Word: chrzanowski
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...story about Michigan Judge Susan Chrzanowski and her relationship with attorney Michael Fletcher [NATION, Feb. 12], we said Fletcher worked as a law clerk for Chrzanowski. Although he was a student law clerk for the city of Warren, Mich., when Chrzanowski was elected judge, he did not work directly...
Police never linked Chrzanowski to the killing, but she has had to answer for other sins. In the hours after the murder, the judge misled police. She told them the affair with Fletcher had lasted just a few weeks and had been over for months, although it had lasted more than a year and was still going on; in fact, she had had sex with Fletcher on the eve of the murder. Two days later, Chrzanowski apologized and set the record straight, claiming she had been in shock during the initial interview. But her behavior had caught the attention...
When venerable former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Charles Levin, cousin of Senator Carl Levin, was appointed to study the case and make a recommendation to the JTC, Chrzanowski appeared to be in deep trouble. Levin sorted through the evidence and then, amazingly, determined that Chrzanowski had done nothing worthy of removal--or even suspension--from the bench. Levin wrote that channeling cases to "close personal friends" was a common practice and that he couldn't punish Chrzanowski for behavior that "other judges have and...will continue to indulge in." As for the misstatements to police, Levin concluded the judge...
...Everyone should have a level playing field when they walk into a courtroom," said JTC executive director Paul Fischer. "How can it be fair when the judge is sleeping with one of the attorneys?" Said New York University legal ethicist Stephen Gillers: "There's no way of soft-pedaling Chrzanowski's conduct, no way of defending it.'' Wrote the Detroit Free Press: "There's surely something wrong with a system that can't hold [Chrzanowski] accountable." The judge's supporters are few. In her own defense, Chrzanowski released a statement to TIME last week in which she claimed...
This week the JTC will meet for a one-day hearing to consider Levin's report and make its final recommendation to the Michigan Supreme Court, which can do whatever it wishes, from exonerating Chrzanowski to removing her from the bench. If the judge manages to survive, her 2002 re-election campaign is sure to be one for the books...