Norfolk Circuit Court judge Chuck Griffith failed to be certified and will not be re-appointed to his seat. The Virginian Pilot has an article on this today.
Once again, the behind-the-scenes maneuvering on the judgeships has been, shall we say, interesting to watch. In this case, getting Griffith through the Senate was an impossibility, despite last ditch efforts to make it happen. I understand that the Senate courts committee took up his name again on Saturday, but he failed to gain approval. Further, the political fallout from this situation is likely to be with us for a few years.
The process of selecting judges (note to the Pilot: judges in Virginia are not elected) by the General Assembly is one that I really wish was more open. It’s worse than watching sausage being made – and I’ve seen sausage being made. We all know that the selection of judges is a political process, but this year seems to be worse than in prior years. At least one complaint has been filed in the course of this process, with more likely to follow. Shrouded in secrecy, the selection process results in the elevation of judges with little experience and the elimination of those who make the mistake of angering the wrong people. Lost in the shuffle, as always, are the people.
We deserve better.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
how would you open up the process? from all appearances Griffith was a bad judge. my understanding is that he was not truthful with the committee concerning a lawyer he had jailed for a few hours. it is my understanding that he denied such a thing ever happened. but again how would you open up the process?
Judges are elected, just not by the people. They are elected by the General Assembly.
And their nomination process is about as much of a mess as the primaries! 🙂
NGC – I’ve heard that Griffith was a bad judge as well. The point that I was trying to make in the last paragraph is that if the system were more open, he might not have ever made it to the judgeship in the first place. When I say “more open,” I’m thinking in terms of having the applicants’ names available to the public, having a panel (like the JIRC) comprised of lawyers, judges and citizens review and interview the applicants, having the votes on them be public. I went hunting for the vote on Griffith from Saturday night and never found it anywhere.
Anon. – judges are appointed by the GA, not elected by the GA. The Pilot article (probably written by one of the come-heres who came from a state where they do elect them) is wrong to use that terminology.
AEM – yep.
Griffith was overturned by both the State Supreme Court and the Appeals Court. In the case of the Supreme Court, they ruled he had shown “extreme bias.” Ask any attorney who has clerked or been involved with the Supreme Court and they will tell you — showing bias is THE cardinal sin and is a great way to get your ticket punched out as a judge. Griffith was overturned TWICE, and word has it he is about to get overturned a THIRD time — highly unusual.
Added to that is that Griffith earned a reputation as a judge who tended to prosecute from the bench, which is wrong. That is why you have Commonwealth Attorneys. The judge’s job is to be impartial and see that both sides do their jobs and ensure fairness — not be a prosecutor.
He sent an 11 page letter to the GA and it showed no regrets or remorse whatsoever — just blaming everyone else for his problems. He truly thought that he had made no mistakes.
The REAL problem is: in both the letter AND his testimony last week, he denied ever jailing any attorneys. Ken Stolle, who had finangled a hearing for Griffith, looked into those specific incidents and found the hand written arrest warrants, signed by Griffith. He was PO’ed, to say the least.
He spoke to the Senate Courts of Justice Committee and said: “Judge Griffith misrepresented himself to me and to this committee.” I don’t think anyone needs a thesaurus to know what that means, and it will get you chopped down in a second with the Courts committee.
Griffith had a chance to make his case and couldn’t do it. He then fudged the story to try and save his meat and got caught. Chuck Griffith tied the noose that hung him.
Hanged.
Meat Loaf,
Can you point to anything on the web where I can get the source for your quotes and other information? I probably missed an important article or something.
Dave – that’s the secrecy I mentioned. All of what Meat Loaf has posted is what I’ve heard, too. But I can’t locate anything on the web. And the Pilot has done a rather poor job of covering this topic. They have the resources to dig into this stuff.
Working in the G.A. it was all I could do just to stay in the loop as to what was going on. I even sat and talked with a lot of different players after I realized something smelled bad about this whole process.
I don’t have an opinion either way as to what actually transpired. However, I would like to see more openness in our government. All the way around, not just in subcommittee meetings. We’ve got a long way to go in Virginia.