Judge Hinson announces resignation. And a Revelation.

Good news, bad news: It's official. According to news reports, Judge Hinson finally announced he's resigning. (Thank you, Lord!) The bad news is, he's not leaving until September 30. That's almost a year since I filed this complaint!

ASIDE: Guess I'm the last to know. I only learned about this today, after someone emailed me the story from their daughter who gets the local Prescott paper. (Thanks B. for your help and prayers! Saw your comment to the "unnamed person." ;-) )

Judging from the dateline in another story, the story broke at 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon. If the Commission called the complainant to inform me, I missed it.

There's supposed to be an official news release from the Commission on Judicial Conduct,
but they won't have it posted until Monday. (What could be so hard about posting it yesterday? Your government at work.) UPDATE: The Press Release is up. It was posted shortly after this blog post was up. Almost makes me wonder if they're reading this. Kinda scary. By the way, they end the Press Release saying the Commission is composed of three public members. What they don't tell you is that, really, we only have two public members. One of the three public slots is vacant.

So for now we'll go by what the press is reporting. Two outlets report the same thing, so it's probably accurate. (UPDATE: Yes, both outlets quoted it right.)

Excerpting,

Judge Hinson and the commission stipulated that he violated the ethical standards governing judicial behavior and that such conduct would ordinarily result in a suspension without pay. In the agreement, the commission acknowledges Judge Hinson’s acceptance of responsibility for his misconduct, his cooperation with the commission, and certain mitigating circumstances. The agreement provides for Judge Hinson’s resignation in lieu of suspension and recommends the public sanction for censure for his misconduct in office. A censure does not require a temporary suspension of judicial authority or time off the bench. The commission’s recommendation, if approved by the court, would permit the judge to continue working until his last day in office, allowing an orderly transition for the Yavapai County Superior Court.

One outlet reports he had 700 cases pending as of February. UPDATE: 700 has gotta be a typo in the Daily Courier. Maybe that's 70 cases pending?

This reminds me of a Biblical passage about Satan during the end times. But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. Revelation 12:12

We need to pray for Judge Hinson's last litigants because, like the devil, he knows his time is short. Who is to restrain him, now that he knows it's over? What's to keep him from ruling vindictively if he knows he can't be punished more? (But this isn't over yet... )

Compare this with usual private sector practice. When they fire you, you're out that day. They don't want you messing things up more.

Look, if that's really 700 cases, a quick calculation shows that Judge Hinson would have to resolve three cases per day until the end of September to close everything out. I don't see how that can be done with Justice, let alone without Justice. One hopes he doesn't start flipping a coin. Even if it's 70 cases since February, that's one case every three days that have to be settled. Grounds for appeal if you can show lack of due process.

I'll have more to say in future posts about this complaint and whether Justice has been done. First, I need quiet time to give thanks, catch my breath and gather my thoughts. (And our sister blog, Collateral Damage which is following Hinson's boss, presiding Judge Brutinel, in his quest to become a Supreme Court Justice, needs to catch up in the meantime.)

So please keep coming back for a while (or subscribe to be notified of updates) especially you attorneys outside Yavapai county. If you attorneys think I've done a good thing here, I could use some pro bono help going Federal to fight some evil forces in Prescott that have arrayed against me for this. You can have the money. I just want Justice.