Florida 2000 Rioter was a Judge, now facing ethics charges

Steven Hertzberg mailinglist at navari.com
Fri Oct 18 10:59:38 PDT 2002


Justice Spargo Faces Inquiry http://www6.law.com/lawcom/displayid.cfm?statename=NY&docnum=160258&tabl e=news&flag=full

By John Caher New York Law Journal

When election law expert and longtime Republican activist Thomas J. Spargo was caught on film participating in a noisy political demonstration, nobody close to politics was particularly surprised. Spargo is a seasoned regular in the political game, and that he would show up in Florida at the Miami-Dade County Board of Elections during the Bush-Gore electoral debacle of November 2000 was almost predictable.

But there was one thing troubling about that image.

At the same time he was stumping for George W. Bush and chanting with other Republican supporters at what amounted to a boisterous sit-in, Spargo was serving as a part-time judge in the rural Albany County town of Berne. Judges are not supposed to get involved in politics.

Now, Spargo is a state Supreme Court justice, and the Commission on Judicial Conduct is hot on the tail of the onetime feisty election law litigator and political firebrand. The commission has accused Justice Spargo of multiple ethical breaches for his political conduct.

_________________________________ Steven Hertzberg



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