Judge Albritton resigns, effective March 31

PANAMA CITY — Circuit Judge Richard Albritton announced Friday that he will be retiring “due to personal medical problems.”

Albritton, in a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist, said his resignation will be effective March 31. The resignation effectively ends an ongoing investigation into an alleged ethical violation that Albritton committed last year, state officials said.

Once the governor accepts the judge’s resignation, a letter will be sent to a Judicial Nominating Commission, state officials said. The commission will have 60 days to review candidates and recommend at least three but no more than six judicial candidates. Crist will then have 60 days from the date he receives the list to make an appointment.

“We just went through that process” with Judge Glenn Hess, said Hentz McClellan, the Chief Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit. Hess left the bench in late 2007 in a successful bid for state attorney.

Until the new judge is selected, “The rest of us will have to step in and take over that case load,” McClellan said, “just as we did with Judge Hess.”

The new judge will not necessarily serve in Bay County, McClellan added. The circuit judges meet every two years, discuss their caseloads and take different assignments. Salary for a circuit judge is about $145,000, state officials said Friday.

Former State Attorney Jim Appleman, who is currently in private practice, said Albritton worked for him at the State Attorney’s Office. Appleman said he always got positive responses from the sheriffs who worked with Albritton in the forfeiture division.

“I’ve enjoyed working with him, not only as an assistant state attorney, but also as a judge,” Appleman said. “I found him always to be fair. I’m sorry to hear that his health situation has put him in a position where he’s going to have to resign.”

Hess, the current state attorney, agreed with Appleman’s sentiment.

“I hope that Judge Albritton is able to successfully address his medical issues and move on to an enjoyable retirement,” Hess said Friday.

Albritton, a circuit judge since 2001, said he would issue a press release about his retirement next week. Albritton had been under a second ethics investigation from the state Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC), his attorney Waylon Graham told The News Herald in December. On Friday, Graham declined to comment about the retirement.

At issue was a July 16 hearing in Albritton’s courtroom, where the judge found 36-year-old David Paul Brian in contempt for questioning a bailiff. Brian had pleaded no contest to drug charges and was given three years probation. A bailiff, as ordered by Albritton, was about to use an oversized swab to collect a DNA sample from inside Brian’s mouth. But Brian, who repeatedly told the court he was hard of hearing and having trouble understanding the proceedings, questioned the bailiff about what she was doing with the swab.

Albritton eventually jailed Brian for 10 days, ruling the incident was in direct contempt of court. JQC investigations are held in secret and their findings are only open to the public until it is deemed valid at a probable cause hearing. Since he is retiring, the JQC investigation into his actions will end and the circumstances they uncovered during the investigation will not be open to public scrutiny, JQC officials said Friday.

In 2006, the JQC gave Albritton 30 unpaid days off the bench as well as more than $6,000 in fines and costs for 14 ethics violations. Among the accusations: Albritton threatened a court administrator with contempt if she came to his office, fraternized with attorneys, pressured them to spend money on him and routinely humiliated people who appeared before him.

He required one defendant to attend church as part of probation — an unconstitutional condition — and told an attorney, “I know that’s wrong, but the defendant doesn’t know it,” according to the complaint.