State’s high court cites judge in ’04 primary ethics violation

ALFRED – The state supreme court has concluded that York County Probate Judge Robert Nadeau violated the Maine Code of Judicial Conduct in connection with an advertisement he placed in local publications a week before the 2004 primary.

In its ruling Tuesday, the court deferred a decision on sanctions until it receives additional briefs from the parties involved.

Nadeau won the Democratic primary and went on to win re-election against his Republican challenger by a margin of 13,000 votes. He referred questions about the court decision to his attorney, Stephen Wade, who did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

The Committee on Judicial Responsibility and Disability received complaints from Nadeau’s four opponents in the primary and said he knowingly made misrepresentations about two of them.

Nadeau, who was first elected to the court in 1996, denied the allegations and put forth his own charges of ethical violations against three of his four opponents. The judicial oversight panel dismissed Nadeau’s complaints.

The advertisements in question included allegations surrounding attorney Donna Bailey’s professional conduct involving a child visitation issue and about the number of cases that Edward Caron had handled in the Probate Court.

In the advertisement involving Bailey, Nadeau wrote that she was seen on a video pulling a child from his grandparents’ arms. The justices concluded Nadeau’s claim was a misrepresentation and that the videotape in question showed that Bailey handled the situation appropriately in her role as guardian ad litem.

The supreme court found that Nadeau did not knowingly misrepresent facts regarding Caron, saying the judge had relied on his memory and consulted the Probate Court staff.