Judicial Fairness

The Shakespearean tragedy that the life of Judge Robert C. Bradley has become sometimes made me want to avert my eyes. One wishes the man courage, a stout heart and Godspeed.

But as a family court litigant who came before him last year from February to May, I am distressed that he was stopped during that time for driving drunk and taxied home by police officers who did not arrest him. Such action would swiftly have brought to public light the impairment of a man who held unusual authority over the lives of others.

I am troubled by the conspiracy of silence among law enforcement and court personnel who knew or suspected Judge Bradley was experiencing difficulty, yet did not report it.

Why was a drunken judge with a chip on his shoulder about family and custody issues allowed to remain on the bench?

It took many months, three court appearances and many thousands of dollars to finally secure an order sought when I underwent domestic violence. I strongly question the ability of a judge to sit fairly in a case involving violence when he apparently threatens it himself.

Those who knew of or suspected his deterioration and didn’t report it were neither serving nor protecting the people. In the parlance of Alcoholics Anonymous, they enabled Judge Bradley to continue hurtling headlong down a path destructive to himself and others.

PEGGY STRAIN, Lincoln, Neb.