I was a judge for nine years and attended the Michigan Judicial Institute which trains all judges in the State of Michigan. I attended the Institute as a new judge and later as a faculty member. It was consistently emphasized that every judge should avoid the appearance of impropriety in all activities. Today Judge Atkins’ failure to recuse Judge Giles is particularly disturbing because there were significant reasons to justify his not hearing this case.

Before any arguments were heard by Judge Giles he should have disclosed two major facts on the record. The first and most alarming was that the day before the motion hearing he had a conversation with one of Defendant Kilpatrick’s Executive Protection Unit representatives and did not disclose it. He only acknowledged this after the prosecution revealed the improper communication during our argument. Secondly, he waited until the middle of our argument to disclose that he had a party at his home where the defendant was present as a special guest.

The opinion is sadly incomplete in its failure to address the fact that Judge Giles disclosed these facts only when confronted on the record. It glosses over the 20 cases where the bench recused itself in cases with far less significant charges and provides no rationale to factually distinguish why the result is different in the defendant’s case.

Finally, the Court provides little explanation why the entire bench should not be recused because the City of Detroit is a source of funding for the 36th District Court.

We will appeal this decision to deny our Motion to Recuse Judge Ronald Giles and the Entire 36th District Court Bench