Judge Receives Reprimand for His Comments Made on FACEBOOK

As reported at law.com’s Legal Blog Watch, North Carolina Judge recently received this reprimand by the state’s Judicial Standards Commission for posting and exchanging messages on Facebook with a Lawyer in a matter being tried before him. Here are some snippets from the article :

Opposing counsel are sitting with the judge in his chambers during a
child-custody trial when the lawyer for the husband brings up Facebook. The other lawyer says she is a
non-user, but the judge quickly agrees to "friend" the lawyer who is on
Facebook. As the trial proceeds, the judge and the lawyer comment about it to
each other through their Facebook pages, with the lawyer writing in one post, "I
have a wise Judge."

Hmmm. Wise in the ways of social networking, perhaps, but lacking something
in the judicial-ethics department. When the hearing ended and the judge entered
his order, the wife's lawyer found out about their "friendship" and quickly
moved for a new trial and for the judge's disqualification. The judge promptly
removed himself from the case and the wife got a new trial.

The socially networked North Carolina judge, B. Carlton Terry Jr., also
earned himself a public
reprimand from the state's Judicial
Standards Commission. The judge now agrees "that he will not repeat such
conduct in the future" and "will promptly read and familiarize himself with the
Code of Judicial Conduct."

Part of the Facebook exchange between the judge and the lawyer involved the
weight to be given testimony that one spouse had been unfaithful. During a
meeting in chambers the day after the Judge Terry had friended lawyer Charles A. Schieck, Terry
told the lawyers he believed the testimony but did not see that it made any
difference in deciding custody. Schieck responded, "I will have to see if I can
prove a negative."

That evening, Schieck posted on his Facebook account, "How do I prove a
negative?" Judge Terry saw it and responded that he had "two good parents to
choose from," to which Schieck posted his "wise judge" remark. The next day, the
two shared additional messages on Facebook. In one, Schieck wrote, "I hope I'm
in my last day of trial." Judge Terry responded, "You are in your last day of
trial."

All well and good, if not for that irksome little prohibition against a judge
engaging in ex parte communications
involving a matter pending before him. And that was not the only way in which
this Internet-loving judge went astray of the rules in the case. As the trial
started, he took it upon himself to conduct independent research. He Googled the
wife and found his way to her business Web site, where he viewed her photographs
and read her poems. He even read one of her poems into the record as he
announced his findings in the case. It did not seem to trouble him that none of
what he saw or read was in evidence.