11.21.00
Chief justice applicants critique system
One of those being interviewed calls the state's courthouses "drab places of despair."

By Christopher Rowland
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE ­ A common theme quickly emerged last night when the state's Judicial Nominating Commission interviewed the first three applicants for the powerful job of state Supreme Court chief justice:

Rhode Island's court system needs to overhaul its public image.

All three candidates, two of them from the lower courts and one from the Supreme Court, said the courts must improve their media relations, repair decrepit courthouses and catch up on technological advances to better serve both lawyers and the public.

And it will be up to the next chief justice — who not only helps decide legal cases but also acts as chief executive of all state courts and controls a $60­million systemwide budget — to lead the way.

Six candidates are vying for the post that Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger plans to vacate next year. It is the commission's job to weed that list down to three to five candidates, then submit it to the governor, who will nominate one for confirmation by the General Assembly.

Last night, the commission interviewed Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr., Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders Jr., and Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr.

Tonight the lineup is Supreme Court Justice Victoria S. Lederberg and Superior Court Judges Michael A. Silverstein and Frank J. Williams. Members of the public will be allowed to give testimony on Nov. 29 at 4:30.

Each of the judges interviewewd last night alluded to lingering negative perceptions of the court system, caused by what they described as a host of problems.

Flanders, during questioning by the commission, was the only one to raise the specter of past Supreme Court scandals that he said may continue to haunt Rhode Island's judiciary.

The courts were "hurt badly" by scandals that brought down former Chief Justices Joseph A. Bevilacqua and Thomas F. Fay, said Flanders. The next chief justice, he said, "just has to really grab the bull by the horns and turn the perception around that we're not doing everything we can to be an excellent court system."

"The chief justice is the keeper of the flame," Flanders said.

"The burden is to get out of the ivory tower and talk to the public," he said. "We have to do everything we can to be more accessible, and I don't think we've done that as well as we could have."

But Flanders, who was elevated to the Supreme Court from a private law practice in 1996, was less specific than Darigan and Jeremiah in discussing his diagnosis of the court system's physical, technological and public­relations problems.

DARIGAN, A JUDGE in District and Superior Courts for 16 years, spoke the most passionately about the system's failings. He agreed with a question from commission member C. June Tow about distrust of the court system by minority groups. A survey is under way, he said, that is designed to measure the level of public satisfaction and trust with the courts. Based on the results of surveys nationally, Darigan said he expects the survey to reveal a number of negative attitudes.

He said special training in dealing with minority groups may be in order for judges and court staff to restore the confidence of the public and defuse a potential "crisis."

As for the courthouses and their antiquated computer systems, Darigan said he would fight for more money from the legislature: "We are woefully behind in technological advances in the court system."

He ticked off a number of other administrative issues he would address: a shortage of law clerks to help judges, courthouse security, improved education and orientation for judges, a lack of child­care facilities in all but the Family Court, inadequate food service at courthouses and decrepit facilites in Kent County and at the Garrahy Judicial Compex in Providence. He said the state must protect the antiquities and art it has in the courthouses, and introduce more public art.

"Nobody's thinking about these things now," said Darigan. "Our courthouses are drab places of despair."

JEREMIAH GAVE the shortest answers to the commission's questions as he cited a number of grants he has won for the Family Court for things like mediators to help divorced families handle child­visitation issues.

In addition to a new courthouse in Kent County and immediate work on Garrahy, Jeremiah called for a shared domestic violence calendar for the District and Family Courts to handle both criminal and civil aspects of family trouble. He said the courts need a good Internet page that reflects schedules and other information. He reiterated longstanding calls for interpreters.

He got commission members shaking their heads when he told a story about two pregnant women and two people with claustrophobia getting stuck in a Garrahy elevator on a recent Friday.

Despite all their calls for action, however, each of the three candidates said that he would work to build consensus for action with the chief judges of individual courts, which operate like separate fiefdoms, rather than sending down orders from the Supreme Court.

Jeremiah went the furthest in endorsing the separation of individual courts, saying each of them should have its own budget.

Last night's hearing began with a salvo from Alan Flink, a former commission member and a member of Common Cause of Rhode Island. Flink said the presence of commissioner Sharon Burgess — despite the expiration of her term three years ago and her recent decision to resign — was a "political charade."

The Journal reported on Saturday that Burgess decided to stay after, she said, she was urged to remain on the panel by House Speaker John B. Harwood and new Senate Majority Leader William V. Irons.

"It is your duty to exclude her from all of your deliberations," Flink told the commissioners. "Failure to do so now implicates the commission in what Common Cause sees as a not­so­subtle attempt to manipulate and tamper with the composition of the Judicial Nominating Commission."

Irons said yesterday that, despite what Burgess told the Journal, no one from the Senate urged her to stay on.

"Neither I nor my office beseeched her to stay," said Irons.

Commission Chairman Robert Corrente said he had been asking General Assembly leaders to name a replacement for Burgess since January 1999 and has received virtually no response. Given the silence from the State House, he said, he obtained an opinion from Atty. Gen. Sheldon Whitehouse that Burgess can legally remain on the commission until she is replaced.

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