Isn’t this a little late? I suppose I’m in a minority of those who try to deal with paper as soon as it comes in. Be that as it may, not knowing one judge from another, I called a friend who is a lawyer and asked her opinion.

Snyder’s cool. Smart guy.

Reluctantly I know Shepard professionally. Shepard will not like these comments, but becoming a Judge is a powerful position, and my experience with his behavior leads me to believe that he would not make a good judge. I don?t know Snyder, and am voting for neither.

Shepard was opposing counsel in an acrimonious partnership breakup. It is an old story. My partners wanted me out, cheap. Litigation ensued and I won. I almost lost though, as the crux of the litigation was; .. What is the value of the company that I owned part of?

Human greed is usually at the foundation of these disputes. Our company had received a purchase offer, which was very attractive. My ?partners? decided not to disclose this pending sale to me, in hopes that they could buy me out cheap and pocket the difference.

Mr. Shepard?s role was to hide the fact that there was a sale pending and argue that the company was worth considerably less. Although I suspected this was the case, I could not prove it, as whenever we asked Shepard?s side if there was sale pending, it was denied. That was a lie, and Shepard made it to the arbitrator (Judge) in this case.

I believe that Shepard had a duty imposed by the Bar Association to divulge this pending sale at much higher price than he was arguing for, to the arbitrator. He did not, even though he was asked multiple times. This important fact would have destroyed his chances for success.

The Bar Association calls this behavior ?Discovery Misconduct?.

I got lucky and discovered the pending sale, albeit after the arbitration finished. It was brought to the attention of the arbitrator, and a verdict was rendered in my favor. It could have turned out differently, as this arbitration had no appeal. A lot of money and time was wasted, by simply hiding this crucial fact.

We all depend on access to a Judicial system that is fair, which ultimately leads to the Judges we select. Hiding information from a judge manipulates the system and produces unfair results.

While Mr. Shepard may not like my airing dirty laundry in public, it was his personal decision to behave like this, he agreed to the Bar Code of Conduct,  and now he wishes to be a Judge.

Like it or not, this is not the behavior that I would expect from a Judge. Being a Judge is a high privilege.

I have a complete record, and will make it available to the media, if they would like to check my facts.

To answer MaryMele - yes, this is late because, first, it appears ballots are slow to be mailed and perhaps folks are pondering a decision.  Second, this race seems so contentious that I thought allowing some comments might help all of us. 

So, now my view.  I have voted for Snyder.  We’ve not seen anything negative about his time on the bench. A judge gets reelected unless he is screwing up.  The opponents seem like a small group of very vocal people who have not shown why Snyder should be replaced. Shepherd may be a great family guy and qualified, but that is not sufficient reason to replace a good judge.

Also Snyder has shown leadership in the special courts that help avoid criminalizing people unnecessarily.  Teen Court is the shining example, but there are others.  We need this leadership from our local judges.  Lets show our support for these programs by reelecting him.

I concur with the opinion of the Honorable Webmaster