GILBERT'S JOB ALMOST BACK TO NORMAL

He Is Not Allowed To Hear Drunken Driving, Marijuana Cases

TRAVERSE CITY - In Judge Thomas Gilbert's courtroom Tuesday, business seemed
to be getting back to normal.

Suspects were arraigned on misdemeanor charges, defendants pleaded guilty to
shoplifting, driver's license violators were ordered to pay fines.

What was not happening in Gilbert's courtroom happened across the hall, in
Judge Michael Haley's courtroom, where four defendants were arraigned on
charges of drunken driving; and today, in Judge Thomas J. Philips courtroom,
where 26 defendants are scheduled to be arraigned on that charge.

Gilbert has been indefinitely barred from hearing drunken driving and
marijuana cases after he admitted to smoking marijuana at a Detroit rock
concert in October. He took a leave of absence to attend a four-week
rehabilitation for alcohol abuse and heard his first criminal cases since
then in Traverse City Tuesday.

After court, Gilbert said he did not want to discuss the restrictions placed
upon him by Haley, the court's chief judge, and the State Court
Administrative Office.

"I'm really happy to be back," Gilbert said. "I think that's probably as
much as I want to say."

Nonetheless, Gilbert had a busy morning, with a stream of shoplifters,
driver's license violators and other defendants coming before him.

In all, Gilbert saw 21 defendants, took 12 guilty pleas and sentenced nine,
none of them to jail. In some cases where guilty pleas were entered, he
ordered pre-sentence investigations before handing down sentence.

The charges included two embezzlement cases, a domestic violence case, one
Department of Natural Resources violation, four driver's license violations,
four cases of shoplifting, two defendants accused of resisting police, two
truancy violations, two assault cases, a probation violation, a failure to
report an accident and three cases of bad checks.

While Gilbert is barred from handling cases that stem directly from
substance abuse, some of the cases he handled Tuesday could have involved
substance abuse.

Domestic violence cases, for example, often involve substance abuse. One of
the shoplifting cases involved a defendant who admitted he attempted to
steal two bottles of champagne on New Year's Eve from a grocery store. The
probation violation involved a defendant who failed to prove he had been
attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Gilbert, who upon his return to the bench in December to hear civil cases
appeared to some litigants to be awkward, looked relaxed and comfortable
Tuesday.

In a case of a woman accused of shoplifting from Meijer on Christmas Eve,
Gilbert opted against sending her to jail.

"Why shouldn't I send you to jail for 93 days?" he asked her.

"I have three children," she said.

"What's that got to do with anything? How do I get you not to do this
again?" Gilbert asked. "What did you learn by all of this?"

"That it was stupid in the first place and I don't want to do it ever
again," the woman responded.

Gilbert ordered her to pay $150 in fines and costs and gave her a warning:
"Don't do this again."

Gilbert blocked one man from pleading guilty to a crime he may not have
committed.

The man wanted to plead to a charge of writing a $42 check from a closed
checking account at a Prevo's grocery store.

When he explained that it was an account he had shared with his mother while
caring for her, and that he had not realized other family members had closed
the account when he wrote the check, Gilbert stopped him.

"Making a mistake is not against the law," Gilbert told him. "I can't accept
your plea."