Luzerne County Judge Called Abusive

This is a story I've been following over at Gort 42's excellent blog covering the Wilkes-Barre, northeastern PA area.  County Judge Ann Lokuta is on trial before the Court of Judicial Discipline over complaints about her conduct.  There's nothing like seeing an arrogant, abusive Judge go on trial for their overblown egos and inexcusable conduct.  I know a few others who could qualify for similar review.

Former employees for the Judge testified about her behavior at work and one even revealed she was required to baby sit for Lokuta's mother on County time.  Tales about assigning impossible work deadlines, abusive insults and criticism when those deadlines weren't met and accusations of insubordination when the employees attempted to defend themselves against baseless criticism permeated the hearing.  Susan Weber testified:

"If you tried to defend yourself, you were insubordinate and you would get screamed at for that.  The abuse was so intense and relentless and persistent," she said. "I felt that I had to let somebody know what was going on."

I'm so glad to see an abusive Judge getting her due.

Comments

[Gort]

Thanks for the plug John but I haven't been on top this story as much as our colleague David Yonki who is doing the play by play on the trial.

http://lulacpoliticaletter.blogspot.com/

[John Morgan]

Thanks for the link for our readers. Mr. Yonki writes great stuff. LuLac refers to Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties for the uninitiated.

[Melissa]

"I'm so glad to see an abusive Judge getting her due."

You should be glad to see it, especially considering the statistics put out by the Judicial Conduct Board showing how rare formal charges are.

According to their 2006 Annual Report, they've received nearly 3,000 complaints in the past 5 years. In that same time period, formal charges were filed in the Court of Judicial Discipline in only 23 cases.

You can view the full report here:
http://www.judicialconductboardofpa.org/AnnualReport2006.pdf

[John Morgan]

That doesn't surprise me Melissa. Most of these self regulatory boards are simply there to whitewash there own black sheep. They rarely actually discipline anyone.

[Melissa]

We should probably note that, to date, she's not actually been found guilty of anything...at least not to my knowledge.

I agree that such boards engage in damage control much moreso than consumer protection as they should. They make examples of a rare few in order to appear legit to the public, and they can also neatly dispose of their 'nonconformists', too.