Connecticut Committee on Judicial Ethics
Informal Opinion Summaries
2014-13 (July 15, 2014)
Disclosure/Disqualification; Promoting Public Confidence; Appearance of Impropriety; Bias and Prejudice
Rules 1.2 & 2.11
Issue: May a relatively new Judicial Official,
who prior to his/her appointment served on a
municipal police department’s firearm discharge and
civilian complaint review board, (1) preside over
cases involving arrests by the department, or cases
in which officers from the department are witnesses,
and (2) preside over ex parte proceedings, including
probable cause determinations for warrants for the
department?
Additional Facts: The Judicial Official is a social
acquaintance of the municipal police chief and has
socialized with the chief and his spouse in the
recent past.
Response: Rule 1.2 of the Code of Judicial Conduct
states that a “judge shall act at all times in a
manner that promotes public confidence in the
independence, integrity, and impartiality of the
judiciary and shall avoid the appearance of
impropriety. The test for appearance of impropriety
is whether the conduct would create in reasonable
minds a perception that the judge violated this Code
or engaged in other conduct that reflects adversely
on the judge’s honesty, impartiality, temperament,
or fitness as a judge.”
Rule 2.11 states, in
relevant part, as follows:
(a) A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in any
proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might
reasonably be questioned including, but not limited
to, the following circumstances:
(1) The judge has a personal bias or prejudice
concerning a party or a party’s lawyer, or personal
knowledge of facts that are in dispute in the
proceeding.
Based on the facts presented,
including the assumption that the police chief
exercises supervisory control over all police
department cases, the Committee unanimously
determined that the Judicial Official should not
preside: (1) over cases involving arrests by the
municipal police department, or in cases in which
officers from the department are witnesses, or (2)
over ex parte proceedings, including probable cause
hearings, involving the police department, for a
reasonable period of time, which is not less than
two years from the date of the Judicial Official’s
commencement of service as a judge or the last
social contact with the police chief, whichever
occurs later. If the police chief’s last day
as head of the department occurs prior to such time,
then the two-year time period should be measured
from the commencement of the judge’s service rather
than the date of last social contact with the police
chief. After such time, the Judicial Official may
preside over such cases provided the Judicial
Official does not believe that he or she has any
personal bias (favorable or unfavorable) involving
the police department and/or the police chief.
In reaching its opinion, the Committee considered
JE 2011-20 (a Judicial Official, who has a
family member who is a sworn member of a local
police department, may preside over matters,
including but not limited to ex parte warrant
request, in which the police department or any other
officers employed by the police department was a
party or a witness, subject to certain conditions),
JE 2011-06 (a Judicial Official, who has a
personal relationship with the Attorney General,
does not have a duty to automatically disqualify
himself or herself when a member of the Attorney
General’s Office appears; however, the Judicial
Official has a duty to disclose his or her personal
relationship), New York Advisory Opinion 89-88 (a
part-time judge, who as an attorney, formerly
represented a police officer in a real estate
transaction, should disqualify himself or herself,
for as long as the judge feels that he or she cannot
be impartial, when the police officer seeks the
judge’s signature on a warrant of arrest, or when
the police officer appears as a witness in a
proceeding before the judge), and New York Advisory
Opinion 09-19 (a part-time lawyer judge who is a
practicing attorney must disqualify him/herself in
cases when a police sergeant currently represented
by the judge’s law firm is called to testify before
the judge. When other town police officers appear in
the judge’s court, the judge should disqualify
him/herself if judge learns that sergeant is
involved in a supervisory capacity.)
Committee on Judicial Ethics
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