The attorney for Sedgwick County District Court Judge Rebecca Pilshaw said she “will be very careful to conform her conduct” to suit the state’s Commission on Judicial Qualifications, which recently gave her two “cease-and-desist” orders over her handling of two criminal cases. She’d better make some changes. Pilshaw also came in last among 26 Sedgwick County judges in the 2006 survey evaluating the court conducted by The Eagle and the Wichita Bar Association. The only woman on the local bench, she could face trouble should she run for re-election next year. So could Judges Warren Wilbert and Richard Ballinger, who received similar orders from the commission last year related to a sexual harassment complaint by a Courthouse employee.
But that’s how our county’s system of electing judges works. And why it works, some would argue — because judges have to answer to voters.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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