Should Private Life Effect Professional Life?

[Motokid]

Judge with 3 wives kicked off bench

Utah Supreme Court orders judge removed after 25 years

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- A small-town judge with three wives was ordered removed from the bench by the Utah Supreme Court on Friday.
The court unanimously agreed with the findings of the state's Judicial Conduct Commission, which recommended the removal of Judge Walter Steed for violating the state's bigamy law.

Steed has served for 25 years on the Justice Court in the polygamist community of Hildale in southern Utah, where he ruled on misdemeanor crimes such as drunken driving and domestic violence cases.
The commission last year sought his removal from the bench after a 14-month investigation determined Steed was a polygamist and had violated Utah's bigamy law.

Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.
"When the law is violated or ignored by those charged by society with the fair and impartial enforcement of the law, the stability of our society is placed at undue risk," the court's ruling said.

Steed, who also works as a truck driver, scheduled a news conference for later Friday to discuss the ruling. He was paid a few hundred dollars monthly for serving in the part-time judicial position.

A receptionist at the Judicial Conduct Commission said neither the commission nor its attorney would comment on the case.
Friday's court decision did not address whether Steed should face criminal charges, saying only that the judge acknowledged his illegal behavior and "has given every indication that he intends to continue his 'plural marriage' arrangement."

Justice Court judges are appointed to four-year terms by city councils or county commissions. They are not required to have any legal training.
The initial complaint against Steed was filed in 2003 by Tapestry Against Polygamy, a group founded by women who had left the secretive colonies.
Steed legally married his first wife in 1965, according to court documents. The second and third wives were married -- or "sealed" as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to it -- to him in religious ceremonies in 1975 and 1985.
He has 32 children by the three women, who are sisters, court documents said.

Plural marriage was an original tenet of the mainline Mormon church, but the faith abandoned the practice in 1890. About 30,000 polygamists, who split from the main church into various fundamentalist sects, are believed to be living in Utah, the Southwest, Mexico and Canada.

A judge for 25 years. Or a criminal for 25 years? Can he be both?

 

[Freya]

32 kids by 3 women?! Crikey.

In my, oh so humble opinion, who gives one? Bigamy, polygamy, all the business of those who get caught up in it. And in all honesty, I don't think of either as necessarily a Bad Thing. I have more issues with monogamy. It seems wholly unnatural to me.

As for the title of the thread, no, your personal life shouldn't affect your professional life. Is there anything more annoying than the colleague who insists on gracing you with the details of the ins and outs of their latest drama? My own personal experience involves a co-worker who is conducting an affair with one of the chaps at work, and who routinely falls out with him and insists I answer her phone all day, incase it's him. This is irritating. Leave your personal problems at home, and don'e let them affect your work. The End.

 

[angerball]

32 kids by 3 women?! Crikey.

And the women are sisters! Talk about keeping it in the family!

Actually the thing that got my attention most in the article was: "Justice Court judges are appointed to four-year terms by city councils or county commissions. They are not required to have any legal training." What does that mean - that they don't even have to be lawyers?

I think the reason he was kicked off the bench is because he broke the law. If bigamy wasn't illegal, then he would probably still be a judge. Maybe.

 

[SFG75]

There is a difference between breaking the law and engaging in shady personal things. This guy belongs to the first category because he knowingly broke the law and continued to do so. You can't have a person interpret the law when that same person, chooses to purposely break the law himself. Personal behavior in regards to excessive drinking, having an affair, and that kind of thing, while detestable, are not crimes in and of themselves. In those cases, no, an employer has no right to fire you.

 

[Oyabun]

If drinking gets in the way of work, chronically being late or hung over, then your employer does have a right to fire you. The same thing goes for any other personal activity. If you become hostile to another employee because they have a differing political view, or ridicule a person for their religious beliefs you should be fired. When you mix your personal life with your private life, be prepared to have your private life regulated by your boss.

 

[Shade]

What does that mean - that they don't even have to be lawyers?

It seems not - this guy is a truck driver when he's not being a judge...

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

I think that it was right that this guy was fired. He was a judge, someone whose job it is to uphold the law, and once he knowingly breaks the law he is no longer in a position to be punishing others for breaking the law too. As SFG has already stated, Private life should effect Professional life if in that private life you are breaking the law.

 

[muggle]

Like it or not, people "are responsible" for both their private and professional life and one "can" effect the other.

 

[Motokid]

This from my local newspaper:

BY LEE WILLIAMS
THE NEWS JOURNAL
02/19/2006
NEWARK -- Revelations that a University of Delaware research assistant and physics instructor is a leader in the regional white supremacy movement did not change his standing at the university, an institution that values free speech.
Ironically, The News Journal's Feb. 12 article that Robert T. Huber was living a dual life -- one on campus, the other in the white power movement -- brought criticism from a former mentor and creator of the national "Skinhead Hall of Fame."

Can a physics teacher at a state run college also be a leader of a hate group in his personal life?

 

[pontalba]

In a Perfect World, no but look around you......it ain't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, so of course it will. If we are having a bad day at work, its bound to bother us after we get home.

As far as the Judge that is mentioned in the article, breaking the law certainly should disqualify one for any position of responsibility. But how often in real life does it?.........Not nearly enough.

I am of course referring to the question posed in the heading, not the article in Motokid's post. Thats just creepy.

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

Can a physics teacher at a state run college also be a leader of a hate group in his personal life?

Short answer: no. He will be working with both black and white children while he is teaching, and I don't think that a person who will show obvious favouritism or disgust for certain pupils just because of their race is someone who should be allowed to teach.

 

[Poppy1]

In total agreement Monkeycatcher. I would go as far as to say that freedom of speech should not cover anything that incites racism and violence.

 

[sirmyk]

Effect... or affect?