Florida Judge Forced to Recuse Himself as Conflicts of Interests Start to Emerge

Editor’s Note: The problem is not just a Judge who received favorable treatment from the lender in a foreclosure action. It is the highly politicized environment of elected and even appointed judges who received, directly or indirectly some form of “generosity” from the financial services sector or whose perception is fundamentally flawed by the constant drumbeat of disinformation from Wall Street Banks.

Research your Judge. Get as much information as possible to determine if there is cause for a reasonable person to believe that the Judge’s decision might be influenced by something other than the facts of the case or the law to be applied.

Businessweek
Judge in Countrywide Case Removed Over Claim of Discount Loan

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — A Florida judge was ordered to remove himself from a foreclosure proceeding by Bank of America Corp.’s Countrywide unit after the homeowner claimed the judge received a discount loan from an affiliate of the mortgage lender.

Circuit Judge Hugh Carithers in Jacksonville, Florida, must enter a recusal order and ask Chief Circuit Judge Donald Moran to pick a replacement, a district court of appeals ruled today.

Joseph W. Mines Jr., who is representing himself in the foreclosure proceeding, alleged the judge had received favorable interest rates not available to the public in his own dealings with a lender affiliated with Countrywide, court records show. Mines’s home was just about to be sold when he filed his claim seeking the judge’s removal, according to the case docket.

“This court finds these facts, taken as true as they must be, would prompt a reasonably prudent person to fear that he or she would not obtain a fair and impartial hearing,” the appeals court in Tallahassee, Florida, said its ruling.

Pat Ryan, a courtroom clerk for Carithers, said she hadn’t seen the ruling and couldn’t comment. Directory assistance had no phone listing for Joseph Mines in Jacksonville.

The case is Countrywide v. Mines, 2007-CA-6852, Fourth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida (Jacksonville).

–With assistance from Doris Bloodsworth in Orlando, Florida. Editors: Peter Blumberg, Michael Hytha

To contact the reporter on this story: Cary O’Reilly in Washington at +1-202-624-1859 or caryoreilly@bloomberg.net.

http://opinions.1dca.org/written/opinions2010/02-05-2010/09-5669.pdf

Tags: Florida, judge, recusal
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