Louisville judge suspended for saying he’ll strangle lawyer by WHAS11 WHAS11.com Posted on June 7, 2013 at 11:43 PM
Updated yesterday at 12:01 AM Related:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – A Louisville judge is on the other side of the bench. Senior Judge Martin McDonald is suspended, accused of ethics violations in two cases, including one where he threatened to strangle a lawyer. It was all caught on courtroom cameras.
“If you ever call me again on my cell phone, I’ll strangle you.” Judge McDonald uttered that sentence in a Jefferson County Circuit courtroom back in Sept. 2012. It was enough for the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission to temporarily suspend him.
His attorney, Tim Dennison says it’s just because someone on the commission has a personal vendetta against McDonald.
“Judge McDonadl feels that the action was taken solely to sully the McDonald reputation,” Dennison said Friday.
The comment was made after assistant public advocate David Barron crossed an ethical line, according to Judge McDonald.
Here’s the entire comment: “If you ever call me on my cell phone, I’ll strangle you. You understand?...I’m telling you, it was unethical and improper and then you go to the Supreme Court [because] I told you we’re plowing ahead with this thing and you complain about information that you improperly obtained through your unethical, ex parte contact with the court? Now that is out of bounds.”
Dennison says a long line of judges have said similar things to a long line of lawyers in the past.
“It’s nothing new,” he said. “It happens. It’s just unfortunate that so much has been made, a mountain has been made out of a molehill.”
McDonald is now retired, making the suspension moot. But, his attorney says he’ll take the decision to the Supreme Court on principle.
