Judge Said He Reviewed Record in Its Entirety
2 members of a U.S. Business firm impeachment chore strength raised questions Wed whether the ethical behavior of federal District Judge Thomas Porteous of Metairie is indicative of broader corrupting influences on the entire New Orleans area judicial system.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Consul Pedro Pierluisi, D-Puerto Rico, said they were bewildered past testimony from a New Orleans lawyer that it would not "raise eyebrows" if an attorney had tiffin with a judge earlier whom he had a instance pending.
Gohmert said the testimony reminded him of a mail service-Katrina hearing he attended during which U.Due south. Chaser Jim Letten said the major problem in New Orleans after the hurricane remained the same as before the storm: corruption.
Lawyer Joseph Mole, the only witness at Wednesday'due south hearing in Washington of the Judiciary Commission impeachment job forcefulness, was answering a question from Pierliusi when he testified that he didn't think the sight of an attorney lunching with a guess presiding over the attorney's case would "enhance eyebrows." But he said Louisiana courts would pout on a approximate talking privately to the attorney about the case itself, and that corruption is a problem, though probably not the biggest confronting post-Katrina New Orleans.
Mole testified about his involvement in a 1997 trial earlier Porteous of a complicated and lengthy dispute over buying of what was then Kenner Regional Medical Heart. Mole represented Lifemark Hospitals of Louisiana in a lawsuit filed by Liljeberg Enterprises, which had lost the hospital to Lifemark in foreclosure.
In response to questions, Mole said he learned from other lawyers that two attorneys who were added to his opponent'south legal team 2 months before the scheduled trial were considered Porteous' good friends who socialized with the gauge and treated him to lunch.
Mole said he was worried plenty to ask Porteous to pace bated from the case. The guess refused, and the fifth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals declined to intervene.
Only subsequently, during the FBI'due south investigation of Porteous, did evidence surface to evidence that Liljeberg chaser Jacob Amato Jr. and his law partner had funneled $20,000 in cash to the gauge.
Asked by task force chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, whether his request for Porteous' recusal would have been treated differently had the cash payments been known at the time, Mole said he is confident the 5th Excursion would have ordered Porteous off the instance.
In his testimony, Mole said Lifemark was then concerned about Porteous' favoritism toward Liljeberg that it pressed him to hire another lawyer shut to Porteous for his own legal team. Mole said he objected but his client insisted, and then he brought in Don Gardner, who he said not only was a longtime friend of the judge but sometimes bought and shared skillful bottles of wine with the approximate.
Gardner got a $100,000 retainer even though he had no expertise in the legal issues being litigated, Mole said, calculation that Gardner was promised more later if Lifemark prevailed in the example or if Porteous transferred it to another estimate.
When the trial finally began, Mole said, Porteous became so furious at him for challenging the judge'southward questioning that the judge threw a binder total of documents at him. It cruel well short, Mole said, but marked the "outset and merely time" in his 32 years as a lawyer that a judge threw anything at him.
Under questioning by Porteous' lawyer, Richard Westling, Mole conceded that the judge handled the half dozen-week trial fairly to both sides and demonstrated knowledge of the law and court procedures.
It took Porteous three years to rule on the case, and his conclusion was reversed past the 5th Circuit, which criticized some of his legal reasoning as "plainly constructed out of whole cloth."
Porteous was a state guess in Jefferson Parish earlier President Bill Clinton nominated him to the federal demote in 1994. He has been stripped of his official duties simply continues to collect his judicial salary of $169,300 while he awaits a congressional decision on impeachment.
Impeachment is a political process, non a criminal 1, despite some similar terminology.
If the Judiciary Committee and ultimately the full House concord, Porteous would go only the 15th federal guess in Us history to be impeached. That would prepare the phase for a trial in the Senate, which could convict Porteous and remove him from part upon approving of two thirds of all senators -- a finding so rare that the Senate has rendered it only 7 times.
The chore force hearings began Tuesday. So far members are giving every indication that they will recommend impeachment to the Judiciary Commission despite contentions by Porteous' attorneys that the judge's financial problems were related to gambling debts and drinking and did not affect his comport as a approximate.
"Information technology is our constitutional duty not to prejudge the bear witness in this matter or to anticipate the course of these proceedings," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. "Nonetheless, it should be noted that the allegations of misconduct and improprieties by Estimate Porteous are serious, numerous, varied and occurred over a catamenia of many years."
Westling said after Wednesday'south session: "Plainly, in our view, while at that place is an effort to go the evidence on the record, it is often done in a style nosotros're non accepted to in a courtroom perspective, and I think in that location is a certain amount of predisposition on the console. But they are allowing the states to participate, and we're going to try our all-time to become the facts out in the record."
Porteous sat in the first row of spectator seats Wed. He probably won't take up the task force'south offer to testify, Westling said.
Task force hearings are likely to resume in December.
Bruce Alpert can be reached at balpert@timespicayune.com or 202.383.7861.
Source: https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_929c5d50-b541-5f9e-b46c-8e023cd52658.html
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