Pubdate: Wed, 02 Apr 2003
Source: Boston Weekly Dig (MA)
Copyright: 2003 Boston Weekly Dig
Contact:  http://www.weeklydig.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1515
Author: Seth McM. Donlin

JUDGE FIRED FOR ANTI-DRUG WAR BELIEFS

A Chandler, AZ attorney was relieved of his duties as a judge pro tem last 
week after he announced in writing that he would recuse himself from all 
cases involving drug related crimes.

Marc Victor, a member of NORML who serves on that organization's legal 
committee, had only managed to serve about one hour of his first shift when 
Judge Thomas O'Toole, head of the Maricopa County's criminal law judges, 
gave him the boot. According to an article in the Arizona Tribune, Judge 
O'Toole called Victor's conduct "grossly inappropriate" and "bizarre."

Victor replied, "It's a real chilling kind of a thing for one judge telling 
another judge what he can say in a minute entry while he's recusing 
himself. It's another thing if I decided to sit on drug cases and started 
dismissing them."
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