Over forty years ago, amid the historic Revolutionary estates around Boston,
Suzy M's and friends re-loaded the truck of their convertible Chevy Impala with
aromatic one ounce baggies of bud, and set off for the Woodstock Music Festival.
Five years later, M's brother would lead us to "Chalmun's Cantina" at
Miami Marina, where Suzy would be found flitting from table to table - a
maitre'd amid the young entrepreneurs of the trade. From the
caldron and fog of the evenings, the Atlantis Cartel would emerge.
Ah, the fog... the lonely lighthouse keeper, perhaps off the coast
of Maine, or Cuttyhunk, Nantucket, Block Island - maybe even City Harbor.
Ah, but first, a drink at? from the "Opera House Cup" or perhaps the
patio of a Cape Cod cottage in Greek Revival style - this reminds me about the
Greeks? Uh, the trails through our memories ... If I were talking to you -
you, the reader or perhaps your listening to the audio rendition by the donkey
in Shrek, I would diverge to describe the sparkling 'rat's nest' of connections
the trails of my memories animate when I gaze unfocused on a shadow - one
moment, scrunched bronze and naked in a pile of pillows in starboard couch of
the main salon, gliding an iridescent paint brushes across the leaf of the
banana tree and the next, all I remember was the brilliant shaft of moonlight
through a corner of the open hatch.
Stay Tuned.
And the question is: Whether Hill (Vermont Judge William C. Hill)
padded more than her paycheck? Stay tuned.
Three of the five Justices of the Vermont Supreme Court have been accused of
repeatedly violating the canons of judicial conduct.
The complaint filed Tuesday by the State Judicial Conduct Board asserted
that the Justices tampered with the operation of the court system to show
favoritism to an assistant county judge, in a pattern of cronyism that
affected criminal and civil trials.
The complaint suggests that two of the judges were friends of the
54-year-old Chittenden County Assistant Judge, Jane L. Wheel of Burlington,
and that the third had a closer relationship with her. The board cited all
four judges and alleged 25 violations of the canons of judicial conduct.
The complaint, the most far-reaching since the establishment of the board
two decades ago, grows out of allegations made public a year ago that Judge
Wheel, whose county position involves administrative duties, improperly
padded her paycheck and used $2,800 in county funds to give a party for one
of the justices, Thomas L. Hayes, also of Burlington, when he was elevated
to the Supreme Court. The other justices named are William C. Hill and
Ernest W. Gibson 3d.
The three justices and Judge Wheel have, directly or through their
attorneys, denied wrongdoing or any inappropriate relationship.
The allegations involving Vermont's highest court reach so deep into the
state's legal community that the case has already required the establishment
of a ''rump'' Supreme Court The alternate court, made up of retired justices
and lower-court judges, has had to handle subsidiary legal issues. The body
may soon be called upon to determine whether a majority of the regular court
should be suspended or reprimanded.
The court's 1987 session will begin next Tuesday, according to a court
administrator, but some cases may have to be heard by the substitutes.
Even the chairman of the Judicial Conduct Board had to excuse himself from
hearing what amount to conflict-of-interest charges because of his
friendship with one of the justices. The matter has instead been handled by
the vice chairman, Richard Mallary, a former United States Representative.
Gov. Madeleine M. Kunin, in a telephone interview, acknowledging that the
public image of the judiciary had been damaged, said, ''It's a very painful
experience,''
But she added, ''We have to keep it in perspective - these are not proven
charges.'' She appointed Justice Hayes, but the other two justices were
appointed by her predecessors.
The findings by the board are that there is ''probable cause'' to believe
that the canon of judicial conduct was violated, according to those familiar
with Vermont law, but the burden of proof still rests with the board.
Among the charges in the 25-count complaint is that after the party for him,
Justice Hayes made improper advances on a woman who was a court employee and
that when she rebuffed him Justices Hayes and Hill pressured the Chittenden
County Court Clerk to discharge the woman.
But the allegations on which much of the case is likely to rest, according
to lawyers in the case, concern the relationship between Judge Wheel and the
justices, especially Justice Hill. Employee Wanders In
One of the counts in the complaint says that in 1974 or 1975, when Judge
Hill was on the Superior Court: ''Judge Wheel was in his chambers at the
Chittenden Superior Courthouse. An employee of the Chittenden Superior Court
walked into Justice Hill's chambers without knocking. She saw Judge Wheel
standing behind Justice Hill who was seated, and she saw Judge Wheel's arms
around Justice Hill. Justice Hill became furious at the unannounced entry
and he hollered at this employee and berated her for it such that she broke
down and wept. Justice Hill saw this employee later that same day and he
scolded her yet again.''
Another count alleges: ''The closeness of his friendship with Judge Wheel
was so open that an employee of the Chittenden Superior Court phoned Justice
Hill at his home and warned him that unless he changed his way when he was
in the presence of Judge Wheel and unless Judge Wheel stopped her effusive
praise of his intelligence, superior character and good looks, it would do
serious damage to the reputation of them both.''
Judge Wheel was previously charged with six counts of ''false swearing,'' a
felony akin to perjury, regarding statements she made in an inquest into
whether she falsified pay vouchers for herself to collect a $53.30 per diem
on occasions when she had not actually done work that would entitle her to
the payments. Reference to Governor's Friends
Governor Kunin was mentioned tangentially in one of the allegations, that
Judge Wheel sought to have Justice Hayes step down from the Supreme Court
bench to hear a civil case that was on his docket before his promotion. The
case involved the break-up of a law partnership in which two of the
partners, brothers, were Judge Wheel's friends. The complaint by the
Judicial Conduct Board states that she told Justice Hayes that he owed it
''as a debt to certain rich Jewish friends of the Governor who had supported
his nomination to the Supreme Court,'' to hear the case.
