Attorneys for a man suing a Pulaski County nursing home owned by Michael Morton have filed new documents asking that the Arkansas Supreme Court or another "neutral panel" review Justice Rhonda Wood's decision declining to recuse from an appeal by Morton, a major contributor to her most recent judicial campaign.
Such a review, if done by the court, should exclude Wood, the attorneys said.
Earlier this month, Wood denied a motion by the lawsuit's plaintiff, Andrew Phillips, that she recuse from hearing Morton's appeal of the class-action status granted to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Phillips over the death of his mother, Dorothy Phillips. She was a resident of Morton's Robinson Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in North Little Rock when she died in February 2014.
Phillips' new requests, filed Tuesday, focus not only on Morton's $40,000 in contributions to Wood's 2014 campaign but also on a conversation political fundraiser Gilbert Baker testified under oath that he had had with Wood about a previous negligence lawsuit involving another of Morton's nursing homes. That conversation reflects Wood's bias, Phillips' attorneys argued.
"Gilbert Baker's actions in soliciting and accepting money from Michael Morton and the nursing home industry on behalf of then Judge Michael Maggio and Justice Wood is at the epicenter of a corruption investigation that led to the criminal conviction of Michael Maggio," Phillips' attorneys wrote. "Upon information and belief, the investigation is continuing."
They added: "Not only is there an appearance of impropriety [by Wood] but the evidence establishes actual bias requiring Justice Wood to recuse."
Wood declined comment Wednesday in response to an email from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Attorneys for Phillips formally asked to expedite consideration of their petition to the entire court for an evidentiary hearing regarding Woods' nonrecusal and of a second petition to the court for a neutral review.
A footnote in one of the petitions said Wood's name is mentioned 21 times in a deposition Morton gave for a pending corruption lawsuit that accuses Morton and Baker of conspiring to bribe Maggio to lower a Faulkner County jury's $5.2 million judgment against Morton's Greenbrier nursing home. Two days after Morton sent a FedEx package containing checks for Wood's campaign and for political action committees that Morton has said he thought were intended to help Maggio's campaign, Maggio slashed the award to $1 million.
Baker has said he realized that Morton sent the checks for Wood's campaign before the period when judicial candidates could legally seek or accept campaign contributions. So, Baker said, he held on to the checks, didn't tell Wood's campaign about them, re-dated them and turned them over at a campaign fundraiser in late November 2013.
Wood has said she would have told Baker to return any such checks for her had she known about them.
Tuesday's filings quote from Baker's sworn deposition in the pending corruption lawsuit:
Attorney: "Did you ever talk to Rhonda Wood about -- well, talk or otherwise communicate with Rhonda Wood about the size of the [$5.2 million] verdict?"
Baker: "Yes."
Attorney: "Okay. And what was the communication?"
Baker: "Surprise."
Attorney: "Who was surprised?"
Baker: "Judge Wood."
Attorney: "Okay. She was surprised about what?"
Baker: "The verdict, size of the verdict."
Attorney: "Okay. Did you ever get the impression that she thought that's too big?"
Baker: "Yes, yes, sir."
Attorney: "Okay. What was that impression based on?"
Baker: "Just the way she talked about it."
Attorney: "Do you only recall one communication with Judge Wood about the [Martha] Bull case?"
Baker: "No, I don't -- I don't recall how many or if there was just one. I don't remember in the total context how many it would have been. Doubtful that it was just one."
Attorneys for Phillips noted that this conversation took place when Wood was a judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, which would have had jurisdiction to hear an appeal of the verdict she and Baker were discussing if it had been appealed. That fact, they said, "enhances the appearance of impropriety."
"Communicating such an opinion about Michael Morton's nursing home case, or any litigant, without knowing the facts or evidence involved is the purest form of bias," Phillips' attorneys wrote.
The attorneys said that "this now public statement reasonably calls into question Justice Wood's impartiality, particularly when coupled with the fact that the nursing home industry contributed 45 [percent] of her total contributions according to her campaign filings with the Secretary of State."
Wood has said she returned $20,000 of Morton's $40,000 in donations. Phillips' attorneys said this refund took place only after the deadline passed for Wood to draw an election opponent.
The Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct provides that judicial candidates should, as much as possible, not be aware of those who have contributed to their campaign.
The attorneys noted that in Wood's nonrecusal opinion, she had written that because the attorneys had included campaign contribution specifics in their motion, they had made it "impossible" for her "to attempt to abide by the [code's] suggested behavior."
Phillips' attorneys countered that Wood "knew exactly who her contributors were and the amount of their contributions when they were made, as she signed her own campaign reports under oath that to her knowledge, the contributions disclosed were complete, true and accurate."
In a footnote, the attorneys added, "Upon information and belief, Justice Wood is the only sitting justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court that signed her campaign reports."
In September 2014, Maggio was removed from office over unrelated issues. He pleaded guilty in January 2015 to federal bribery and implicated Morton and Baker in a plea agreement, though not by name. Earlier this year, Maggio unsuccessfully sought to withdraw the guilty plea. He has appealed.
Neither Morton nor Baker is charged with a crime, and both have denied wrongdoing.
A Section on 11/24/2016