Former Supreme Court Justice Ronald Tills, a proud member of the Royal Order of Jesters, was sentenced to 18 months by U.S District Judge William M. Skretny for gathering up prostitutes, including one who had been before him as a judge, putting them in a Winnebago and transporting them across state lines to enjoy an All-American Weekend of Mirth.
Bummer. Judge Skretny was unimpressed with Tills’ expression of remorse.
Bummer. Judge Skretny was unimpressed with Tills’ expression of remorse.
“I will never forgive myself for the possible harm I’ve caused to the victims in this case,” he said. “I’m embarrassed, and I feel terrible about the shame I’ve brought to the bench and the bar.”
But Skretny referred to Tills as a “real Jekyll and Hyde” and suggested the former judge and state assemblyman had not shown the level of remorse Skretny would have liked to have seen from him.
You would think that Tills, having had the experience of doing some sentencing in his time, would know how to grovel properly. Even Terry Connors’ words didn’t do the trick of keeping the old judge from the clink.
Wanna be a judge? Wanna sentence people to jail? To prison? Wanna lecture them about the majesty of the law, the importance of obeying the law, how bad and evil they are? Then don’t commit crimes yourself.
Bye-bye, Ronny. Hope you meet up with somebody you sentenced in there. I know, you will be going to Club Fed rather than the state stinkholes where your defendants were sent, but it could happen. You can explain to them how sorry you really are for being a judge who committed a crime.
H/T Our hinterlands correspondent, Kathleen.
“He knows what he did was reprehensible,” said Terrence M. Connors, one of Tills’ lawyers. “He know he’s disgraced that robe.”Disgraced the robe? Yeah, that would be fair. Frankly, I can’t imagine any amount of remorse that would have saved Tills from a prison sentence, and I can’t think of a good reason why he should have been.
Wanna be a judge? Wanna sentence people to jail? To prison? Wanna lecture them about the majesty of the law, the importance of obeying the law, how bad and evil they are? Then don’t commit crimes yourself.
Bye-bye, Ronny. Hope you meet up with somebody you sentenced in there. I know, you will be going to Club Fed rather than the state stinkholes where your defendants were sent, but it could happen. You can explain to them how sorry you really are for being a judge who committed a crime.
H/T Our hinterlands correspondent, Kathleen.
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Sorry he got caught. Very sorry he’s going down. A good judge has an eye and an ear for that state of mind. Think that’s what Tills assumed of every defendant he ever sentenced?
I remember seeing this story a while back. What nightmare. You think the guy making rulings in your case is a normal human being, then you find out that behind the scenes he belongs to some ridiculous cult like club, and so does his law clerk and a few police chiefs. I hope there aren’t any more judges, at least.
This is all up in my neck of the woods, although I have to say I never heard of that guy.
I’ve written about this case quite a bit, as it was brought to my attention by my hinterlands correspondent, Kathleen Casey. That must have been before you found SJ. Somehow, it’s now garnered broader attention. I wonder how that happened?
John, out of curiosity, and now that we know you’re an upstate sort of guy, how about a little background so we know where you’re coming from?
Yeah! What can they do you, John R? Nothing that’s what.
Sure. Attorney since 1989, mostly Rochester. Done a little bit of everything, but tried to concentrate in personal injury. Keep coming back to criminal defense here and there, though, because there’s so much of it. I shouldn’t do it, but I do.
Usually it’s because I need the faster fee and it looks like it won’t get too involved. But you can never count on that. You can take a case thinking it’s one thing and it can really surprise you. And if it does, well, criminal cases always take priority, whether they surprise you or not.
Before I went to law school I was a naval officer. Before that college. Majored in philosophy. That gave me really different standards when it comes to argument. That’s been a significant impediment in practicing law, because I expect other lawyers and judges to reason well. They rarely do. Or maybe it’s just a different kind of reasoning. Whichever, I don’t like it as much.
Juries seem to like my kind of reasoning more, though. Not that I like going to trial. I’m scared to death most of the time. I kill myself trying to win. I try not to get in that position if I can avoid it. Then again, if you have to do it, you do.
I don’t really know what else to say about my background. I’ve probably gone on too much as it is.
Thanks for the background, and the candor. It’s always helpful to know who we’re talking to.