TRAVERSE CITY - The state Supreme Court benched District Judge Thomas Gilbert for six months without pay in September after word emerged that he smoked marijuana at a rock concert last year.
Justices were divided over whether to suspend the judge or oust him from the 86th District Court, which serves Grand Traverse, Antrim and Leelanau counties.
What rankled Justice Elizabeth Weaver, who wanted Gilbert out, was his admission he smoked marijuana regularly, even after he was elected judge in 2000. Gilbert blamed the pot smoking on an alcohol problem, attended a treatment program and says he has been sober since November 2002
TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN — A judge who was seen smoking marijuana at a Rolling Stones concert in 2002 announced he will not seek re-election.
State District Judge Thomas Gilbert was suspended from the bench in September for six months without pay and entered a 28-day rehab program after a witness reported seeing him smoke pot in Detroit.
LINK:
http://static.record-eagle.com/2003/dec/28top10.htm
More here:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-02-24/news/0402240267_1_marijuana-possession-cases-smoking-marijuana-pot
And this: From Detroit Michigan news chanel 4.
Judge Admits To Smoking Pot At Local Stones Concert
Traverse City Judge Takes Voluntary Leave
Posted: 11:52 a.m. EST November 8, 2002
Updated: 1:20 p.m. EST November 8, 2002
A Traverse City district judge has taken an indefinite voluntary leave of absence after being spotted smoking marijuana during last month's Rolling Stones concert at Ford Field, Local 4 reported.
A woman reported seeing District Judge Thomas Gilbert smoke a marijuana cigarette being passed down a row at the concert.
The Traverse City Record-Eagle newspaper published a written statement from Gilbert on Friday. "I broke the law by twice puffing on a marijuana cigarette during a rock concert," Gilbert wrote. "I deeply regret this error in judgment, for I have let down my fellow judges, the court staff, my family, and the community."
Gilbert's leave became effective on Wednesday after he admitted to the drug use, the newspaper reported.
The judge is expected to be on voluntary leave until at least Nov. 15.
link:
http://www.gunandgame.com/forums/powder-keg/7432-judge-admits-smoking-pot-local-stones-concert.html
And this here:
NOW SOBER, THE 'POT-SMOKING JUDGE' HELPS OTHERS WITH ADDICTIONS
He remembers the beginning of the end, the long walk home from work that Halloween evening, the longest two blocks of his life.
"Our neighborhood is a Norman Rockwell painting," Tom Gilbert says. "We've got front porches and kids and dogs and sidewalks. It's America, and everybody is getting ready for Halloween, and we're going to have 500 kids at our door, and Marsha loves Halloween and is dressed as a witch and there's chili on the stove.
"But I told her I didn't feel well and just went up to bed."
The next day, she would cry at their small round kitchen table when he told her the news: Someone had seen him smoking dope at a Rolling Stones concert in Detroit 19 days earlier.
Ford Field is 250 miles from the Traverse City courtroom where he served as a district court judge. It took more than two weeks for the couple who had watched him inhale to describe it to friends, who happened to be court employees, who felt compelled to tell their supervisors, who finally confronted him.
That long walk home, the beginning of the end, would also become the beginning of the beginning.
Five and a half years after his 15 minutes of fame as the pot-smoking judge won him a couple of jokes from Jay Leno, Tom Gilbert is a recovering alcoholic: sober, chastened and no longer casting judgment on anyone.
It goes to show judgement on "pot" should be excluded from schedule 1 drugs. If using "ganja" to relieve an alcohol addiction is what it takes, plus some good "jams" then let it be. Judge phillips or any judge should agree a natural herb that benefits someone in the long run of addiction of "booze" is a benefit to our communities. Id rather have him burning a big ol "fatty" enjoying some "music" than getting "shit faced hammered" and killing someone in a "double vision chicken fight." But in Traverse City or Michigan in general, we are tought this one main lesson. .. "don't get caught." Your free baby, until they come and getcha!!!!
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