A curtain of silence has descended around partially disrobed Wayne County Circuit Judge Wade H. McCree, who admitted on television that he sent a beefcake cell phone photo of himself.
"No shame in my game,"it reporter Charlie LeDuff when asked about the picture, reportedly sent to a married female courtroom employee.magic magician tarantula motorized reel It shows the smiling McCree, with a bare torso, snapping a cell phone photo in what appears to be a bathroom mirror.
But there may be a complaint with the Judicial Tenure Commission that could cost him his seat on the bench. Complaints with the state's judicial watchdogs are confidential by law unless an investigation finds enough evidence to support a formal public charge of misconduct.
"I can't say if there is or isn't a complaint," Paul J. Fischer, the commission's executive director and general counsel, said Tuesday.
McCree was chatty on the Fox 2 video, but he didn't return calls Tuesday to his court or his Detroit home. His courtroom at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice was locked Tuesday afternoon, and he did not respond to an e-mail inquiry. zbs a1000 review Virgil Smith did not take calls about McCree and referred questions to the court's general counsel, Elizabeth Kocab, who also was mum on the picture.
"We understand from the video that the husband of the employee made a complaint to the Judicial Tenure Commission, so we can't make any comment at this time," Kocab said.
The state Supreme Court also declined to comment because judicial disciplinary cases could come before it.
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said it had gotten no complaints about the photo and declined to discussion the situation further.
University of Detroit Mercy law professor Larry Dubin, an expert in legal ethics, said that the picture -- even if it didn't go below the waist -- runs way foul of the state's Code of Judicial Conduct and state court rules.
Canon 1 says judges should maintain "high standards of conduct" to preserve the court's dignity.
Canon 2 tells judges they "must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety." That canon also says judges must expect and endure greater public scrutiny, as well as limits on their conduct, because of their position.
Judges, says Canon 3, also need to be "patient, tablet pc android 4.0 dignified and courteous" to everyone they meet in an official capacity, including the court staff "and others subject to the judge's direction and control."