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Attorney Waystack:How about this: When you
are deciding what to do vis-à-vis
Bruce DalPra and sending this email, did you have in
your mind, guiding your actions in this specific case,
Rule 2.15?
Judge David King:Yes, I did.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. And did you have
in mind the difference between
2.15(A) and 2.15(C)?
Judge David King:Yes.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. And at the time
that you sent this email, in your mind, did you believe
that it rose to the level of a
2.15(A) mandatory report?
Judge David King:I would say at the time I
made the call, I hadn't decided that. I mean, I needed to
gather some more information. I needed to talk to
Master DalPra, find out what happened. I was going on
pretty limited information at that point. So I would -
You're asking me at a specific point in time. I would say
at that time, I didn't know if I had a
2.15(A) or (C), or none of the above.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. And at some point,
you did talk to
Master DalPra, correct?
Judge David King:I did.
Attorney Waystack:And did that
conversation clarify what obligations you had in this
specific case vis-à-vis
Rule 2.15?
Judge David King:Yes.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. And so, in this
case, this leads me to my next set of questions - did you
believe that
2.15(A) or 2.15(C) required you to provide this
information to the
Judicial Conduct Committee?
Judge David King:So, after speaking to
Master DalPra and reviewing the rule, I concluded that
“A” was not the applicable section. I did
not have a belief, and don't have a belief, as I sit here
today, that the rule had been violated raises a substantial
question regarding his honesty. He was pretty forthright
with me about what had occurred. His trustworthiness, I had
no reason not to trust him at that point. And when I think
of fitness as a judge, I think that's a pretty high bar to
meet. And I didn't, at that time, have a concern about his
fitness to serve as a judge. I had already decided under
“C,” however, that this something that,
even though it was a set of facts that I had never seen
before in my 30+ years as a judge, I felt there was an
obligation to let the
Judicial Conduct Committee know about it.
Attorney Waystack:Did you tell the
Judicial Conduct Committee?
Judge David King:Did I tell the
Judicial Conduct Committee what?
Attorney Waystack:About what you had
found regarding the transcript in the Albrecht
case?
Judge David King:Yes.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. Did you provide
this email to the
Judicial Conduct Committee?
Judge David King:No.
Attorney Waystack:Okay.
Judge David King:And let me just be clear.
When I say “Judicial
Conduct Committee,” I had a conversation with
Robert Mittelholzer
after I spoke with
Master DalPra about this incident. So I didn't have any
communication with the committee itself. I didn't send them
anything. I had a phone conversation with Robert
Mittelholzer.
Attorney Waystack:Did you - STRIKE THAT.
Were you aware of the fact that
Master DalPra had decided to self-report?
Judge David King:I was aware that
Master DalPra was going to self-report. I had a
conversation with him on
Wednesday, November 18th. I had sent him the email on
Friday. I think he was either - he either had a writing
day that day or he was on vacation. I had tried to call him
on his extension, which is typically how I try to reach a
judge. I don't like to call the clerk's office and, you
know, “The administrative judge is calling. What's
going on?” So I'm usually pretty low key about these
things. I was not able to get him. I tried a couple of
times during the day on
Friday. So I sent the email that's been marked as
Exhibit 1. Didn't hear back from him, I think until
Tuesday, the 17th. He said he had left his laptop at
work and he'd been working from home - circumstances that
he didn't see my email. So I think we spoke on
Tuesday, or we exchanged emails on
Tuesday, and we agreed to speak on
Wednesday, the 18th at 12:30 during a break in his
cases.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. Two questions
about what you just said. For people who are unaware, what
is a writing day for a judge?
Judge David King:Rare. But it's a day when
the judge is scheduled to not have any scheduled cases so
that they can catch up on writing orders for cases that
they've already heard.
Attorney Waystack:And then second, is it
uncommon for judges to work outside the courtroom on a
writing day?
Judge David King:Not during COVID-19, it
wasn't.
Attorney Waystack:And for the record, this
took place in November of 2020, which was during the
pandemic?
Judge David King:Correct.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. Did anything about
the delay between when you sent the email and when
Master DalPra got back to you indicate that he was
trying to be deceptive or concealing? Did you have any
reason to believe that?
Judge David King:No.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. To this day, do
you know whether or not the committee has seen this email?
Judge David King:I have no idea.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. To this day, are
you aware of whether or not the committee has accessed and
listened to either of the two audio files contained in this
email?
Judge David King:I don't. I do know that
in December of 2020, I provided those to Robert
Mittelholzer. It took me a couple of tries because I
sent them the first time in a - probably use the wrong word
here - but format that he couldn't open. And so Kathy Yee
was kind enough to help me re-send them in a different
format so that he was able to open them.
Attorney Waystack:Okay. And the same goes
for the - the same question for the two snippets. To your
knowledge, do you know if they've seen these snippets as
like set apart from the rest of the transcript in the way
that you did in this email?
Judge David King:I do not.
Attorney Waystack:Okay.