Once, Minnesota judges could be removed only by impeachment or an election loss. But a 1972 amendment to the state constitution gave removal power to the state Supreme Court, which has removed only three. Many others have been disciplined or fought charges for a range of public or personal infractions. Here is a sample:
TIMOTHY BLAKELY: Suspended in 2009 for six months without pay for referring more than 20 clients from his Dakota County courtroom to his own attorney, who gave him $63,503 discount on his divorce. Lost his bid for reelection in 2010.
RICHARD SPICER: Reprimanded in 2009 for unspecified "disparaging speech" that "lacked the dignity of the bench," and for asking observers in his Dakota County courtroom to "weigh in on his own conduct and that of the defendant, creating the appearance that he was either delegating his decision-making authority to the gallery or asking the gallery for its opinion on how he should decide an issue placed before the court."
HARVEY GINSBERG: Removed from Hennepin County bench in 2004, based on complaints that he ruled on cases without hearing from prosecutors, ordered a defendant in an animal cruelty case to "pick a sheriff's deputy to fight with," assaulted a 14-year-old boy who he believed had stolen his son's bicycle and damaged a woman's car in a parking lot.
ALBERTO MIERA: Suspended in 1987 from the Ramsey County bench for a year without pay for making improper sexual advances to a court reporter. He resigned in 1990.
CRANE WINTON: Removed from Hennepin County bench in 1984 after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges of soliciting male prostitutes, one of whom was under 18.
JACK GILLARD: Removed from the Mower County bench in 1978 after admitting that as a lawyer he solicited money to bribe public officials.
ROCHELLE OLSON
