MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – The Mobile County Public Defender’s Office is trying to get temporary Circuit Judge Charles Graddick removed from presiding over some criminal cases.
Those cases involve criminal matters that the District Attorney’s Office was working on during Graddick’s tenure there before returning to the bench part time. One of those cases involves Myles Caples, who is charged with capital murder in the slaying of a Mobile city worker in the Birdville community in 2018.
Attorneys with the Public Defender’s Office declined to comment, but in a court filing, lawyers wrote that Graddick’s past connection to the District Attorney’s Office creates the possibility of a conflict of interest.
“There is a reason to question Judge Graddick’s impartiality in this case. … He was specifically involved in pending murder cases and spoke to detectives on those cases,” the filing states.
Graddick held a hearing this week on the request that he stepped aside and quickly denied it.
Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich called this effort to get the judge removed “petty.” She told FOX10 News that there is no reason to doubt Graddick’s fairness.
“Judge Graddick was in my office for a very brief time, serving as a mentor for young lawyers. He never once got a file,” she said. “He never once looked at a file. He never once, you know, opened a file and said, ‘I’m going to work on this case.'”
Graddick served for more than a decade as a full-time circuit judge before retiring in 2017. But he began hearing cases this year on a part-time basis to help clear a backlog that built up as a result of COVID-19.
The Public Defender’s Office has challenged Graddick in at least another case, asking him to recuse himself in the case of Krista McDaniel, who is charged with distribution of drugs. The judge denied that request, and her lawyer appealed to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. That court has not ruled on the issue.
The Public Defender’s Office cites a 1995 appellate court ruling on a case from Mobile County, in which the panel ruled that then-Circuit Judge Chris Galanos should have recused himself from a variety of cases that were pending when he was the district attorney.
“The standard laid out by the court is “whether another person, knowing all of the circumstances, might reasonably question the judge’s impartiality—whether there is an appearance of impropriety.”
Deputy Public Defender James Vollmer wrote that Graddick is in a similar situation.
“Judge Graddick was at least an attorney employed by the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office working closely with an assistant district attorney of record assigned to this case,” he wrote. “That association requires Judge Graddick’s recusal from any further participation as judge in this case.”
Rich said Graddick’s role was limited.
“In no way, shape or form should it penalize him now from going back and sitting on the bench and helping get the extreme backlog that we have because of COVID down,” she said.
—
Download the FOX10 Weather App. Get life-saving severe weather warnings and alerts for your location no matter where you are. Available free in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
Copyright 2022 WALA. All rights reserved.