Let everyone stipulate that Judge Brooks E. Blitch 3d, who served 28 years on the Superior Court bench in rural Georgia before resigning amid scandal, will never be ranked with Earl Warren, Louis Brandeis and other immortals of the law.
But prosecutors and defense agree on this much: the charge against Blitch, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to one corruption charge out of 14 lodged against him, should be thrown out because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on “honest services fraud.” (Some lawmakers are pushing legislation in response to Skilling v. United States, which narrowed the scope of honest services fraud to bribery and kickbacks schemes.)
Okay, so prosecutors in the Middle District of Georgia charged him with “fixing cases, appointing his former law partner to a judgeship in exchange for legal services and making illegal payments to employees,” as the Associated Press notes. But the really important thing to keep in mind is that “honest services fraud” is only a crime if the defendant accepted bribes or kickbacks.
Apparently, he never did, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District, Michael J. Moore, agreed. So Moore’s office has joined the defense in moving to have the guilty plea set aside.
But at his plea hearing in 2009, Blitch, who is 76, was asked if he was truly guilty. “Yes, sir,” he replied. “I am responsible for it too.”
Sometimes the law works in mysterious ways.
