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Show Serials Order Department University of Utah 84112 City VOLUME 17, NUMBER 178 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1972 Judge Sirica Rates u.S. Commission Asks State Court Reforms Low in Magazine Poll - WASHINGTON (UP I) Judge John Sirica may be a hero to some for his handling of the Watergate trial, but in a rating of Washington area judges he is listed as unsuited, should be removed. of issue went which Washington Magazine, on the stands this week, listed 12 judges in the area who should be removed from the bench including Sirica, chief judge of the U.S. The September Costly to Probe Watergate Attys, Bar Head Says By Jane Hoyt d San Jose ( Reprinted by Permission) ANAHEIM, CALIF. (ACCN)- -It would cost the State Bar of California $350,000 to formally investigate six of its members involved in the Watergate incident to see if they should be disbarred, according to State Bar . president Leonard Janofsky. This is nearly $10 for every one of (he bars 38.000 members. Janofsky made the statement during the bar's recent 46th annual convention here. The statement at a press conference came immediately after conference delegates on the floor below tried futilely to discuss Post-Recor- District Court for the District of Columbia. The of judges courts in Washington and its suburbs were rated for the local magazine by Harvey Katz, a lawyer turned writer who compiled a smilar list for the magazine three years ago. Washingtonian was given the Sigma Delta Chi National Public Service award for magazine journalism for Katz first rating of judges. In one of the most astonishing of the many astonishing developments of Watergate, district court's chief judge, John Sirica, has become the darling of many civil libertarians for his conduct in United States vs. liddy, Katz said. Judge Sirica may have proven himself a crusading inquisitor in the Watergate trial, he said. But the proof of his unsuitability for the bench had been in evidence long before Gordon Liddy came near Democratic Committee' headquarters." Katz rated 28 judges in the Washington area as outstanding, 25 as good, six questionable, and 12 who should be removed. Katz was sharply critical of Siricas handling of the Watergate trial. In an all out effort to learn who had ordered the Watergate wiretap, an issue was relevant to the case as the price of soybeans, Sirica badgered, accused and castigated witnesses, prosecutors and defense lawyers, Iatz said in the article. all He read transcripts of concondemning proven illegal conduct of high government officials fidential bench conferences to the involved jn the Watergate break-in- . jury. He used the threat of lengthy Conference officials put down sentences to force defendants into attempt after attempt of delegates abandoning their constitutional to bring the issue up by citing rights. Roberts Rules of Order and rules of He turned the trial into an the convention. inquisition and justice into a Attorney Robert Wallach of San charade. Francisco called the whole thing In the end, of course, he devious parliamentary moves" to managed to induce James McCord fail to debate the issue even though into confessing and implicating he said he personally was against others in order to avoid a stiff the condemnation. sentence. Katz said. But conference officials said the Watergate resolution proposed by the National Lawyers Gpild was proposed too late to be considered by the 500 conference delegates. All resolutions must be submited by March to be considered at the September convention. However, a subsequent courtesy resolution" commended the bar's hoard of governors for taking steps to investigate the six Watergate involved lawyers. While this resolution was being debated downstairs in the convention assembly room, Janofsky told newsmen upstairs that the State Bar staff members are only in- formally" Watergate investigating incident. the The organization is monitoring Ervin committee hearings and has paid to transcribe 2,000 pages of testimony. But before the Stale Bar will opt to spend massive amounts of money on disciplining the six State Bar members involved in Watergate. Janofsky. said bar officials will wait to see if the Court indicts. He noted that prosecutor Archibald Cox has asked for $).8 million to investigate Watergate. i If we tried to emulate that, it would cost us hundreds of thousanefs of dollars, in addition to the present $800,000 we already spend to discipline our members. But until indictments come forth and evidence is produced in trial, certain evidence- cannot be made available to us," Janofsky said. The tall, white-haire- d State Bar stood for the up president rights of defendants including defendants who happen to be lawyers. When the Slate Bar charges a lawyer engaged in criminal conduct, that lawyer should have the same rights as any other person charged with criminal conduct. Only after due process does our - . board make any recommendation to the Supreme Court that a lawyer be disbarred. If Mr. Erhlichman or any other lawyer involved in Watergate has made any admissions before the Senate committee, those admissions would be admitted into our proceedings." disciplinary WASHINGTON (UPI) - A federal advisory commission recommended several steps to reform local and state courts Sunday, including action to phase out juvenile courts, reduce the volume of appeals and improve the quality of judges. The proposals were made by a task force of the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals in a report submitted for use by the Justice Department's Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), which funnels federal anticrime funds to state and local governments. on courts was the first . The report in a series expanding on a summary version made public last month by the commission, created The task force, headed by law by the Justice Department in 1971 to for a framework cutting professor Daniel J. Meador of the develop crime and providing a better system University of