A former Federal Way Municipal Court supervisor filed a $500,000 claim against the city this week, saying she was fired because she raised concerns in November that Judge Michael Morgan might harm himself or others.
Federal Way’s police chief took the supervisor’s concerns seriously enough that he recommended Morgan be put on leave and evaluated to see if he was a threat, newly released documents show.
“I do believe there is an immediate safety concern for Judge Morgan as well as the potential for workplace violence against court and City Hall staff,” Chief Brian J. Wilson wrote to City Manager Neal Beets on Nov. 21.
Morgan, who is still the city’s presiding judge, denied in an interview this week that he made statements of suicide or violence to court employees.
Court services supervisor Cindy Roque, who raised the concerns about Morgan, was placed on leave by other court officials the day after Wilson’s recommendation and fired Jan. 28.
Roque gave a report to city officials, in which she said she didn’t hear the suicide threat herself, but that a subordinate court employee told her.
Roque also said in her report that she had a conversation with Morgan the same day or the day after in which he indicated, “if I’m going down, others here are, too.”
Beets, the city manager, told The News Tribune this week that he did not put Morgan on leave because the elected judge is under the jurisdiction of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Morgan said in an interview this week that Roque’s and Wilson’s allegations are untrue. “I’ve cooperated with all investigations which found these claims were meritless,” he said.
Roque’s statement and Wilson’s e-mail were among records released this week to The News Tribune in response to a public records request.
Morgan’s management of the court came into question last year after a fellow judge, Colleen Hartl, resigned over a sexual indiscretion with a public defender. The Commission on Judicial Conduct reprimanded Morgan in December for threatening and otherwise inappropriate communications with court employees.
Roque alleges in this week’s legal claim that she was fired because she notified the human resources and police departments about Morgan’s threats of harm.
Because of the litigation, City Attorney Pat Richardson declined comment on Roque’s claim.
Morgan said Roque was terminated because she violated conditions of her leave and posted a blog “critical of me, undermining management.” Roque declined comment Friday and referred questions to her attorney, who did not return phone calls.
Morgan, 49, said Thursday he is not suicidal or depressed. To the contrary, “I’m very upbeat,” he said.
He said another investigation – other than the commission’s – found Roque’s report untrue. He declined to elaborate.
The city manager said he wasn’t aware of another investigation.
In her Nov. 19 statement, Roque said that court clerk Christine Faucher told her that “Judge Morgan threatened suicide” the previous week. Faucher told The News Tribune on Friday that she had “no comment at this time.”
Police Chief Wilson said in an interview this week that it was his duty to forward his recommendation that Morgan be put on leave.
The city manager said the city attorney sent Wilson’s e-mail to the Commission on Judicial Conduct. City attorney Richardson wouldn’t comment, saying any communication with the commission is confidential.
Morgan manages the Federal Way Municipal Court and its 13 employees as its presiding judge. He was elected to a four-year term that expires Dec. 31.
The court’s other judge, Dave Larson, was appointed in February 2008 to fill out Hartl’s term through 2009.
Morgan said Thursday that he plans to finish out his term and will decide in a couple of months whether he’ll run for re-election.
How much authority does a city have over its municipal court judges? Not much, if any.
Case in point: the City of Federal Way. It feels mostly powerless in the case of Michael Morgan, the presiding municipal court judge whose volatile relations with colleagues and subordinates have come out in multiple public documents.
Judges fall under the oversight of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, said Reiko Callner, executive director of the CJC.
The commission has the power to investigate judges, discipline them and even order them to see a psychiatrist.
Federal Way City Manager Neal Beets voiced frustration this week over the city being named in a half-million-dollar legal claim regarding a court over which it has no jurisdiction. The city finds itself “to be potentially liable for actions you don’t have control over,” Beets said in an interview. “That’s an awkward and frustrating position to be in.”
Under state law, the city – including the city manager and the City Council – doesn’t have the authority to put Morgan or any judge on leave, according to City Attorney Pat Richardson.
In 2003, then-City Manager David Moseley put Federal Way Municipal Court Judge David Tracy, an appointed judge, on paid leave for nearly a week for “emotional stress.” But Moseley later changed it to vacation time on Tracy’s time slip.
Callner said there’s only one clear way under state law a judge can be put on leave: The CJC would have to censure the judge and recommend suspension to the state Supreme Court.
In December, the CJC reprimanded Morgan for making threatening comments to court employees, discussing matters of a sexual nature with his staff and swearing at Police Chief Brian J. Wilson.
Two weeks before Morgan faced the CJC, his court services supervisor believed that the upcoming meeting with the powerful panel was weighing on the judge.
Cindy Roque said she felt conflicted about reporting a suicide threat that Morgan allegedly made to a subordinate.
“I feel as if I’m betraying his trust in me by reporting these statements, but, I’m fearful now with his mental state and the closeness of the CJC hearings coming up in December he is getting whittled away mentally,” Roque wrote.
Wilson, the police chief, recommended that Morgan be placed on leave because of Roque’s report. Beets said the recommendation was passed on to the CJC.
Morgan said Thursday that he did not threaten to commit suicide.
Roque has since lost her job. She has filed a legal claim against the city, saying she was wrongfully fired for raising concerns about the judge.
There’s no way to know what role, if any, Roque’s allegation and Wilson’s recommendation played in the CJC’s decision to reprimand Morgan because the commission’s investigations are confidential.
Callner wouldn’t say whether the CJC even received the allegations.
“I can’t tell you what is part of an investigation,” she said.
But Morgan acknowledged to the commission that he made intimidating comments to court employees, communicating that he would fire them and replace them with clerks from the Superior Court system.
Morgan also acknowledged that on a few occasions he raised his voice and swore, even at the police chief. And he admitted discussing “matters of a personal and sexual nature” with court staff members. He said “many” of those conversations were within the context of his investigation of Judge Colleen Hartl, his former colleague.
Hartl resigned from the Federal Way bench in December 2007 and was censured by the CJC in August for having a sexual encounter with a public defender, telling court workers about it when she was drunk at her own party and then trying to conceal her misconduct.
When it reprimanded Morgan, the CJC set down conditions Dec. 5 requiring him to undergo evaluation within 30 days by a commission-approved counselor and then comply with the counselor’s recommendations.
Morgan said this week that he met Dec. 26 with a commission-approved psychiatrist, who evaluated him and recommended no further treatment.
Callner said she could not comment because of confidentiality, other than to say that, as far as she knows, Morgan is complying with that condition.
Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647
