WHEN HIS ARREST for drunkeness was made public by the media, Washtenaw County 14-A Circuit Court Judge Kirk W. Tabbey was already well on his way to having the crime adjudicated.  The judge had been charged under Michigan’s “super drunk” high blood alcohol content law, which carries more stringent penalties.

On Oct. 16 he was permitted to plead guilty to a lesser charge of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol. Judge Michael Haley of the 86th District Court sentenced Tabbey to fines. On Nov. 10, the Michigan Tenure commission recommended that the Michigan Supreme Court suspend Judge Tabbey for 90 days without pay, and the court agreed to do so shortly thereafter.

The police report from the incident has been released and it appears that while Judge Tabbey claimed he had not sought any special treatment from the arresting officer, the opposite is true. Judge Tabbey, when asked for identification, showed the officer a judge’s card, then his judge’s badge. Finally, the police report states, judge Tabbey yelled to the officer three times: “I’m a judge.”

He was a very drunk judge.

The police report states that Judge Tabbey failed field sobriety tests and had a blood alcohol level of .19 as determined by a breath test.

Like those whom he has judged since his election to the bench, Kirk Tabbey has been humiliated and humbled, if his own statements about the incident and its aftermath are to be believed.  Google has indexed and archived Tabbey’s crime and his punishment. Now, comes the hardest part of all: the public knows that Judge Tabbey did, indeed, attempt to use his position to escape punishment.

Judge Tabbey has promised to come back from his 90-day unpaid suspension a better public servant, and we have no reason to doubt his word. His goal should be to deliver the same caliber of honest, ethical public service that was delivered by the deputy who pulled over a weaving truck driven by a super-drunk driver and who paid no attention to Tabbey when he said, “I’m a judge.”