JUDGE QUITS AFTER CHARGE HE DRANK BEER WITH JURORS

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A municipal judge resigned Tuesday after state
authorities charged he drank beer while a jury was deliberating a
drunken-driving case and then asked jurors to stay and join him for a
``cold one.''

In his resignation letter, Lakewood Municipal Judge Ralph Baldwin
apologized for his conduct, which he said stemmed from a ``misguided sense
of congeniality and extremely poor judgment.'' Baldwin had been appointed
late last year as the only judge in the newly incorporated suburb of 63,000
residents south of Tacoma.

According to a complaint filed by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct,
Baldwin was presiding over the second day of a two-day trial in February
when he left court during deliberations and returned with a 12-pack of beer.

Baldwin allegedly then offered beers to attorneys for both sides and the
court administrator, calling her a ``wimp'' when she refused.

The lawyers and the judge, however, each had at least one beer while
waiting in court.

After the jury returned a verdict of guilty in the drunken-driving case,
Baldwin invited the jurors to join him in the jury room to drink beer and
discuss the case, according to the complaint.

``Stay for a cold one,'' Baldwin allegedly said, adding: ''I'm not
responsible for any drinking and driving.''

The complaint charges that three jurors and the prosecutor in the case took
up Baldwin on his offer.

Afterward, Baldwin allegedly drove off with an open can of beer, saying,
``I might as well drink and drive, I do it all the time anyway.''

The prosecutor, assistant city attorney Mike McKenzie, disclosed the
incident to his supervisors the following day.