Benoit gives up fight > Panel had been poised to vote against judge

AUGUSTA — Controversial Maine District Court Judge John W. Benoit Jr. of Farmington withdrew his name from nomination to a third term as judge of the 12th District Court Wednesday night following a grueling 16-hour hearing that spanned two days before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.

Benoit, 58, was accompanied from the hearing room at the State House at 9:08 p.m. by state Sen. Charles Webster, R-Farmington, and Allan MacEwen, counsel to Gov. John R. McKernan, and was unavailable for comment.

According to committee members, Benoit was told in a closed-door session with the committee that a vote of the bipartisan 13-member committee was going to recommend that he not be reappointed to a third seven-year term on the bench. At 9:32 p.m., the committee reconvened and MacEwen announced that Benoit had withdrawn his name.

MacEwen said the governor’s office would file papers Thursday withdrawing Benoit’s name as a nominee for the 12th District Court. Benoit’s renomination had been opposed by the Maine Trial Lawyers Association, as well as lawyers in the district served by his court. But he had been defended by other residents of the district, as well as some leislators and spokesmen for law and order groups.

Benoit worked in the Attorney General’s Office for 13 years before being appointed to his first seven-year term on the 12th District Court bench by independent Gov. James B. Longley. He was reappointed by Democratic Gov. Joseph E. Brennan seven years later with little opposition.

During the past seven years, Benoit was twice censured by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court for conduct unbecoming a judge and for not being faithful to the law. He was suspended, forfeited pay and ordered to take a course in ethics.

Paradis convened a Democratic caucus Wednesday evening to confirm what appeared to be a unanimous party stance against Benoit. While Paradis said he would not confirm the number of legislators opposed to Benoit, he said it would not have been unanimous, but it would have included some Republicans.

The matters discussed in the executive session changed some committee members’ minds, Paradis said. The executive session was initiated by Rep. John H. Richards, R-Hampden, who said the committee should discuss a case involving an 11-year-old boy who broke into a garage and stole some shovels. It was understood that Benoit jailed the youth without a detention hearing and without representation by an attorney, Richards said.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court censured Benoit in 1984 for the illegal incarceration of a Pittsfield youth.

Gov. John McKernan, in his nomination of Benoit in March, said the judge’s two censures by the high court were weighed against his improved behavior in the past three years.

The testimony of Janet Mills, district attorney of Franklin, Androscoggin and Oxford counties, had a major impact on the committee, Paradis said.

Mills said that all of the criminal cases appealed from Benoit’s 12th District Court in Farmington were overturned. She said it was not true, as asserted by Benoit, that the crime rate in Franklin County had dropped. It had been steady for a number of years, she said.

Benoit told the committee that his stiff, harsh sentences were a deterrent to lawbreakers.

Several attorneys practicing in Somerset and Franklin counties testified during the 16 hours of hearing that Benoit was a good, decent man who was not suited to be a judge.

In addition, the Maine State Bar Association and the Maine Trial Lawyers Association said a poll of attorneys from Somerset and Franklin counties indicated a majority in opposition to Benoit’s continuation on the bench.

Benoit had overwhelming popular support from the people of Somerset and Franklin counties. The clerk of the Judiciary Committee said they received 278 letters in favor of reappointment and none in opposition. Twenty-four people testified for Benoit, including seven legislators and the state president of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving.