The Knuckleheads of the Day award

Today's winners are all seven members of the Florida State Supreme Court. They are Chief Justice Barbara Pariente, and Justices Charles Wells, Harry Lee Anstead, R. Fred Lewis, Peggy Quince, Raoul Cantero, and Kenneth Bell. They get today's knucklehead award for their disciplinary decision in the matter of Lee County Judge James R Adams. Adams while sitting on the bench was having a sexual relationship with a lawyer who appeared before his court. During the time they saw one another Adams ruled in five cases involving the woman who he was seeing.

This man has no business on the bench. A two-year old can see the impropriety of this. But what do these 7 knuckleheads in Tallahassee do? They will admonish Adams, but they won't remove him from the bench. What a joke, and this isn't the first time the State Supremes have done this. Click here for another example. If lawyers and judges aren't held to the same if not higher standards, our whole court system is brought into question. This seven dishonorable jurists have just caused more damage to Florida's justice system. Who is ever to believe justice will be served? I'm telling you a revolution is coming one day because of our corrupt and broken justice system.

For failing the people of the state of Florida, All seven members of the Florida State Supreme Court are today's knuckleheads of the day.

Open Post- Jo's Cafe, Bright & Early, Right Wing Nation, Cao's Blog, Mudville Gazette, Wizbang, Point Five, Stop the ACLU,

The state Supreme Court will publicly admonish Lee County Judge James R. Adams next month for his romance with a lawyer practicing before his court.

Florida's high court Thursday ordered Adams to appear June 7 for the public reprimand, but it declined to impose a stiffer punishment for granting dismissals and continuances in cases lawyer Kennetha Lynn Donahue had in his court.

''A judge who enters into a romantic relationship with a lawyer who practices before the judge, and then continues to preside over matters in which the lawyer appears as counsel, transgresses the Code of Judiciary Conduct in both letter and spirit,'' the state court wrote.

''Judge Adams failed to maintain the high standards of conduct necessary to preserve the integrity of the judiciary,'' the seven Supreme Court justices unanimously opined, ''. . . his conduct tended to create the impression that he allowed a personal relationship to influence his judgment . . . and that he would have difficulty performing his judicial duties fairly and without bias.''

Ken Kellum, court operations manager for the 20th judicial circuit that includes Lee County, said Adams planned to release a public statement sometime before his reprimand in Tallahassee next month, but would have no further comment.

''He still intends to put out a statement but hasn't issued it yet,'' Kellum said.

Donahue could not be reached for comment.

Adams admitted to state investigators that for two months in 2004 he had a romantic relationship with Donahue, and that he granted ''a considerable number'' of continuances in five cases Donahue had in his court.

In four other traffic cases Donahue handled, Adams dismissed the charges.

According to the investigative findings, Adams admits, ''he granted a number of continuances at the request of the lawyer with whom he had a romantic relationship, thereby causing his impartiality to be brought into question.''

The Supreme Court can impose much sterner punishments, including fines, suspensions or removal from the bench, but acknowledged in its order that there was no proof Adams had let his personal relationship influence the outcome of cases.

''If evidence had demonstrated that the relationship affected the disposition of any matter before the judge, we would not hesitate to impose stiffer discipline,'' the court wrote.