Judge Benge Defends Award as Impartial

The Times-Picayune reports that 24th JDC Judge Joan Benge said she was not "improperly influenced" when she awarded Phil Demma, who is expected to plead guilty to two felony counts related to the Jefferson Parish corruption scandal, $3,400 in damages related to a 2001 suit. "Following an impartial consideration of all the evidence, Mr. Demma was awarded a nominal judgment, based solely on the facts and the law," Benge wrote in a statement released yesterday. "As in all cases, at no time was I improperly influenced in the Demma case."

Dane Ciolino, ethics professor at Loyola University Law School, said judges in the same court typically talk to one another about their rulings, and that the alleged conversation between Bodenheimer and Benge does not in itself constitute a violation of ethics rules. But Ciolino said the talk would be improper if Bodenheimer was pleading for a third party and Benge knew it.

Posted by AJR at April 25, 2003 07:20 AM