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Judge won't face misconduct charges over bias complaints(South Florida Sun-Sentinel (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 16--Broward Circuit Judge Eileen O'Connor will not face judicial misconduct charges in connection with accusations she failed to disclose two employee discrimination complaints when she applied to become a judge in 2003, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has learned. The state watchdog agency that monitors judges, the Judicial Qualifications Commission, voted at its Aug. 24 meeting to dismiss a complaint against O'Connor. Sources who spoke last year to the Sun-Sentinel on condition of anonymity said the complaints were brought by attorneys -- one Jewish and one black -- when O'Connor was a supervisor in the civil division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Fort Lauderdale. In June 2005, the Fort Lauderdale branch of the NAACP asked the commission to investigate those allegations after a controversy erupted about O'Connor sentencing a potential juror, Stacey Forbes, to jail because of allegations he lied about prior arrests. Forbes is black. Complaints to the commission are supposed to be confidential and are not made a public record unless it decides to file charges. However, sources familiar with the investigation said Friday the allegations against O'Connor had been dismissed. O'Connor could not be reached for comment and is prohibited from discussing the matter by the rules governing judges, her attorney Michael Tein said. As her attorney, Tein said he also was unable to confirm or deny any commission investigation of O'Connor. Tein said that after the allegations were made public by the NAACP, he thoroughly investigated them and found no merit to them. He said he got a copy of O'Connor's entire personnel file from the Department of Justice and it contained no reference to any complaint against the judge and no settlements of any kind with any aggrieved employee. "As we've said from the beginning, there has been no basis whatsoever to these charges," Tein said. William Gelin, Forbes' attorney, could not be reached for comment, despite phone calls Friday evening. However, Gelin posted the following on the Justice Advocacy Association of Broward blog (jaablog.jaablaw.com): "Eileen O'Connor cleared in JQC investigation. Unbelievable but true," he wrote. Fort Lauderdale's NAACP president, Marsha Ellison, answered her cell phone, but she was attending a sporting event and was unable to hear questions being posed to her. Efforts to reach state commission officials were unsuccessful. When her organization filed its complaint, Ellison said she was concerned by O'Connor's actions in the Forbes case. O'Connor sentenced Forbes to four months in jail last year for failing to reveal he had been arrested, a decision that provoked allegations of racism and double standards in the judicial system. Earlier this year, the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach backed the judge and upheld Forbes' conviction for criminal contempt of court. The appellate judges ruled that because the jail sentence was within the legal limits, they could not overturn it. However, they said it was "harsh under the circumstances" and suggested the judge could reduce the sentence. Forbes has since been sentenced, by Broward Circuit Judge Michael Kaplan, to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to burglary and attempted burglary in an unrelated case. In March 2005, O'Connor found Forbes guilty of contempt for failing to disclose during jury selection that he had prior arrests. One arrest happened two weeks before he reported for jury duty. He served 30 days of the jail term before O'Connor released him on bond in April 2005 while he appealed. Forbes told the judge he wasn't trying to hide his background, but he had problems reading a jury questionnaire. Paula McMahon can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4533. Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |