Justice Lapses Disturbingly

A recent revelation regarding the local drug court was quite disturbing.

Here’s what happened:

The Arkansas Times reported on its blog that former Circuit Judge Mary Ann Gunn bullied a defendant who asked that her appearance in local drug court not be televised. The Times also produced a transcript that makes the case.

It was precisely what people who have been critical of the practice of televising drug court proceedings had said could happen, advancing the idea that a judge might coerce a defendant’s participation.

Others among us had taken Judge Gunn at her word when she said any defendant could request that their hearings not be videotaped and that such requests would have no bearing on how defendants were treated in her court.

That’s what was so disturbing about the transcript that surfaced first in the Arkansas Times and was reported in this newspaper on Saturday. (It’s still available on the newspaper’s website at nwaonline.com.)

Published in part in the blog post and later here, the transcript shows that Gunn threatened a defendant’s termination from the program after the defendant repeatedly asked that her court appearance not be televised.

The exchange between the defendant and the judge ran contrary to Gunn’s previous assertions that there would be no repercussions from a defendant’s choosing not to participate in televised proceedings.

Gunn told a Northwest Arkansas Media reporter this week that she regretted the controversial exchange with the defendant, a woman the former judge described as a difficult defendant who went back and forth about wanting to be on TV. Gunn also indicated that this particular case was an isolated incident and that she doesn’t think she made similar comments in any other hearings.

This one is enough, however, to cause people to question what went on in other cases.

Perhaps the most telling quote from the transcript came after Gunn specifically asked the woman if she wanted to remain in the program. The defendant said she did and Gunn responded:

“OK. It will be my decision whether or not you are televised.

Now don’t you dare call ... any other organization, nonprofit organization that works with the drug court program. Don’t you call them. Don’t you talk to them.

Don’t you call Altrusa or the schools or anyone else. It is not your place.”

The defendant asked, “It’s not my right?” Gunn responded by threatening the woman’s termination from the program.

The transcript indicated the woman had called The Jones Center, which televised drug court from 2004 through 2010, to say she wasn’t supposed to be on television. She explained that her supervisor at work was upset when he saw her on TV. He knew she was in the drug court program but thought no one else needed to know.

What people should know about any court proceeding is a subject for another day. The issue today is what that one transcript revealed about Gunn and the drug court she once ran.

Note that the incident occurred in December 2009. In the time since, the defendant was allowed to stay in the program and did graduate drug court. Gunn, who first flirted with televising the actual drug court to a larger audience, ultimately resigned her judgeship to develop a nationally syndicated show that will begin airing next month.

While commercialization of drug court is disconcerting, it’s too early to comment on Gunn’s as-yet-unaired show. Maybe it will do some good. Maybe not.

But the once-televised conduct of the local drug court certainly did do some good, illustrating the effects of drug use and abuse and the difficult journey ahead for those who take that path.

Gunn was rightly hailed for her outreach efforts, but she is rightly criticized, too, for not keeping her word - even if it might have been to just one allegedly difficult defendant.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.