by Ed Naile
Not all political fixes are that bad. Take for instance the recent deal made by Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway keeping Rochester District Court Judge Franklin Jones from being convicted for sexual assault, then in perpetuity have to waddle down to the police department every year and register as a sex offender like a regular person would.
The details of the case are absolutely fantastic in their clarity, educational value, and moral outrage building in the remaining NH hamlets that know a fix when they see one. It also shows that even after the impeachment of our former, (I love mentioning this.) disgraced Supreme Court Justice David Brock, things are back to “normal” with our judicial system.
The “facts”: In May at a state sponsored “workshop” on domestic violence up in the White Mountains where all the “experts” and fellow-travelers shared their expertise and a brew or two, old judgy-wudgy, as Curley from The Three Stooges would say, ran his paws all over the privates of some of the female attendees of the after-hours-domestic -violence-revelers-meeting in a bar called The Cave. (Does that make Judge Franklin a “Cave Man” or do his actions.) Hang on it gets better.
The women, five that we know of and all of whom worked in the sexual violence industry, were groped by His Honor right in the bar as Judge Jones “worked the crowd.” Only one came forward. How revealing.
This poses the question. Isn’t the first thing you hear from sexual violence professionals, the advice that you have to report the crime so he or (and increasingly more so now) she can’t do it to others? What gives? Are we to understand that in NH this advice only applies to anyone but a judge? Apparently the victims are not so willing to take their own advice or else they know how the justice system in our state works in reality.
If you followed the history and lifestyle of another famous judge, Judge Franklin from Newport, who stole from his law clients and traded sexual favors for light sentences and got away with it for years, this may make sense. Or if you watched the impeachment proceedings of Chief Justice Brock and saw how former Supreme Court Justice Steven Thayer tried to cherry-pick a judge to hear his own divorce appeal you may understand how anyone in the know might be reluctant to come forward. If you want a good shock take a history lesson and check out how the wives of NH judges are treated in divorces. Henry the VIII didn’t have such a deal.
On Wednesday Jan. 26, 2005 the Judicial Conduct Committee found that Judge Jones did engage in sexual assault. Here is some of the finding.
“Given the facts the committee finds that the conduct in question was egregious and without justification. Of particular concern to the committee is Judge Jones’ apparent unwillingness to acknowledge what happened was not only assault but sexual assault. The Committee finds by clear and convincing evidence that the simple assault convictions were the result of Judge Jones engaging in inappropriate and unlawful sexual contact, using the usual and customary meaning of those words. What occurred that evening is more likely than any other type of conduct to call into question the integrity of the judiciary,”
I love that last sentence. Like the secret deal cut with Jones by Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway back on September 10 to plead to only simple assault wasn’t something that smacks of a lack of integrity in the system.
Or how about the brave and bold reference by the JCC as to how Jones committed sexual assault, not just simple assault, AFTER the deal was cut by Hathaway. We all know if Jones lived in a mobile home and worked 40 a week he would have been handcuffed, perp-walked, and had his guns taken for his actions.
And while we are on the subject of judicial integrity, as soon as I can get my hands on the list of Judge Jones supporters who spoke glowingly about this letch at his first hearing, you know when it PAID to go public, not the secret Hathaway hearing, it will be posted here.