Side Judges Assoc. Criticizes

Suspension of Judge Boardman

Windsor Co. Assistant Judge William Boardman should not be suspended by the Vermont Judicial Conduct Board (JCB) because the activities he was criticized for are not related to his role as a judge.

That’s the position of the Vermont Association of County Judges (VACJ), which last week filed a brief with the Vermont Supreme Court arguing against the six-month suspension ordered in May by the Conduct Board (JCB).

The primary grounds for the JCB’s finding of "judicial misconduct" did not involve his activities as a judge, the judges’ associaion argued. Rather, they were related to his action as an administrator of Windsor County.

Boardman has appealed his six-month suspension to the Vermont Supreme Court.

The two assistant judges in each county are the top administrators of the county, and besides being judges, they have both a legislative and executive role. They draw up the annual budgets, keep the records, assign space in the courthouse and other county buildings, and make all the decisions of an administrator.

In addition, of course, they sit on the bench in some cases as "side" judges, sitting either side of the regular judge. They need not have law degrees and seldom do.

The JCB’s six-month suspension of Judge Boardman was the most severe penalty against an assistant judge that the board has handed out in many years, officials said. The decision cited Boardman’s alleged conflict of interest in selling county property at an under-market price to a non-profit organization he had founded and was still associated with.

However, the 28-member judges’ association said it feared that punishing Boardman for non-judicial activities would intrude on the authority of assistant judges to run the county.

They also argued that suspending an assistant judge would keep the county from functioning, since decisions could not be made by the single remaining assistant judge.

The chair of the JCB, Atty. Robert Keiner of Middlebury, dismissed that argument when it was first put forward by Boardman in May.

The charges against Boardman also included an incident in which he wrote a letter to the Vermont Standard newspaper claiming that his campaign signs had been stolen by his opponents. He allegedly discovered soon afterwards that the signs were not stolen, but he failed to contact the newspaper, which then published his letter.

The six-month sentence ordered by the Conduct Board in May came with a stinging rebuke. Keiner wrote that "the judge appears oblivious to the fact that the trappings of his office are a public trust … he either does not understand or is simply unconcerned with the obligations of that public trust."

Boardman appealed his suspension to the Vermont Supreme Court.