FEATURE/Four of `America's Worst Judges'.

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--JUNE 22, 1999--

THESE JURISTS FAIL TO MEASURE UP AS COMMON SENSE, PUBLIC SAFETY ARE HELD IN CONTEMPT

One morning last January, an intruder entered Shawna Peterson's Seattle apartment, put a gun to the sleeping woman's head and pulled the trigger. Her 19-year-old sister also was murdered as she slept.

Police arrested Derrick Lamont Jones, a known gang member with a history of felony convictions. One newspaper wrote, "Niemi has given inexplicable leniency to this violent offender several times."

In its July 1999 issue, Reader's Digest magazine spotlights Niemi, and three more of "America's Worst Judges." Senior Editor Daniel Levine details their astonishing decisions -- and reports that, all too often, they are not held accountable for their actions.

Based on hundreds of pages of court records, and scores of interviews with attorneys, legal experts, police and crime victims, here are four of "America's Worst Judges:"

- Janice Niemi, King County Superior Court, Seattle, Wash.

When Derrick Lamont Jones allegedly threatened to kill his girlfriend's mother (shouting, "I'll blow your head off, bitch!" in front of police), prosecutors labeled Jones "clearly a danger to the community" and asked for $75,000 cash-only bail. Niemi set bond at $5,000, and Jones walked.

Another death-threat accusation followed, and a weapons charge. When another judge set Jones' bail at $100,000 cash, Niemi lowered it to a $30,000 bond. Once again, Jones walked.

Jones failed to show up for trial in September (nothing new for Jones), and he was arrested last October after allegedly punching another girlfriend in the face. Niemi released him on his own recognizance. Just three months later, the Peterson sisters were dead. "Police and prosecutors did their jobs for public safety," wrote the Seattle Times. "Niemi did not."

- Dalton A. Roberson, Detroit, Mich.

Like Niemi, Roberson is also well-known for leniency -- just ask the family of Christina Comito, 25, killed when an oncoming truck crossed the center stripe and rammed her small truck. That motorist, Ivory Lynn Herron, was driving with a suspended license and PCP was found in his blood. And thanks to Judge Roberson, he had served just one year for a prior felony drug conviction carrying a 10-year mandatory minimum.

After killing a 53-year-old man during a car heist attempt, teen-agers Kermit Haynes and Cortez Miller took their chances with Roberson, and got what they were looking for -- juvenile probation, meaning they'd be free at 21. A higher court overruled him and ordered Roberson to resentence them as adults. Roberson then threw out their guilty pleas, effectively nullifying their life sentences. Prosecutors appealed to a higher court and the guilty pleas were reinstated.

Today, Haynes and Miller are serving the life sentences, Michigan has given prosecutors greater power to prosecute violent juveniles as adults, and after a court reorganization, Roberson, once chief judge of Detroit's highest criminal trial court, now handles civil cases.

- James D. Heiple, Illinois Supreme Court, Springfield, Ill.

Heiple is best known nationwide for writing the 1994 Warburton decision, ripping a 4-year-old from his adoptive home and sending the boy back to his biological parents. The unanimous ruling lacked reference to previous case law. An opinion Heiple later wrote was complete with outrageous personal attacks against critics of the decision, including the governor and state legislators.

Heiple is also known for his exploits at the wheel. After being named Illinois' chief justice in 1997, it was revealed he had first flashed his court ID instead of his driver's license and avoided three separate speeding tickets. In another traffic stop, he zipped away from police, then when tracked down again told them, "Oh, shut up -- do you know who you're talking to?"

Faced with possible removal from the bench for this behavior, Heiple stunned observers by nominating one of his own colleagues to head his review panel. He got off with a slap on the wrist, and remains today on the state's highest court.

- Russell G. Clark, US District Court Judge, Springfield, Mo.

Clark's initial ruling was well intended. He approved a plan to integrate Kansas City's urban schools in part by creating magnet "theme" schools to lure back suburban kids. But to implement the plan, Clark trampled the Constitution and oversaw the expenditure of preposterous sums.

One school added Greek statues in the lobby, an Olympic-sized swimming pool with underwater observation window, and a former Russian Olympic fencing coach. Another boasts a climate-controlled art gallery and posh 1,200-seat theater, complete with box office.

To pay for all this, Clark imposed a 1.5 percent state income tax surcharge, nearly doubled property taxes and ordered taxpayers to fund school salary raises -- even though judges have no authority to levy taxes. He even approved the razing of a neighborhood to make way for one campus expansion.

Higher courts have ruled Clark exceeded his authority in some matters -- but more than two billion dollars later, Kansas City schools still suffer from declining white enrollment. "Our school kids now know how to fence," complained one school board member. "But they don't know the basics of reading, writing or math."

In a democratic society, public trust is also basic if the legal system is to function. But as Reader's Digest magazine reveals in "America's Worst Judges," that trust is sometimes betrayed -- not by the criminals but by a handful of unaccountable jurists, who exceed their authority or are excessively lenient.