Judge T. David Law

Time heals all wounds. This time last year, the district court bench out in Novi was in complete disarray. Judge MacKenzie was being sued by the Oakland County Prosecutor and the feds were sniffing around, while down the hall, Judge Powers had his troubles with the Judicial Tenure Commission.

Now, an election has taken care of Judge MacKenzie, and Judge Powers resigned on the eve of his judicial tenure trial.  New judges are on the bench in Novi these days.

Judge Travis Reeds took the bench in January following his election victory over Judge MacKenzie. And although the list was very long with judicial hopefuls, Governor Snyder finally selected T. David Law, a First Assistant Attorney General, over many other well-qualified candidates.

Newly-appointed Judge Law will finish out the balance of now-retired Judge Powers' term and run for election in November 2016. With a name like Law, we think he'll have a great chance to get elected in Novi.

This is a very good development as the Novi District Court is a busy place. That court handles some of Oakland County's prime real estate.

So we here at the Law Blogger are glad that the dust has finally settled over there. In fact, one of our lawyers is scheduled for trial in Novi next week.

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It has happened before in places throughout Michigan, no doubt.  An election that pits the legal mentor, in this case Novi's district court judge, Brian MacKenzie, against his former law clerk, attorney Travis Reeds.

It's getting kinda dirty and uncomfortable over there right now.  That's usually the case with hotly contested races of any kind  -this non-partisan one is no exception.

Meanwhile, down the hall, the selection process continues for a replacement to fill the recently vacated seat of now-retired Judge Dennis Powers.  The Governor's list on that seat is long folks, very long.

The general election is on Tuesday, November 4th.  Be sure to examine the non-partisan portion of your ballot; you will find a full-slate of judicial candidates for all the courts in Michigan, including your local district court judge.

We here at the Law Blogger anxiously await the results for each of these Novi judgeships.

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This is not a resignation, he says.  Judge Dennis Powers, having served on the district court bench in Novi for the past 16-years, told Michigan Lawyers Weekly that he submitted a letter of retirement, not resignation.

Today is the first day Judge Powers' courtroom sits empty following his sudden change in plans.

The embattled judge was facing a trial this month at the Judicial Tenure Commission over allegations of improper expense reports, a "ghost docket", threatening a "whistle blower" staff member, and other judicial improprieties.  Up until 2-weeks ago, it looked like Judge Powers, 72-years old and thus ineligible by age to run for another election under state law, was determined to fight the charges to the bitter end.  Judge Powers' lawyers at the Vandeveer Garza law firm were gearing-up; now they have withdrawn from the matter.

Not to condone judicial impropriety [these allegations will never carry the weight of a judicial conviction in light of the Judge's sudden retirement], but we here at the Law Blogger will hate to see Judge Powers go.  He was always a gracious and reasonable jurist in our experience.  Personally, I had one of my biggest felony cases begin in the Novi District Court, and Judge Powers handled it very well; for that I will always be grateful.

That said, however, this is truly a bad end to an otherwise outstanding judicial tenure.  When judges are accused of impropriety -something that has been rampant out in Novi- the effect is that the foundation of the justice system erodes and the community loses faith in the concept of achieving justice as a civic goal in our free society.  This is not a good result in a free society governed by laws that are ruled upon by a judiciary elected from the community.

The next step out in Novi is for Governor Rick Snyder to appoint a lawyer to finish-out the remaining two years of Judge Powers' term.

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