Judges Tougher than He Is?

Paul Goetzke was originally elected Circuit Court Judge in Anne Arundel County on a platform (actually more of a yard sign) declaring that he was: "A judge as tough as you are." Tapping nicely into the demographic who thought that past sentencing by the sitting judges had been too lenient, and likely didn't have the faintest clue about what past sentencing patterns had been, Goetzke swept to victory.

It's taken less than a year for the rhetoric over track-record approach to campaigning to bear rotten fruit. The Sunday Sun reported on the rebuking of Goetzke by a panel of Anne Arundel County judges for his unilateral increase of penalties in a teenager's plea agreement and illegally fining the teen and his lawyer.

The case involved a juvenile who had vandalized a car by shooting it with marbles. The initial agreement required the perp to pay $500 for the repair and undertake 64 hours of community service. That, apparently, was not enough for Goetzke, who tried to tack on an additional $250 for the victim's "inconvenience" for having to show up for court, a provision not covered in the law (Later, the victim wanted to be reimbursed for lost wages, but lacked documentation of the claim). No, no, no, said the three-judge panel.

With all this hue and cry about activist judges, could it be that we have one here, in our very midst?