Mich. Judge Who Removed Opponent’s Signs: I Did Nothing Wrong

Legal Ethics

Mich. Judge Who Removed Opponent’s Signs: I Did Nothing Wrong

Posted Jul 30, 2008, 12:04 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

A Michigan judge who admittedly removed her opponent's campaign signs from a seemingly public area, while leaving her own adjacent campaign signs in place, says she did nothing wrong.

But Judge Dana Fortinberry appears to be incorrect when she says the signs were on private property that only she had permission to use for posting signs, reports the Detroit Free Press.

Instead, the newspaper says, it appears that both Fortinberry—who was caught on camera by a volunteer for her opponent, Joseph Fabrizio, removing the signs—and Fabrizio, as well as several other candidates, are violating an Independence Township ordinance that prohibits political signs in the public right-of-way.

Meanwhile, regardless of the property ownership issue, this may not have been the best way to handle the situation:

"Judges should not be pulling up signs," says attorney Michael Schwartz, a former Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission prosecutor. "It sets a very bad example for the general public. Judges are held to a higher standard."

Fortinberry told a reporter that she left the undamaged signs nearby, so her opponent's campaign volunteers could pick them up and reuse them.

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