A shameful episode
Gongwer reported on Friday:
Illness Prompts McDonald To Resign From Appeals Court -- Court of Appeals Judge Gary McDonald has resigned from office, about a year and a half after serious illness prevented him from working. The resignation effective January 3 creates a vacancy on the 28-member court that will be filled by appointment by Governor Jennifer Granholm.
This seemingly innocuous item is misleading. This judge did not "decide to retire" now that a Democrat is in office. The decision to submit his retirement at this point was made by his family -- he cannot act for himself.
The Gongwer entry conceals what has become a very shameful episode in Michigan judicial politics. Judge McDonald succumbed to a massive stroke in July 2001 and has been comatose (or nearly so) since that time. Despite the fact that he was entirely unable to work as a judge, and clearly would never be able to return to the bench, his family hid his condition from the Court for many months, refused to provide information about his condition when inquiries were made, pretended that his physicians predicted a recovery, and in general did everything possible to forestall any investigation of the situation. (See "Court wants examination of recovering judge", Detroit Free Press, May 1, 2002.) This permitted the family of an incapacitated judge to continue to draw his judicial salary of over $150,000 per year for 18 months, and to delay his retirement (he was a Democrat appointee in 1988) until after then-Gov. John Engler had left office. What is surprising is that Engler, the master tactician, was unable to do anything about the situation.
The Judicial Tenure Commission finally began proceedings in May 2002 to remove Judge McDonald from office, but there was no sign of any action taken by the JTC at any time thereafter. The JTC proceedings are confidential until a decision is made, but clearly it should not have taken more than a month to verify that this judge's medical condition was permanent and totally incapacitating, and that he was altogether unable to carry out his duties.
12:35:29 PM 
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