HBP: Judge Toosed Off Bench for Meddling With Prosecution of Daughter's Softball Coach

A Nebraska judge who was an assistant coach for his daughter's softball team has been ejected from the bench for meddling in a prosecution against the team's head coach.

The Supreme Court of Nebraska decided to strip Judge Kent Florom of his judgeship for trying to thwart the prosecution of the coach, who was also a teacher at a Nebraska high school and had pleaded no contest to charges that she stole about $900 from her school's booster club.

The court decided to remove Florom, a judge of the County Court for Lincoln County, Neb., since 1991, after it concluded that he also had interfered in a juvenile case involving one of the team's players.

Adopting a recommendation by the state's judicial ethics commission, the court found that Florom's repeated violations of the Nebraska Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibits conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, warranted removal.

Florom became assistant coach of the North Platte Sensations, a community softball team in North Platte, Neb., in early 2008. Soon after, he learned that Sharon Kramer, a teacher at North Platte High School and coach of the community team, was about to be arrested for stealing from the school's booster club, according to the court's July 9 decision. The judge initially asked the prosecuting attorney if Kramer could pay restitution, and he later asked if he could pay restitution. He also told another prosecutor that he would put Kramer on "double secret probation" and that Kramer should plead early or by waiver to avoid media coverage of the matter. The judge said that he was concerned about the team getting a "black eye" from the criminal prosecution, according to court papers filed by the Nebraska Commission on Judicial Qualifications.

A few months later, Florom told a friend of a North Platte school board member, who was also an attorney, that if the school board took action against Kramer to have her fired a ...