Profane Magistrate Disciplined

Stephanie Breouger reports on the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court

The Ohio Supreme Court today has suspended a long-time  magistrate accused of abusive and disrespectful conduct.

The Supreme Court ruled 4-2 to suspend Stephen E. Weithman  of Delaware for two years, stayed, for violating  professional conduct rules. Weithman served as a magistrate for more than 30 years,  most recently in the Delaware County Common Pleas Court Domestic Relations Division.

Among the charges brought by the Disciplinary Counsel, Weithman  was accused of making inappropriate comments during a contentious case of a woman  who claimed her ex-husband was in contempt of court for posting nude pictures  of her on the Internet. Weithman lost his temper during a March 2007 hearing  and went on a profanity-laced tirade. During the trial in 2008, Weithman jokingly  told the ex-husband’s lawyer he would pay him a dollar to make the ex-wife cry  on the stand. He was also accused of looking at the ex-wife in a “demeaning and  degrading fashion” in the hallway.

In another case from 2013, he used abusive, vulgar language  and yelled at a husband’s lawyer while threatening to delay the divorce.  Weithman refused to recuse himself, but was later removed from the case by the  trial court after the husband’s lawyer filed a motion challenging his  impartiality.

While the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and  Discipline, now known as the Board of Professional Conduct, recommended  Weithman be suspended for one year, with six months stayed with conditions, the  Supreme Court decided to increase the length of his suspension to two years to “best  protect the public from future misconduct at Weithman’s hand.”

“Weithman’s quick temper, his impatient, disrespectful, and  profanity-laced rants directed toward the litigants and counsel who appeared in  his courtroom, and his failure to curb displays of disrespect and excessive  familiarity exhibited by counsel who had long practiced in his courtroom have  also compromised public trust and confidence in the independence, impartiality,  and integrity of the judiciary,” the court wrote in the per curiam decision.

His suspension will be stayed as long as he doesn’t engage in any further  misconduct and that he remain in compliance with the terms of a contract with  the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program for treatment of mental health issues.

Justices Terrence O'Donnell, Sharon L. Kennedy, Judith L.  French, and William M. O'Neill joined in the majority opinion.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Justice Judith Ann  Lanzinger dissented and would have imposed the one-year suspension with six  months stayed.

Justice Paul E. Pfeifer did not participate in  the decision.

2014-0544. Disciplinary Counsel v. Weithman, Slip  Opinion No. 2015-Ohio-482.

Sampling

This is so goddamn simple. If you give the discovery and don’t do all this bullshit, I don’t have to sit here for hours and listen to this crap. So everybody’s excused.

Goddamn it. Comply with discovery and shut up once in a while. You make 17 hairline things, we’ll do 8 of them but not these 9. Stupid. All Franklin County attorneys are stupid.

And

I don’t know what it is with the Franklin County Attorneys, these Franklin County Attorneys, but they all have to have these Rule 75 hearings in every case, Rule 75 hearings all the time. I’ll give you your Rule 75 hearing but you won’t get a decision on this until the divorce is tried and I’ll continue this divorce for two more years.

The court found mitigation

His treating psychologist reports that Weithman has been forthcoming, has uncovered major triggers for his anger, and has worked hard to interrupt the pattern and correct the ways in which he shows his anger

(Mike Frisch)