Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Zimmerman has implemented a new policy for appointing pro tem judges designed to weed out applicants with troubled pasts.
Attorneys seeking appointment to the temporary posts must now submit to a background check, which includes a criminal history check and a review of any court cases in which they are named as a party.The court will also revise the questionnaire that judicial applicants fill out, "but we haven't gone into any great depth as to what we will ask," Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman made the changes last week in the midst of the controversy over Pro Tem Judge Keith Stoney, who had been charged with disorderly conduct and accused of hitting his wife during a stormy divorce two years ago.
"The pro tem process needed fixing. We fixed it," Zimmerman said. The Utah Supreme Court empowers its chief justice to appoint pro tem judges.
The new policy will primarily affect attorneys who apply to be pro tem judges presiding over small claims court. Those are the most common pro tem appointments.
"I told the Administrative Office of the Courts that I won't appoint a pro tem judge for any reason - small claims or anything else - without a rap sheet and a run through the court index," Zimmerman said.
If the search reveals a problem, the chief justice will look for someone else. "If there are formal allegations - something like a police report and not just an allegation by a neighbor - they wouldn't be appointed. I am disinclined to appoint anybody where there is any shadow of a doubt. There is no reason to do it. Just find somebody else."
Because pro tem judges don't go through the full evaluation that permanent judges do, "we need to be extremely careful who we appoint," he said.
Court officials didn't discover Stoney's problems until after he was appointed to the bench and had started drawing his $75,000 salary. Stoney was one of several pro tem judges hired for one year to help the state whittle a backlog of foster-care cases needing court-approved permanency plans.
If the new policy had been in place, the rap sheet would have revealed the disorderly conduct complaint against Stoney, Zimmerman said.
Stoney was suspended by the Utah Supreme Court while officials looked into the matter. He resigned Wednesday. Court officials cleared Stoney. But Stoney said he was going back to his job as a West Valley City prosecutor because if he stayed on the bench, some might question his decisions.
He condemned the allegations of spouse abuse as "outright lies."
Stoney, too, thought officials should look more closely at the judges they are picking. Asked if judicial applicants' personal lives should be looked into, Stoney said, "This may be cutting my own throat, but I'm not so sure that's not a bad idea."
Stoney said he didn't tell 3rd Circuit Judge Robin Reese about his problems with former wife.