Just days after the public learned a Cochise County judge was reprimanded for making insulting comments to a young father, the commission which ordered that sanction has released documents showing the same judge was reprimanded the same day for a second, unrelated ethics complaint.
As reported last week by Arizona Daily Independent, Judge John F. Kelliher, Jr. of the Cochise County Superior Court was the subject of a March 30 Reprimand Order issued by the Arizona Supreme Court’s Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC).
The reprimand in Complaint 22-430 was prompted in part by what the commissioners called “demeaning and unnecessary” comments made by Kelliher during a juvenile dependency hearing.
What was not publicly known until Monday is that the CJC also reprimanded Kelliher during the same meeting for a different complaint filed months earlier.
The second Reprimand Order stems from Complaint 22-157 in which the judge was alleged to have engaged in “childish” actions during a juvenile case hearing that were “unbecoming of a man in his position.” Those actions included making a mocking puppet-type hand gesture while an attorney for one of the parties addressed the Court by telephone.
In his response to the CJC, the judge acknowledged in January that he did make an inappropriate gesture. “I was wrong. I regret having done that,” Kelliher wrote. “I regretted doing it after I did it and I will never do such a thing in Court ever again.”
The second Reprimand Order not only calls the hand gesture “dismissive and disrespectful,” it also states Kelliher engaged in improper commentary while on the bench in the same hearing.
“These commentaries were likely deeply irritating to the participants present at the hearing and demeaned the entire proceeding,” according to the CJC. “The judge’s conduct was undignified and eroded public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the court,” in violation of court conduct rules.
Also on Monday, the CJC released previously unavailable records related to Complaint 22-430 involving a case in which the Arizona Department of Child Safety is working with two young parents to preserve their parental rights to their infant.
The woman who wrote the complaint previously worked for the Cochise County Superior Court, the Cochise County Attorney’s Office, and the Cochise County Adult Probation Office. She is also the father’s mother and had temporary custody of the child.
The records show the father’s attorney was unable to appear in person or by phone for a trial setting hearing last year. Kelliher, however, initiated various communications with the unrepresented father, including chiding the young man for his posture.
“He came to Court with an attitude and he maintained that attitude until he left,” Kelliher wrote to the CJC. “I did comment that if father did not change his attitude, he would not get his child back. The attitude he displayed is not one that demonstrates a desire to make better decisions.”
The judge added his priority was ensuring the proceeding moved forward in a timely manner so there could be an opportunity for family reunification.
“I believe the audio recording supports my contention that I was patient, kind,
understanding and attempting to motivate both parents to make better decisions,” he wrote to the CJC.
Kelliher also used his response to comment on the complainant. “Babies can’t wait,” he wrote. “Perhaps (the Complainant’s) seemingly blind hatred of me and her search to find fault with everything I do prevents her from seeing this?”
Instead, the judge noted, she “smears my good name and solid reputation.” He also noted the woman worked for a former judge at the time that judge filed a conduct complaint against Kelliher.
“That, too, was a vile and nasty attack,” the judge wrote prior to receiving the CJC’s March 30 decision.
In that decision, the Commission found Kelliher’s “commentary and treatment of the parties, particularly the father, to be disrespectful” and his conduct eroded “public confidence” in the judiciary.