Legal Juice
Shoot, $140,000 per year in Detroit will go a long way. You would think someone with a job like that – which also includes 9 weeks off! – would take it seriously. In this case, it appears that you would be wrong. As reported by myfoxdetroit.com:
Detroit district court judges have it pretty good. They work seven hours a day and get an hour for lunch… So why does 36th District Court Judge Cylenthia Miller need to show up late so often or not show up at all?
That there’s a serious accusation. Can you back it up? Well …
It’s 11:00 a.m. A video shows people have jammed the courtroom, but the judge isn’t there, and the lawyers are still getting $300 an hour. This wasn’t just a one off. We got a hold of the judge’s attendance record. She’s a truant. If this were high school, she’d never graduate.
Maybe she’s just going through a rough patch?
In 2009 she missed an extra 53 days or nearly three months of work.
In 2010 she missed an extra month and a half. It’s the same with 2011 and 2012.
Okay, maybe not. But back to the present:
So we put the peep on the judge over the last few weeks. On February 8, a Friday, she called in sick saying she injured herself when her sister’s dog pulled her in a ditch. On February 1[1], the following Monday, we couldn’t find her. The next day she didn’t show grieving over a loved one.
Yikes!
When the judge did show up, she was always late, took long lunches or left early. Pretty serious stuff for a judge who handles everything from murder to misdemeanors.
She showed up and hour and a half late on Wednesday. On Thursday, she showed up two hours late. After a rigorous hour and fifteen minutes on the bench, she cut out for lunch. A long lunch. A two hour and 15 minute lunch.
It was no better the next day, Friday, February 15. She was nearly two hours late again, and she left at 2:30 in the afternoon. Where could she be going? The law library? The prosecutor’s office? Nope. She went shopping at Kroger in Grosse Pointe…
She was late again on Monday morning. We [the news crew] couldn’t take it anymore.
“Court’s been in session for an hour and a half and you’re still [outside],” I said to her. “Been coming every day for three weeks, you’ve never been on time.”
She said nothing.
Shocker. Time to go up the chain.
“It’s embarrassing to us as a court, and it’s embarrassing to me as the court’s chief judge that I’m having this discussion with you,” said Judge Kenneth King. “I’m telling you that this matter will be dealt with.”
And?
Judge Miller met with the chief judge on Monday. She promised to “do better in the future”.
“Better”? The Juice is guessing the folks at WJBK will be monitoring the situation. Here’s the source.