Judge Signs County Counsel’s Opinion

I have Judge Wolke’s ruling that he filed in the case of Ockenden and Glynn v. Josephine County, but I haven’t read it yet. I don’t need to read it. I already know everything I need to know about it, because it was written by one man who routinely disregards the law, at the behest of another man who routinely does the same. They both so routinely ignore the law that they ignored the first of the five basic laws of court: any thing that one files in a court of law must be one’s own knowledge and opinion.

Judge Wolke asked Steve Rich, our County Legal Counsel and the prevailing counsel in the case, to write his ruling for him to sign, so what we have is the opinion of Steve Rich, signed by Judge Wolke as being his own. It is not a secret; it is written above the letterhead of the Josephine County Legal Counsel.

One understands why Judge Wolke would ask Steve Rich to write his ruling; only Rich could write it, because one has to understand an argument well enough to make it one’s own. But that’s the point of having judges write their own rulings; they actually have to understand what they are saying. Judge Wolke apparently wanted to rule for one side no matter what, so he didn’t listen to the arguments or form an actual opinion of the case. He took the short cut of having the man he chose to win the case write his ruling for him.

We take a lot of short cuts in this county, including putting orders for judges to sign at the end of our motions, for the convenience of the judge. When the request is simple, this does not violate the basic rule, as the order includes no knowledge or opinion. But this ruling was not a simple order at the end of a motion; Judge Wolke asked Rich to write it after he had prevailed in the case, and it includes what is put forth as Judge Wolke’s legal reasoning. How legal that reasoning can be coming from a man who is ignoring one of the basic rules of court, signed by a man who is doing the same, is a question. Most certainly, the filing of the order and ruling is not legal, because Judge Wolke didn’t write it.

Ignoring the law is nothing new for Judge Wolke; when one mentions judges who ignore the law or one side in a case, his is the first name that comes up; Judge Baker is another. In my own most recent misdemeanor case, I asked him to order deposition of officers who were involved in incidents but did not write reports, and showed him that the law allowed depositions in criminal cases, except for defendants deposing victims. He ruled that he hadn’t allowed depositions in criminal cases in 20 years on the bench, and he wasn’t about to start now. That tells us the extent of Judge Wolke’s respect for the law and the facts


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