Sleeping judges cause for alarm?
Experts weigh in on snoozing from the bench - Soderquist trial
Post-Tribune (IN)
September 27, 2015
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/1586FE1ED6561038?p=AWNB
An attorney for former Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist has argued that a federal judge violated the mayor's right to due process by allegedly falling asleep during his trial.
But legal experts disagreed about just how serious it is for a judge to nod off during a trial.
"There is no question if a judge fell asleep, that is very serious," Minneapolis Judge Kevin Burke, a past president of the American Judges Association, said.
The issue stems from Soderquist's recent public corruption trial, where a federal jury found him and his wife, Deborah Soderquist, guilty of using money from his campaign fund and the city's food pantry to pay for more than 50 gambling trips to Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Mich.
Their attorneys, Scott King and Lakeisha Murdaugh, filed a motion Tuesday for both a new trial and to disqualify U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano, claiming that Lozano fell asleep at least twice during the trial.
At one point toward the end of the trial, the government made an objection, and King responded. However, Lozano, who was looking down, did not appear to hear him. Some people in the courtroom also commented at the time about how it appeared the judge may have been sleeping.
Lozano, who is 73, was appointed to his current position in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and became a senior judge, a type of semiretirement status, in 2007, although he said at the time he planned on keeping a full workload.
In a 2013 poll by the Lake County Bar Association, lawyers gave Lozano the second-lowest marks among all federal judges in the District of Northern Indiana. His lowest mark was for temperament, where attorneys rated him a 5.83 out of 10.
He has also often talked about how he suffers from diabetes.
The judge could not be reached for comment. The motion to disqualify Lozano also said that he had already denied sleeping during the trial.
Although Burke said that he would always be considerate any time a judge fell asleep during a trial, Indiana University Law School professor Charles Geyh said it's a matter of context.
"It's never good, it's not a good idea, and it does raise ethical implications," Geyh said. "But the severity of the infraction can range from utterly trivial to pretty serious."
King said after filing the motion that judges need to be aware of what's going on during a trial so that they can properly rule when someone makes an objection, asks to admit evidence and on other issues.
Geyh said that's true and that a judge falling asleep can interfere with the due process "to the extent that the judge has gone missing," he said.
However, just as context matters for a judge deciding how to rule on issues during a trial, so too does it play a role in deciding how much a defendant is harmed if a judge nods off, Geyh said. How long a judge was asleep and what he or she might have missed all play a role.
The professor said it's not unheard of for judges to sleep during a trial, noting that trials can often last a while and lead to long days for judges. He added that judges will often rest their eyes.
"Trials are long; judges don't need to be on the edge of their seat," he said.
Burke also said that it's common for judges to close their eyes during a trial, especially if it helps them concentrate.
"It's an awkward situation because you do find people who just close their eyes and listen," he said.
However, he maintained that even though it's understandable that trials can get boring, judges still should not fall asleep.
Burke said there's not a lot of case history as far as appeals based on a sleeping judge; appeals based on sleeping jurors or attorneys are more common.
He said, however, that there are some famous cases, including U.S. District Judge Julius Hoffman, who oversaw the 1969 Chicago Seven trial of protesters during the 1968 Democratic Convention. Burke said Hoffman was later forced to retire partly because he was caught sleeping during hearings.
"That ended his career," Burke said.
Geyh said he has heard of judges falling asleep, but the ones he could think of were state capital punishment cases, where the defendant faced the death penalty.
King cited one case in his motion, U.S. vs. White, in which a judge fell asleep during the defense's opening statements. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the defendant's due process had not been violated because it wasn't during presentation of evidence, which King argues was the case during Soderquist's trial.
King has moved that security video from the trial be secured, which Lozano granted, but Geyh said it can be difficult to determine whether a judge truly was sleeping. King also has requested to view the videos; Lozano said Friday he was taking it under advisement and required federal attorneys to respond by Monday.
Burke said that in prior cases, the party has either admitted to sleeping or based a decision on testimony from others. He noted that in the case of Hoffman, video wasn't available.
Geyh added that normally when a judge is removed from a case, it's because the judge has shown he is biased. Falling asleep during a trial, however, could fall under the federal regulations for appointing a new judge, he said.
Lozano is giving federal attorneys until Oct. 28 to respond to the Soderquists' motions for a new trial and to disqualify the judge.
