On July 6, 2017, the Michigan Supreme Court ("MSC") sanctioned judge Gregg Iddings with a six-month suspension (that is, unpaid and undisturbed vacations) for sexually harassing his secretary in the course of three years. This is one of the rare instances where the Judicial Tenure Commission ("JTC") reacts to judicial misconduct, and it is even rarer from the standpoint that the MSC increased the suggested sanction as opposed to reducing or eliminating it: Let's not forget the Michigan Supreme Court's gross leniency toward furious judge Gorcyca's jailing of three innocent kids.
When describing Mr. Iddings's misconduct, the Michigan Supreme Court refers to his victim/secretary as "Ms. [*****]". See In Re Iddings, 897 N.W.2d 169 (2017):
(side comment: the court's label of essentially Ms. Five Stars is bad taste and a poor choice when addressing a judge's uncontrollable showings of sexual attraction to her)
Although several men are falsely accused (and even falsely prosecuted) for sexual harassment, according to In Re Iddings, respondent Iddings himself "stipulated to [the] findings of fact and conclusions of law". Also, it was Mr. Iddings who reported himself with the JTC, but apparently only after the EEO ruled in favor of the secretary. Mr. Iddings must have calculated that the publicity and repercussions of his misconduct would be lower if he reported himself with the JTC.
I will minimize neither judge Iddings's harassment of his secretary nor his nonsense in the subsequent mea culpa. But his self-denouncement at the JTC inevitably elicits a comparison with felon Carol Kuhnke (another Michigan judge). I just cannot picture felon Kuhnke denouncing herself at the JTC for any of the following:
- her illegal possession of narcotics (see, for instance, the last page of this police report);
- her chain of inept decisions leading to the tragic overdose of her adopted son; or
- her vexatious insistence to continue presiding Washtenaw County case 16-870-FH (where the police who busted her is a witness in that case) and which she keeps delaying and rescheduling two years later.
Rather than felon Kuhnke, it was the special prosecutor who reported Kuhnke's narcotics felony (and only that misconduct) to the negligent Judicial Tenure Commission.
Judge Iddings's six-month suspension became effective July 5, 2017. This means that he must have been back on January 5, 2018, or shortly thereafter. By January 19, 2018, he had already filed for re-election, thereby showcasing judges' addiction to power.
On or around October 24, 2018, few days prior to the November elections, judge Kuhnke could not dissimulate her love of "anybody who's powerful" (her words on the bench, not mine, at a hearing in 2016) when she publicly endorsed judge & school buddy Gregg Iddings for re-election.
Notice this felon's need to remind us that she is a "judge", as if the five-letter word sufficed to legitimize someone's nefarious preferences. Or was it Mr. Iddings who added the judge prefix? Feel free to ask him via facebook or at info@iddingsforjudge.com.
Felon Kuhnke's endorsement serves to highlight her hypocrisy and multi-faceted contradictions. When this criminal was pandering for votes back in 2012, she underlined the importance "that a woman's voice be heard in all of the matters of society, including on the bench".
If she wanted, female Kuhnke could have advanced that importance by contending against male incumbent Timothy Connors in 2012. Instead, she came up with that babbling in her quest to replace a female retiring judge in that same electoral process. And for that same vacant spot there was another contender who was female and democrat, just like felon Kuhnke. But that is water under the bridge. What matters is that nonsense Kuhnke's endorsement of a male judge who sexually harassed his female employee from 2012 to 2015 clearly contradicts her feminist pledge during the debate at the League of Women Voters.
I doubt that felon Kuhnke would risk with that endorsement if her re-election were at stake in the elections of November 2018. But since no eligible attorney in Washtenaw County dared to contend against either of these two incompetent crooks (Kuhnke and Connors), Carol Kuhnke feels the liberty to cheer the judicial ambitions of a sexual harasser. That is one of Carol Kuhnke's "values".
Based on the debauched lecture felon Kuhnke gave me from the bench in one of my cases, I can imagine this pathetic judge explaining her reasons for endorsing her judicial buddy. Compare
with this plausible adaptation to today's topic:
Dear Ms. [*****],
Now that I feel totally safe milking the system as judge, I "hate" to tell you that MI-chigan (actually meaning ME) loves employers and it loves anybody who's powerful. Okay? So if you are not in those groups, you just kind of have to stay out of the way.
I don't care if my buddy judge incurs multi-year misconduct, because so do I with all the alcohol and illegal narcotics I have stashed till the police busted me. But I am not biased against you. It's all about who earns high income and who can help my career ambitions, and I just perceive that you are in neither category.
For these reasons, I am definitely siding with an abusive judge rather than with some secretary who shall endure this multi-year sexual harassment in order to make a living. That's my ruling.
Criminally,
Judge Felon Kuhnke
No wonder why inept judge Kuhnke favored defendant Maria de la Merced Viggers, the psychopath who kept harassing the University of Michigan over and over again (also by email) prompting it to irreversibly suspend my hire process there, and who is known for her troubling habits such as videotaping her neighbors as she drives and "beating on neighbors doors in the middle of the night [...] on a regular basis waking up the neighborhood at 4-5am". Many of Carol Kuhnke's pathetic decisions show her fondness of harassers and criminals.
The good news is that judge Iddings lost his bid for re-election. He was defeated by candidate Catherine Sala. Given the circumstances, though, I find it appalling that Ms. Sala won only by a very small margin: 17,278 to 17,171. That is one aspect reflecting the unfortunate traction by Michigan's unfit judiciary. Regardless, future judge Sala is strongly encouraged to be an exception to the judicial debauchery and instead be a judge who actually follows the law.
Now judge-elect Sala can expect, sooner or later, some kiss-up gesture by Carol Kuhnke in an attempt to mend the embarrassment of unavailingly siding with Sala's male opponent. The day that uncomfortable exchange takes place, Kuhnke's 30-year acquaintance Gregg Iddings will be a 'nobody' in Kuhnke's priorities. Ridiculous.