Virginia, suggested of criminal justice. substitution of family courts fen: L. Elliott General Attorney juvenile court systems. to who declined We believe that more effective Richardson, fully recomthe controversial endorse handling of delinquency cases and mendations made in the earlier other matters involving family report, called the court reform difficulties is likely to result from proposals practical, realistic, and. the creation of a family court, it . . achievable. said. The panel suggested that the family court be a division of the trial court of general jurisdiction with responsibility for all related legal matters U.S. Agency Sues Firms Bar Spokesman CHICAGO (UPI)-T- he Chicago Council of Lawyers has accused Illinois Gov. Daniel Walker of Counts - adoption, child custody, paternity actions, divorce neglect, support, and annulment. The report also called for greater attention to handling of juveniles at the lower court level, saying emphasis upon the processing of defendants accused of lesser offenses holds 'special promise as a means of preventing long term criminal careers. In reviewing the judicial situation, the report found several .shortcomings in the elective system for judges and said they should be chosen by a special group of public representatives and other members of the judiciary and the legal profession. Under the plan, a state governor would appoint those nominated for trial judges to serve for four years and appellate judges for six years. All would have to run in an unCo., and Sears, Roebuck & Co. The International Union of contested election to serve another Electrical Workers (IUE) said it term of equal length. had been named in the complaint. If the governor failed to fill a court Other unions involved were reported vacancy within 30 days after to be the United Auto Workers, the receiving the list of candidates, the International Union of Electrical, nominating would group Radio and Machine Workers, and automatically appoint a judge from the United Electric Workers Union. its own list. The EEOC job bias charges inOn the question of court appeals, volved the four companies, all the report said: The review stage, unions having collective bargaining like other aspects of the criminal agreements with those companies process, is in trouble. In some plus a major construction union and jursidictions more than 90 per cent the contractors and contractors' of all convictions are appealed and associations that bargain with that collateral attack is almost routine in union. the slate and federal courts. The charges specify only "job It recommended a single, unified discrimination on a national scale." review proceeding in which all picking on the poor by exaggerating the number of "welfare cheaters" and using inflamatory rhetoric in talking about them. Council President Arnold B. Kanter said Walker hacj no apparent factual basis" for saying there are 20.000 persons on the state's welfare rolls who do not belong there. He said Walker's figure had been contradicted by the state Department of Public Aid and he charged the governor had never backed up his figure although repeatedly asked to do so. The inflamatory rhetoric the governor has used with repeated references to criminal cheating and profiteering promotes a simplistic and biased public attitude to the adof welfare problems told a news ministration, Kanter conference, September 5. The Council of Lawyers is sensitive to the fact that welfare expenditures and the poor generally are a politically vulnerable part of our population," he said. You don't see those kinds of , . Presumably this could include unfair hiring and promotion practices based on race and sex. The EEOC will first press for a voluntary agreement by all parties to end the alleged practices. The arguable defects in the trial proceeding can be examined and finally settled, subject only to narrowly defined exceptional circumstances where there are compelling reasons to provide for a commission engineered a voluntary further review. settlement last January in a landThe task force and its counmark case involving American terparts on the commission was Telephone & Telegraph Co., financed by LEAA undefr a $1.75 resulting in back pay and wage scale million congressional grant. improvements that could reach $50 statements made against the insurance industry or anyone who has political clout, even though there are cheaters in every segment of the population dealing with government agencies." Kanter said. He also charged that Walker's threat to imprison the cheaters for up to 14 years is inhuman, and if carried out, would be a misuse and abuse of the limited resources of the Illinois criminal justice system. million. An outgrowth of that action has i been the movement of men and women into jobs traditionally held by one sex only, such as female so-calle-d He On Bias Four (UPI) and several major corporations national labor unions have been accused of job discrimination in the biggest such action ever brought by the federal government. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which brought the charges, September 18, did not. identify the defendants but other sources said this included General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., General Electric Welfare said Walker's "rhetoric" obscures the fact that welfare benefits in Illinois are substantially below those required for lower budget families as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kanter said his group has no present plans to take legal action to help welfare recipients. Unions WASHINGTON Blasts Illinois Gov. re & such as delinquency, . telephone, operators and male repairmen and line men. The EEOC is an independent government agency set up under the 1964 Civil Rjghts Act. It has served as a collection point for discrimination complaints from dissatisfied workers. Last year, the commission was given the power to take job bias cases directly to court rather than referring them to the justice department. Supreme Court Decisions (See details page 4) |