Edie M. Halstead, the former justice for the town of Davenport who resigned from the bench last October, blew off her own traffic tickets and withheld thousands of dollars in collected court fines from the court's bank account, according to a Commission on Judicial Conduct decision made public yesterday.
Halstead, who served as the court clerk in Davenport before becoming the town justice in January 2009, has been barred from holding judicial office as a result of her misconduct. She has until May 4 to appeal the CJC's decision.
According to the ruling, which you can read in full below, Halstead repeatedly failed to deposit court fines that she collected as Davenport's judge into the court's bank account. At one point, the town's bank account was missing over $5,000. For seven cases in which fines were collected, Halstead reported to the State Comptroller that no money had been received. When she became the town justice in 2009, Halstead attempted to fix discrepancies in the court's account -- which she had handled for her predecessor as court clerk -- with a deposit of $1,248 of her own money.
While the CJC did not find any evidence that Halstead had personally profited from her accounting errors, it noted that she
failed to comply with clear statutory requirements governing the depositing, reporting and remitting of court funds and filed reports that falsely and/or inaccurately understated the amounts collected by the court. The failure to comply with these statutory mandates constitutes a serious dereliction of a judge's duties since the handling of public monies is one of a judge's most important responsibilities.
The CJC also found that Halstead also had trouble with her personal traffic tickets. After receiving two traffic tickets, for speeding and for a seat belt violation, Halstead refused to pay the fines or appear in court to resolve them. When she did respond, she did so on Davenport Town Court stationery, which the CJC found was an improper attempt to benefit from "the prestige of the Davenport Town Court."
Eventually, Halstead's license was suspended because of the tickets, and then she was convicted of a misdemeanor for driving with a suspended license.
The CJC found that all of this behavior put together showed "a pervasive disregard for the ethical and administrative responsibilities of her judicial office." Halstead, the CJC ruled, "is unfit to serve as a judge."
This CJC ruling has been a long time coming. Charges were first filed against Halstead last August. She resigned from her post on October 1. The CJC issued its decision that she be barred from the judiciary in January, but by law was not able to release its opinion until it had confirmed that Halstead had received its ruling. After an unsuccessful attempt to send her the ruling by mail, the CJC served the decision to Halstead in person on April 5.
