Court Records: Retiring Judge Who Said Colleague Was Biased Has His Own Struggles
Updated: George Painter, one of the two administrative law judges at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is retiring, and he knew that it meant seven pending cases on his docket would be reassigned to his only counterpart, Bruce Levine.
But Painter sent a letter to the CFTC on Sept. 17 asking for that not to happen.
“On Judge Levine’s first week on the job, nearly 20 years ago, he came into my office and stated that he had promised Wendy Gramm, then chairwoman of the commission, that we would never rule in a complainant’s favor,” Painter wrote. “A review of his rulings will confirm that he fulfilled his vow.”
Painter suggested that the CFTC perhaps find an administrative law judge from the Securities and Exchange Commission or Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and included with his letter to the CFTC a 10-year-old Wall Street Journal article making the same assertion. A lawyer-adviser for Levine told the Washington Post that the CFTC’s press office’s position was not to comment, and that Levine was complying with that. The Post could not reach Gramm for commment.
However, later today, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) cited court records indicating that Judge Painter himself decided cases while he was struggling with mental illness and alcoholism.
Painter last made a ruling on Feb. 26, 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported. It cited court records filed by a lawyer for Painter’s wife—CFTC Elizabeth Ritter—that stated Painter spent 21 days in a geriatric psychiatric ward in June. Ritter filed those court records in an effort to seek guardianship over Painter, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A discharge statement in court records said that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital also diagnosed Painter as having “probable Alzheimer’s type dementia with behavioral disturbance” in June. Psychiatrist Nicholas J. Schor wrote on Aug. 26 that Painter’s disability was profound enough to keep him from making or communicating any responsible decisions. A guardianship petition Ritter filed Aug. 30 stated that Ritter first noticed “significant and abnormal behavioral changes” in Painter in 2007, when he started drinking heavily, the Wall Street Journal reported.
However, Painter’s lawyer, Jean Galloway Ball, told the Wall Street Journal that Painter is able to manage “his person and property.” Painter and Ritter are in divorce proceedings initiated by Painter, the Wall Street Journal reported. Painter’s son and niece have said in legal filings protesting Ritter’s proposed guardianship that Painter does not exhibit the mental problems Ritter describes. Painter’s son’s legal filing contains the results of a 30-question medical test, conducted by a geriatric-care manager on July 1, that describes Painter as mentally competent, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“We are disputing the need for the establishment of a guardian and disputing that he suffers from Alzheimer’s,” Galloway Ball told the Wall Street Journal.
Updated at 7:52 p.m. to include information from latest Wall Street Journal article.
