Over the last 17 years, Connecticut's judicial watchdog has fielded nearly 2,000 complaints accusing judges of wrongdoing, including showing bias, disregarding civil rights and engaging in personal misconduct on and off the bench, Governing.com reports. But in 98.5 percent of cases, state officials sided with judges, dismissing the complaints, and thereby cloaking in secrecy all details about those cases, including what was alleged, what state investigators did and why the matter was tossed, a CT Insider investigation found. Though many criminal justice experts agree that a certain level of privacy is necessary to protect judges from frivolous and unfounded complaints, some experts said the mystery that shrouds judicial misconduct complaints in Connecticut and other states goes too far.
"Judges are public servants," said Chris Forsyth, executive director for the Judicial Integrity Project. "The discipline process should be public. We should all be concerned about what goes on behind closed doors." Under state law, when the state Judicial Review Council dismisses a complaint, it never reveals, even to the parties involved, why it did so or what it did to investigate the claim. The agency is also barred by law from releasing records from dismissed cases, including the original complaint. Also off-limits are the agency's admonishments, or written reprimands issued to judges.