An adjudication panel took a major step toward firing the D.C. judge who sued a dry cleaners for $54 million Monday, citing “global” concerns that Roy Pearson’s lawsuit has discredited the District’s judiciary.
In a letter to be sent to administrative law judge Roy Pearson and his boss District of Columbia Chief Administrative Judge Tyrone T. Butler, the five-person commission enumerated its doubts about reappointing Pearson to a 10-year term on the bench.
The commission was still hashing out the language of the letter behind closed doors late Monday.
“Stay tuned,” a government source told The Examiner.
The panel has looked at Pearson’s behavior in and out of the courtroom, according to several government sources.
Besides the infamous pants lawsuit, sources say the the commission has also reviewed:
* A 14-page letter Pearson wrote to former Mayor Anthony Williams accusing Butler of physical and “Mafioso-style” intimidation.
* More than 30 pages of written testimony that Pearson submitted to the D.C. council’s judiciary committee complaining about Butler in which he later recanted.
* Orders by a Virginia court that Pearson pay his ex-wife $12,000 for “creating unnecessary litigation” during divorce proceedings.
Pearson, who earns $100,000 a year, will have 15 days to request an appearance before the panel. He could be the first administrative law judge to be fired by the District’s commission.
In pursuing the pants suit, Pearson turned down a $12,000 settlement, claimed 1,400 hours of work and $500,000 in legal fees, and began the trial by declaring in his opening arguments that the case represented the worst example of fraud in “recorded history.”
On the stand, Pearson broke down on the stand twice trying to describe the day he learned that he would never see his pants again.
Before he became a D.C. judge two years ago, Pearson was unemployed after working as legal aid attorney for 24 years. He worked on one tenant lawsuitfor 18 years, appealing the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. A former boss once called him the best attorney he ever hired, but their relationship soured.
