Justices remove Maggio, end his paid suspension

Mike Maggio 140713
Mike Maggio 140713

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Michael Maggio removed from his judicial office immediately, ending the state salary he has been paid despite not being allowed to handle a single case since late March.

The high court had stripped Maggio, 53, of all of his cases on March 24 until further notice because, it said, "the orderly administration of justice has been severely compromised" in his 20th Judicial Circuit courtroom.

"From that time forward, Judge Maggio has nonetheless received compensation as a judge, while others have performed the functions of his office," the Supreme Court wrote in its three-page order Thursday. "Consequently, we deem any further suspension with pay to be inappropriate. Instead, the court concludes that immediate removal is the just and proper sanction for the judge's conduct."

As a judge in the 20th Judicial Circuit since 2000, Maggio was making $138,981.96 a year.

Thursday's decision followed a series of setbacks for Maggio, who is under federal investigation over contributions made to his former appeals court campaign by political action committees heavily financed by nursing-home owner Michael Morton of Fort Smith.

Morton's checks written to the committees were dated July 8, 2013, the day Maggio heard a plea to reduce a Faulkner County jury's judgment against one of Morton's nursing homes. Three days later, Maggio reduced the $5.2 million judgment to $1 million in the case, a negligence lawsuit resulting from the 2008 death of nursing home patient Martha Bull, 76.

In March, the Supreme Court relieved Maggio of all cases after he admitted to making a wide range of contentious online comments about women, sex, race, divorce, bestiality and a legally confidential adoption case involving actress Charlize Theron.

In June, the Arkansas Ethics Commission fined him $750 for accepting campaign contributions above state limits.

Then in August, the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission recommended to the Supreme Court that Maggio be suspended with pay for the rest of his term, which would have expired at year's end, and then never be allowed to serve as a judge in Arkansas again.

The Supreme Court rejected the suspension-with-pay recommendation but agreed that Maggio should never again hold a judicial post in the state.

"Obviously, today's action by the Arkansas Supreme Court is disappointing," Lauren White Hamilton, Maggio's attorney, said in an email.

"We thought the negotiated settlement agreement was fair and just. The parties worked very hard in reviewing the evidence and based on the evidence, the parties entered into an agreement that the [Judicial] Commission approved unanimously " she added. "We thank the [judicial commission] and its members for its effort in this matter and thank the people of the 20th Judicial District for their support."

Thomas Buchanan, the attorney representing two of Bull's daughters, praised the Supreme Court's decision.

"I think the court's decision today helps ensure an independent judiciary and that the judiciary will use the discretion and the trust that the public places in the judiciary more appropriately," Buchanan said.

"This is one of the things that I wanted to happen," Buchanan said. "I wanted him to be out of office, and basically it's the best of all worlds. It wasn't his decision."

"I can't imagine that anyone would think that it's right to draw a [state] paycheck for doing nothing," Buchanan added.

David Sachar, the judicial commission's executive director, said his agency respects the authority of the Supreme Court, which he said "chose to exercise its exclusive power to immediately remove Judge Maggio."

"We are glad they agreed with our findings and conclusions, and that the final result was that he is banned from ever being a judge again," Sachar said.

Supreme Court spokesman Stephanie Harris said that because there now is a vacancy in the 20th Judicial Circuit, the governor can appoint someone to succeed Maggio until his term would have expired at the end of the year.

Gov. Mike Beebe's spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor's office has "been working on that in case we got the decision we got today."

"We hope to have someone announced soon," DeCample said. "We're well aware of the need to get someone on the bench for the last months of the year."

In June, the Faulkner County Quorum Court urged the Supreme Court to appoint a temporary judge to help with the backlog of cases because of Maggio's absence.

The Quorum Court was hoping to reduce the workload on Circuit Judge Charles "Ed" Clawson Jr. and his staff. Clawson has taken on Maggio's cases in the circuit, which includes Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties.

Faulkner County Justice of the Peace Frank Shaw said the Quorum Court was going to take the matter up again at its meeting next week even before Thursday's ruling.

"We intended to ask the Supreme Court again for some help up here," he said.

Two names that have been mentioned for appointment consideration for Maggio's 2nd Division post are Conway City Attorney Michael Murphy, who was elected judge in the 5th Division of the circuit court and who takes office in January, and Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Troy Braswell, who was elected to the 2nd Division and who also takes office in January.

Braswell said he wants to help but it's his understanding that he cannot be elected to a judicial division to which he has been appointed. He said he also hasn't been asked to take the job.

Judges sometimes are appointed to one division and then get elected to another division in the same circuit, but not to the same division.

Murphy, who would not face the same problem as Braswell, said he would be interested as long as he would not cause problems by leaving the city attorney's job a few months early. He, too, said he hasn't heard from the governor's office.

Murphy said there's "such a backlog" in the courts that in his spare time, "I've already started setting our calendar" for hearings with cases that need scheduling.

"Obviously, it's up to the governor," Murphy said. But he added, "I hope it gets filled because the other judges are certainly in a crunch, and they need some help."

Murphy said he thought Chuck Clawson, the deputy city attorney and son of Judge Clawson who is unopposed in his bid to become city attorney in January, could go ahead and start serving as city attorney without a problem. Unlike a circuit judge, Murphy said, he thought a city attorney could be appointed and then elected to succeed himself.

Conway Mayor Tab Townsell said that if Murphy gets the judicial appointment, "We could simply appoint somebody, and that would more than likely be Chuck."

Townsell said he thought that would be legal but added, "If it happens, we'll get with the Municipal League and check."

In late December 2000, then-Gov. Mike Huckabee appointed Maggio, then a Conway lawyer, to be a circuit judge in the 20th Circuit.

According to online records kept by the Supreme Court clerk's office, Maggio was still an "active" attorney in Arkansas as of Thursday, said Stark Ligon, director of the Office of Professional Conduct, which has disciplinary authority over lawyers in the state.

State Desk on 09/12/2014

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