Substitute judge Sharkey awaits training waiver

MINERAL COUNTY – Rumors of Judge Doug Sharkey being fired have been refuted by the Mineral County Commissioners and Mineral County District Court personnel.

According to Kathleen Brown, clerk of the district court, the reason he has not been able to work as a judge was because of paperwork. She said the county commissioners needed to have a waiver, which would allow Sharkey to act as a judge without going through special training.

Sharkey was submitted as a substitute judge by Laurie Johnston, the county commissioner who oversees the courts. The commissioners thought they would be able to appoint Sharkey themselves while Justice of the Peace Wanda James was away. However, he was not on the list of substitutes approved by James and had to be given a special appointment. There was some uncertainty of whether the commissioners could appoint a judge who had not been approved by James.

“There was question on whether we could use him because he had not been on the existing list,” said Roman Zylawy, county commissioner of the east end.

The Commission for Limited Jurisdiction ruled the county commissioners did not have the power to appoint substitutes on their own and would not approve the waiver.

Brown explained until the waiver gets approved Sharkey will be unable to sit on the bench. However, she said James signed a form last week, which gave the commissioners permission to make appointments in her absence. Once the document is processed by the court offices in Helena the commissioners will be able to appoint Sharkey as a substitute judge and request the waiver.

Zylawy said the waiver was usually granted if the person had a background in law enforcement or had already acted as a substitute judge. Sharkey was part of the Montana Highway Patrol for many years and had been used by James as a substitute in the past. Until a decision is made, the other substitutes will have to handle the extra work.

“We’ll continue to use Judge Eisenbrandt and Kathleen Brown until he is either approved or not,” said Zylawy. “Then if he is, he will continue to help relieve the work load for the other two.”

James went on voluntary administrative leave in August last year as an investigation was conducted into her involvement with missing court funds. The investigation was expected to take a short time and be done after a month or two. However, the need to continue digging deeper led to months passing with no timetable on when it would be done.

Originally James was covered by Brown, Douglas Harkin, a retired district judge, Sanders County Justice of the Peace Donald Strine and Plains City Judge Joe Eisenbrandt. Because of the length of the investigation, Strine and Eisenbrandt had to cut back their time as substitutes to focus on the work in their home county.

Zylawy said the two Sanders County judges thought this would be a short-term substitution for a couple weeks. As time went on their other work began to pile up and they had to step away from acting as substitutes to manage it. As they left, a need arose to find someone who would help cover court duties in Mineral County.

Additional rumors that Sharkey’s court decisions up to now would be given a special appeal were also addressed and refuted. Brown said these were pure fiction and explained there was a normal appeals process for all court decisions.