GILBERT HASN'T YET REGAINED RIGHT TO COMMUNITY'S TRUST

Despite calls for his resignation from the Antrim County Board, the Grand
Traverse Leelanau Antrim Bar Association and untold numbers of citizens,
District Judge Tom Gilbert seems determined to do what's best for Tom
Gilbert.

Never mind that his admissions that he smoked pot at a Rolling Stones
concert in Detroit and has an alcohol problem have exposed the court and the
entire judicial system to ridicule.

Never mind that he has ordered dozens of people to pay hundreds of dollars
in fines, fees and drug test costs and sentenced them to months of daily
drug testing and probation for doing essentially the same thing he did, and
yet he goes scot-free.

Never mind that he has lectured children on the evils and consequences of
drug and alcohol abuse and yet has returned to work (on a restricted
caseload) as if nothing happened.

His seeming attitude - just ignore it and it will all go away - has also
extended to answering to the voters and taxpayers he works for. They have
questions; he won't give answers.

Gilbert made alcohol abuse the central element of his defense. He took a
couple drags off a marijuana cigarette, he has said, only because his
judgment was impaired by alcohol. He has also said he has an alcohol abuse
problem, but is not an alcoholic.

Now, to assure the public that he can overcome his problem and become (in
his words) a "great judge," Gilbert should be willing to outline for the
community what his follow-up treatment will be.

Will he obtain substance abuse counseling? Will he attend regular meetings?
Will he submit to regular drug testing? Has his problem just gone away? Does
he need further treatment? Is he doing any of the things drunken drivers who
come before him can expect to go through? Has he stopped drinking?

The people who elected him and pay his $138,272-a-year salary don't know,
because he hasn't told them. And he declined to answer a local reporter's
questions last week.

That's not acceptable.

It's time for the judge to document for the community what future steps he
is taking to make sure that he stays on the straight and narrow. It's time
to assure the community that his 28-day stay in an out-of-state rehab
program was effective and he is - and remains - clean.

People who plead guilty to drinking-related offenses often are sentenced to
report to a probation officer regularly, to attend substance abuse classes,
to obtain counseling for their drug or alcohol problem, to attend 12-step
meetings for drugs or alcohol and to submit to regular drug testing.

Granted, Gilbert has never been formally charged with a crime. But he is a
judge and the standard for him must be higher. He has violated the public
trust and the judicial ethics he has pledged to uphold.

These violations have the power to destroy the integrity of our legal
justice system, which is what holds our society together, and this is why we
all must take what he called a "lapse in judgment" so seriously.

How are people who come before his bench to know with any assurance that the
man with the gavel isn't crossing his fingers behind his back when he
lectures them about drug use and about obeying the law?

The state's Code of Judicial Conduct couldn't be clearer.

The first two canons are:

- - A judge should uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary.

- - A judge should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all
activities.

It's about restoring respect for the person and the institution. If the
community is to regain faith in its local court system, the man who has
placed himself above the institution must prove he truly cares about the
court and the people who come before it.

The community deserves no less than a full-time, fully engaged judge whose
ability to handle any type of case is undoubted.