COURT CLEARED

Justice Stands In Drug Cases, But Judge Should Retire

Storm clouds are receding from the criminal justice system in Oakland
County, but they will follow visiting Judge Meyer Warshawsky back to Van
Buren County.

An investigation by Michigan State Police and the Attorney General's Office
has found nothing to substantiate accusations that Warshawsky enabled
assistant Oakland Prosecutor Beth Hand to rack up a near-perfect conviction
rate in his courtroom. The retired judge handled drug cases on special
assignment in Oakland for four years.

However, evidence that Warshawsky, 79, had an inappropriate relationship
with the girlfriend of a defendant in a case before him makes it appear his
useful days as a visiting judge are over, and should be.

Hand, however, has only better days ahead after being painted with that
brush so often unfairly wielded against women who do well in what is a
mainly male arena.

Although she wasn't targeted in the five-month investigation, it was surely
hard on her. But it needed to be thorough for the vindication to be credible.

The state police report spares the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office the
potential nightmare of retrying a host of drug cases handled by Hand in
Warshawsky's court.

Prosecutor David Gorcyca ought to let it rest there, instead of trying to
go after the law license of the whistle-blower in this matter, Craig Tank,
who was Warshawsky's clerk. Tank had an obligation to report suspected
wrongdoing that could affect the integrity of the legal system. Government
employees must be free to do so without fear of reprisal.

While public officials are susceptible to malicious charges from
subordinates, that possibility has to be weighed against the public
interest in rooting out bad officials and protecting public confidence in
government, especially the legal system.