By Michael Howell
District Court Judge candidate Robert Myers’ attempt to have the complaint against him made by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel dismissed was denied by the Commission on Practice in an order filed on May 31, 2016. Myers was ordered to answer the complaint within seven days.
Instead of answering the complaint by the established deadline, on the last day Myers filed a motion to dismiss the complaint based on the argument that he was being tried twice for the same violation.
Myers was originally found guilty of violating state rules in a divorce case in which he made criminal allegations against the opposing party, her attorney, a child’s psychiatrist who testified as a witness, and the judge. Judge Jeffrey Langton issued a sanction order against Myers and fined him $10,000. Myers claims that because he was already found guilty and sanctioned by the District Court he could not now be charged with the same violations by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel for the Supreme Court.
The Commission on Practice did not see it that way.
“The Commission agrees in large part with the arguments and authorities set forth in the ODC’s brief. The motion to dismiss, filed on the final day Respondent’s appearance was due, essentially obtains for him the extension he was denied based on a motion that is procedurally suspect and is legally borderline frivolous in the Commission’s view,” it states in the order.
Myers was given an additional seven days to respond to the complaint.
Myers is a candidate for District Court Judge, running against Jeffrey Langton. He is also the attorney representing former county treasurer Valerie Stamey and her husband Richard in their libel suit against the Bitterroot Star.