Experts weigh in on snoozing from the bench - Soderquist trial
Post-Tribune (IN)
September 27, 2015
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/1586FE1ED6561038?p=AWNB
An attorney for former Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist has argued that a federal judge violated the mayor's right to due process by allegedly falling asleep during his trial.
But legal experts disagreed about just how serious it is for a judge to nod off during a trial.
"There is no question if a judge fell asleep, that is very serious," Minneapolis Judge Kevin Burke, a past president of the American Judges Association, said.
The issue stems from Soderquist's recent public corruption trial, where a federal jury found him and his wife, Deborah Soderquist, guilty of using money from his campaign fund and the city's food pantry to pay for more than 50 gambling trips to Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Mich.
Their attorneys, Scott King and Lakeisha Murdaugh, filed a motion Tuesday for both a new trial and to disqualify U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano, claiming that Lozano fell asleep at least twice during the trial.
At one point toward the end of the trial, the government made an objection, and King responded. However, Lozano, who was looking down, did not appear to hear him. Some people in the courtroom also commented at the time about how it appeared the judge may have been sleeping.
Lozano, who is 73, was appointed to his current position in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and became a senior judge, a type of semiretirement status, in 2007, although he said at the time he planned on keeping a full workload.
In a 2013 poll by the Lake County Bar Association, lawyers gave Lozano the second-lowest marks among all federal judges in the District of Northern Indiana. His lowest mark was for temperament, where attorneys rated him a 5.83 out of 10.
He has also often talked about how he suffers from diabetes.
The judge could not be reached for comment. The motion to disqualify Lozano also said that he had already denied sleeping during the trial.
Although Burke said that he would always be considerate any time a judge fell asleep during a trial, Indiana University Law School professor Charles Geyh said it's a matter of context.
"It's never good, it's not a good idea, and it does raise ethical implications," Geyh said. "But the severity of the infraction can range from utterly trivial to pretty serious."
King said after filing the motion that judges need to be aware of what's going on during a trial so that they can properly rule when someone makes an objection, asks to admit evidence and on other issues.
Geyh said that's true and that a judge falling asleep can interfere with the due process "to the extent that the judge has gone missing," he said.
However, just as context matters for a judge deciding how to rule on issues during a trial, so too does it play a role in deciding how much a defendant is harmed if a judge nods off, Geyh said. How long a judge was asleep and what he or she might have missed all play a role.
The professor said it's not unheard of for judges to sleep during a trial, noting that trials can often last a while and lead to long days for judges. He added that judges will often rest their eyes.
"Trials are long; judges don't need to be on the edge of their seat," he said.
Burke also said that it's common for judges to close their eyes during a trial, especially if it helps them concentrate.
"It's an awkward situation because you do find people who just close their eyes and listen," he said.
However, he maintained that even though it's understandable that trials can get boring, judges still should not fall asleep.
Burke said there's not a lot of case history as far as appeals based on a sleeping judge; appeals based on sleeping jurors or attorneys are more common.
He said, however, that there are some famous cases, including U.S. District Judge Julius Hoffman, who oversaw the 1969 Chicago Seven trial of protesters during the 1968 Democratic Convention. Burke said Hoffman was later forced to retire partly because he was caught sleeping during hearings.
"That ended his career," Burke said.
Geyh said he has heard of judges falling asleep, but the ones he could think of were state capital punishment cases, where the defendant faced the death penalty.
King cited one case in his motion, U.S. vs. White, in which a judge fell asleep during the defense's opening statements. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the defendant's due process had not been violated because it wasn't during presentation of evidence, which King argues was the case during Soderquist's trial.
King has moved that security video from the trial be secured, which Lozano granted, but Geyh said it can be difficult to determine whether a judge truly was sleeping. King also has requested to view the videos; Lozano said Friday he was taking it under advisement and required federal attorneys to respond by Monday.
Burke said that in prior cases, the party has either admitted to sleeping or based a decision on testimony from others. He noted that in the case of Hoffman, video wasn't available.
Geyh added that normally when a judge is removed from a case, it's because the judge has shown he is biased. Falling asleep during a trial, however, could fall under the federal regulations for appointing a new judge, he said.
Lozano is giving federal attorneys until Oct. 28 to respond to the Soderquists' motions for a new trial and to disqualify the judge.
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