DiPietro omits positive information about Judge Estelle

The Alaska Judicial Council is at it again. It’s Executive Director, Suzanne DiPietro, has publicly lamented that the Legislature took away her council’s advertising budget, in an effort to keep them from politicking at public expense. But her column in Friday’s Frontiersman shows the Legislative wing-clipping hasn’t done the job.

DiPietro doesn’t like Palmer District Court Judge Bill Estelle, and she’s not going to let fairness stand in the way of her council’s campaign to get him out of office. Her column uses half-truths and omissions to accomplish that goal.

DiPietro launches her hatchet job with a selective quote. She says Judge Estelle swore that “no matter currently referred to me for opinion or decision has been uncompleted or undecided by me for a period of more than six months.’” But the actual language was: “to the best of my knowledge and belief no matter currently referred to me for opinion or decision has been uncompleted or undecided by me for a period of more than six months.”

There’s a difference, and it’s a critical one in a case where the investigators and the Supreme Court have found that the reporting errors were inadvertent. Judge Estelle’s knowledge and belief were mistaken, but the affidavits did accurately reflect his knowledge and belief.

From there forward, DiPietro omits every positive item of information that might give voters a balanced view of Judge Estelle. She omits the finding that the judge had “no dishonest or selfish motive” and “did not act intentionally.” She omits the finding that he has an “excellent character and an excellent reputation,” that he is “precise and thorough,” and that he has a “good legal mind.” DiPietro and her council, it would seem, are simply incapable of balance. The judges they like are wonderful. The ones they don’t like don’t have a single positive attribute.

Let’s look at the facts. In 11 years on the bench, Judge Estelle has handled about 6,000 cases each year. In 2013, a party filed a motion in one of his cases, claiming the Judge had filed erroneous pay affidavits in December 2012 because a case was overdue. Judge Estelle read the motion, went back and checked the case file, and discovered the party was wrong — the December pay affidavits were accurate.

However, as he researched he figured out that there were other affidavits that did have an error. He immediately went to a higher-ranking judge and told her he thought he needed to self-report, and the report was made the very next day. Although DiPietro suggests a citizen had already reported the issue before Judge Estelle did, she omits to mention that 1. the judge had no idea the citizen had complained and 2. the citizen’s complaint was actually wrong — it was Judge Estelle’s report that pointed out the true errors.

Concerned that he might have overlooked other cases, he looked back over the past two years — about 12,000 cases — while he had been struggling with health issues, and discovered a second decision that had been overdue when he had signed pay affidavits. Contrary to what DiPietro implies, that case had never appeared on the court system’s computer-generated “under advisement” list, designed to remind judges which cases need attention. Judge Estelle self-reported the second case as well.

Judge Estelle was mortified by his mistakes, and he accepted the punishment he was given. But the fact remains that he is a man of high character who made an honest mistake, which he self-reported.

For perspective, it is worth remembering that a legislative audit in 2001 identified six judges who had overdue cases and yet had signed pay affidavits. The legislative audit committee found that “when errors do occur, they often go on for a period of time without the judge involved being aware of the situation.” The judges identified in the audit were not disciplined because their conduct was inadvertent.

It is sad that the Alaska Judicial Council would publish a column in the Frontiersman painting Judge Estelle as dishonest while leaving out all the positive facts that would create a balanced picture. In publishing half-truths, the council demonstrates again its unwillingness to take the unbiased, non-political high road that should be the goal of a public body. The steady erosion of the council’s integrity in recent years has lost it many friends, and has encouraged the growing movement to reform the council or do away with it entirely.

William Estelle has made a lifetime of service to Palmer, where he was born and raised. He is a beloved and fair member of the judiciary in that community. Alaskans should not let a biased and unfair attack manipulate them into depriving the Valley of one of its finest public servants.

Lynne Gallant is a longtime Alaskan. She works as a newborn intensive care nurse in Anchorage.