P.D. Lesko

TWO OF THE three judges who serve in the 14-A District Court were involved in judicial tenure review complaints. By now, if you don’t know the Judge Cedric Simpson and Judge Kirk Tabbey stories, you’re missing out on some seriously excellent opportunities to pontificate. The comment sections over at MLive are full of anonymous pundits ready to pass sentence on both the men. Judge Simpson, who intends to defend himself vigorously—or so he told the Associated Press when they came calling—stands accused of interfering with a drunken driving arrest of his intern. While he told investigators he and the intern interacted during work hours and in groups, those pesky judicial tenure investigators turned up 10,000 text messages and phone calls between Simpson and his intern during a four month period in 2013. But enough about Judge Simpson. He will, no doubt, be a bad news buffet for the remainder of the time he fights the charges against him in an effort to retain his seat on the bench.

Let’s move to the next courtroom, the one occupied by Chief Judge Kirk W. Tabbey. Judge Tabbey, charged with drunken driving. Tabbey recently received a 90 day suspension without pay from the state’s Judicial Tenure Commission. That amounts to a fine of more than $35,000, more than 25 times the fine assessed, on average, by Judge Tabbey in the drunk driving cases he heard in 2013, according to the Drunk Driving Audit published by the State of Michigan.

Furthermore, unlike Judge Simpson, Tabbey confessed to the Judicial Tenure Review Commission. He turned himself in. The investigators mentioned this in their findings. What they said, basically, is while we appreciate Judge Tabbey’s honesty, he was merely doing what he is expected to do. Ok. Judges are held to high standards; they should be. However, that Kirk Tabbey self-reported his own drunk driving conviction says something about him. It also sends the message to the community he serves that he doesn’t hold himself to standards any different than those he practices in his courtroom.

Maybe Judge Tabbey has $35,000 sitting saved up in his sock drawer and the fine (three months without pay) imposed on him won’t cause him any undue financial burden. However, I don’t know many working people who could lose three months of their annual paychecks and not feel it.

That this comes on the heels of the allegations of judicial ineptitude in the county’s Circuit Court chronicled in The Ann magazine last summer and the allegations that Probate Judge Julia Owdziej  ran a campaign that prompted public allegations that she broke the law and stretched the truth to win, is perhaps indicative of a wider problem.

Four of the county’s six races for judge were contests in which the incumbents were unopposed. In Wayne and Oakland Counties, incumbent judges were opposed in primary and general elections. While local lawyers say they fear retaliation and retribution from sitting judges who are forced to run opposed, this should give pause to both the judges as well as the public.

Is it that local attorneys are cowards and local judges vindictive bullies? Is it Good Ole Boy (and Girl) politics where people go along to get along? Either way, the public loses.

Judge Tabbey should not have been driving drunk. Let’s get real: he was hauling a boat trailer. Did he operate a boat while drunk? The bottom line is that he reported himself and a record of his poor judgement is, like those whom he judges, now filed away for posterity. Telling the truth in this instance could not have been easy, but while setting an exceedingly poor example, Judge Tabbey also set a good example. Let’s hope he runs opposed next time.