that case."
His anger mounting, DuBose allegedly told White repeatedly, "I'm tired of the Mobile judges f-----g with me."
He specifically mentioned Lockett, Wood and Graddick.
DuBose several times directed White "to go and let these judges know that I know they're meeting about me and how they got to stop f-----g with me. They better be careful because I've got eyes and ears down there."
"You know John there are a lot more lawyers from Mobile that come up here than lawyers from up here that go down there. I'm going to send a message through these lawyers that come from Mobile that the judges need to stop messing with me."
DuBose further instructed White to inform Mobile attorneys, especially those defense firms representing insurance companies, the he intended to serve on the bench for 18 years with his goal to "f--- them, every one, and get them out of business because they had f----d up his life," the complaint reads. Dunn overheard DuBose's tirade, the complaint states.
According to the complaint, Dunn recalled Burns coming in for special mention with DuBose saying he would like to tie Burns "behind his vehicle and drag him for several miles."
DuBose denied relevant parts of his conversation with White, but the JIC did not believe him.
Fact 89 in Count Four relates a charge that DuBose called Dunn at home to ask whether she had overheard his conversation with White.
Dunn said she hadn't, even though she had.
DuBose said, according to the complaint, "Well, good. If anybody comes to you and asks you if I had ever said anything bad about Mobile lawyers and Mobile judges, you tell them I most certainly have not -- that I am a good person and that as far as you know, knowing me and stuff that those people have f----d my life up, but that I have never said anything derogatory about any of them."
Count Five contends that DuBose held "probation revocation" hearings with only a probation office secretary in attendance.
Count Six alleges the following:
On Jan. 11, 2007, at the courthouse in Chatom, DuBose presided over a hearing attended by plaintiff Troy Langford, his attorneys Robert D. Keahey and Tatum Turner; defense attorney Gaines McCorquodale; and Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer.
DuBose knows Langford and they had a conversation in the breakroom before the hearing, the complaint states.
"On two occasions -- immediately before and immediately after the Langford proceeding -- Judge DuBose instructed the court reporter, Jessica H. Bell, to leave the courtroom and have the sheriff close the door. The first time, Judge DuBose took off his judicial robe while behind the bench, left the bench, and stood in front of the lawyers and Mr. Langford, all seated at their respective counsel tables. After making some comments, Judge DuBose returned to his seat behind the bench, put on his judicial robe, summoned the court reporter, and began the proceeding. At the conclusion of the proceeding, Judge DuBose again told the court reporter to leave the courtroom, he again took off his judicial robe, but this time he made his comments while remaining on the bench."
On both occasions, according to the complaint, DuBose made "threatening or intimidating" remarks intending to discourage anyone from cooperating with JIC or the state bar.
Allegedly his remarks included:
"I might be older or I may not be what I used to be, but I can still stomp a mud hole in an ass and walk it dry with the best of them.
People are trying to get me. They may get me, and they may not, but I'm going to tell you one thing. You can go up there and tell lies, but if you don't see me do it, if you don't hear me say it, don't write it down. If you're going to say or write something about me, it better be what you saw me do or what you heard me say and not what somebody told you and it better not be a G-----n lie.
The Judicial Inquiry Commission might remove me and they might not remove me, but I will not go gently into that good night and I might forgive, but I will never forget.
Tatum (Turner), you're a smart man, and y'all are all smart men. And a bunch of people are telling things, but I'm not telling nothing. I got it all up here (tapping forehead). I'm smarter than every one of y'all. That's one thing you need to know. Don't nothing go over Stuart's head. I got it all right here, and if I have to, I'll tell it.
You (McCorquodale) are from Jackson, you (Keahey) from Grove Hill and you (Turner) are (from Chatom, Keahey interjects) and when you leave out of here make sure you get it right.
Those sons of bitches in Montgomery don't have any sense; if they do, I haven't seen it yet.
I'm tired of people talking about my speeding. I like to speed and I'm G-----n sure not going to quit.
I'm tired of people talking about my cussing. From the time I was 15 until I was 21-years-old, working construction, there was no such thing as a hammer; it was a m-----f-----g hammer. And there was no such thing as a drink of water; it's a G-----n drink of water. I'm not going to quit cussing either.
DuBose threaded profanities throughout his monologues in the Langford proceeding, the complaint noted.
In his testimony before JIC, DuBose admitted saying "I'm smart and I may be broke in the neck and broke in the back and I've been broke in every way a man can be broke except spiritually and I haven't lost my faith because if you do, you never had it. But if need be, if I got differences, I can stomp a mud hole in an ass and walk it dry."
Count Seven deals with a dinner the First Circuit Bar hosted at Ezell's Catfish House in Choctaw County to welcome DuBose to the bench.
Speaking to the assembled lawyers prior to the dinner, DuBose read from a letter announcing his candidacy, stating that he intended to keep those commitments and saying further that while ethical regulations govern a judge's communications with parties appearing before the court, the lawyers there ... "I mean everyone, should know they have a friend in me in this job ..."
Using sporting contests as an analogy, DuBose told the First Circuit attorneys that in his courtroom they would hold "a homefield advantage" over attorneys from other circuits, expecially in cases where the opposing counsel was from Mobile or Birmingham and defense lawyers, the complaint states.
He told the gathering that he intended to be a good judge, not like Lockett, according to the complaint. In his testimony before JIC, DuBose denied disparaging Lockett at the dinner.
Count Eight addresses charges surrounding DuBose's efforts to win over attorneys who had publicly supported Bailey in the election.
According to the complaint, DuBose had his secretary schedule meetings with attorneys Bobby Keahey, Jacqualyn Bradley, Steven Winters, Gil Gilmore and Wylynn Gilmore Phillippi. All but Keahey had endorsed Bailey in a newspaper advertisement. The individual meetings with the lawyers followed a similar pattern with DuBose asking the lawyer to read a letter that announced his candidacy and then to sign a pledge to support DuBose's re-election in six years, the complaint asserts. Only Gilmore and Phillippi signed their pledge to back DuBose in a future election, according to the complaint.
DuBose's testimony that the meetings were held only to ask that "bygones be bygones" and "genuinely ... extending to them (his) heartfelt forgiveness for everything they had done" was a "misrepresentation of fact," the JIC charged.
The Mobile Bay Times has chronicled some of the DuBose saga in previous stories. (1, 2, 3)
To read the entire 60-charge complaint leveled against the jurist, click on this link.
