Legal Ethics
Judge Reprimanded for Autographed Baseball Request
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Oct 6, 2008, 01:44 pm CDT
A judge has been reprimanded by the Missouri Supreme Court for an unusual request made when he was a prosecutor negotiating a plea agreement.
The court reprimanded Judge Matthew Thornhill for seeking an autographed baseball signed by former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Thornhill made the request when he was an assistant prosecutor negotiating a deal with a lawyer for a suspect who had claimed Bradshaw was her godfather.
Thornhill reportedly didn’t believe the baseball story and refused to take the ball when it was offered. It turned out the signature on it was a forgery.