According to an anonymous judge, the public should be happy with no information about a politician's divorce here in Maryland.
Never mind that character counts in the polling place.
Richard Colburn was served with divorce papers in December. He is a state senator and town manager of the small Eastern Shore town of Federalsburg.
http://www.myeasternshoremd.com/...
And then, in an unusual move, the entire case was sealed.
http://www.delmarvanow.com/...
CAMBRIDGE — Concerns about politics and privacy led a Dorchester County judge to rule state Sen. Richard Colburn’s divorce will be hidden from public eyes.
No one will be allowed to view the court file. Only attorneys and the Colburns will be allowed inside court proceedings. People curious to find out when the trial will take place will not find any information in Maryland’s online court management system.
The decision was made Friday after Richard Colburn’s attorney, Lynn Knight, filed a brief with the court in December asking the file be sealed from public view. In the brief, Knight wrote that a public and transparent court hearing would harm the political career of Colburn, R-37-Dorchester.
“The records contained personal information of the defendant that could be detrimental to his career, affect his financial stability and that of the plaintiff during the pendency of the divorce proceedings,” Knight wrote. “No prejudice exists to the plaintiff to limit or restrict the inspection of these records. Severe prejudice exists to the defendant, including the potential for blackmail or other coercion due to his political position.”
The man has been in the lege since 1983. Maybe it's time to go.
The news report doesn't mention who the judge was. Yes, in a true Franz Kafka moment, the name of the judge who made the decision isn't available to the public. Only those who were there at the Feb. 7 hearing know, and the reporter told me she had a conflict and could not go. Something that's all too common in the world of understaffed newspapers.
So we have a Republican state senator whose divorce proceedings are sealed by an unknown judge in an election year because the information might affect his "career."
I wonder how many "Character Counts" photo ops Colburn has done over the years.
Would the judge be a friend, associate, or donor? It's something else the public is entitled to know. The Shore's Republican universe simply isn't that big.
Based on the state of the party in Maryland, he could be replaced by someone from the Bagster wing.
Shore residents who vote for Republicans just can't help kicking themselves, it seems.
Why do I say character counts? Pix worth a kilobyte.
http://www.stardem.com/...