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Disciplinary Counsel v. O'Neill9/7/2004
to Franklin County Common Pleas Court 1995- 2003, Tenth District Court of Appeals, 2003-present) served as Administrative Judge of the Franklin County Common Pleas Court from January 2001 to April 2003.
280. In 2000, Judge Watson was chair of the court personnel committee. Judge O'Neill requested to attend a personnel committee meeting in July 2000 and admitted there were problems with her employees and she pledged to try to do better. When Judge Watson became administrative judge in January of 2001 he accompanied Goodman to a meeting with Judge O'Neill about court furniture choices. He remained to have further discussion privately with Judge O'Neill. He was concerned about the belligerent way that she was treating certain members of her staff, the way she was treating lawyers, the way she was treating litigants and wanted to see it come to an end. Judge Watson wanted to try to resolve what he could resolve. (Transcript Vol. XVI -- 24-27)
281. In their private meeting Judge Watson offered to assist Judge O'Neill in any way he could. He thought at first that Judge O'Neill was receptive but almost immediately she became defensive stating that she was tired of people "f'ing with her". She brought up Judge Cain and maintained that he had a vendetta against her dating back to the 1992 election. (Transcript Vol. XVI -- 29-31) Judge Watson discussed how to deal with people Judge O'Neill perceived to be challenging her authority as a judge. Watson recommended that Judge O'Neill get off the bench and vent frustration and anger in private and speak with the individual out of the public eye or even scream into a pillow in private. (Transcript Vol. XVI - 32-33) He suggested that it may be helpful to take some time off and get her head cleared and deal with whatever she needed to deal with. (Transcript Vol. XVI -- 29) During the conversation Judge Watson told Judge O'Neill that he had told court administrative staff that in the future if Judge O'Neill had complaints and called or summoned people to her chambers he was to be called and he would be present. He said this was due to "The repetitive nature of the behavior. The frequency that it was happening. The fact that employees were beside themselves with having to deal with it. It was interrupting their regular work flow." (Transcript Vol. XVI -- 34) They discussed problems with Judge O'Neill's bailiff Karen Moore and Judge Watson told her it was up to her to take care of those problems. Judge Watson dictated a synopsis of the meeting on that day. (Relator's Exhibit SSS) Judge Watson said nothing to Judge O'Neill about the grievances about to be filed against her because they related to Judge O'Neill's past conduct, which he could not change -- his concern was with going forward. (Transcript Vol. XVI -- 48-49)
282. In her Answer regarding this meeting Judge O'Neill plead at Judge Watson "proceeded to tell her to fire her bailiff, Karen Moore" and that "It is believed that he (Watson) was retaliating against Ms. Moore because she had filed a grievance against Judge Cain as Administrative Judge in 2000...the grievance was filed with Judge Watson." At 604 Judge O'Neill "avers that the conversation with Judge Watson was brief and the conversation mainly concerned the furniture, her bailiff and her mother. To the best of her recollection, Judge O'Neill recalls that Judge Watson told her that because her docket was so low she could afford to take some time off to visit her mother." In , Judge O'Neill "denies that she apologized, recognized that at times she lost her composure and asked Judge Watson for help." In , Judge O'Neill "avers that the meeting was brief, but unusual and Judge Watson left visibly agitated." Judge Watson testified Judge O'Nei
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