Judge Weill Denies Eaton's Motion to Recuse Judge Weill
Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Jeff Weill has denied Eaton Corporation's Motion to Recuse Trial Judge that I previously discussed in this post. Here is Judge Weill's Order, which was filed on January 20, 2011.
The order states:
there is no evidence, nor can there be, that the prior involvement of former Judge DeLaughter and other former Hinds County employees in proceedings regarding the above-referenced matter will have any effect, whatsoever, on this judge's ability to be fair and impartial. Further, there is no evidence that can produce a 'reasonable doubt' as to this judge's impartiality as required.
The denial of Eaton's motion is not surprising.
I don't know the genesis of Eaton's motion. But it's the kind of motion that often originates with micro-managing in-house counsel. Sometimes wing-nut these kinds of motions are filed even though the lawyers actually litigating the case know the motions are a bad idea.
In this case Eaton could very well end up liking Judge Weill better than whoever would have replaced him on the case. It's too early for reports to be in, but I suspect that Judge Weill is going to be the type of judge who both sides believe that they get a fair shot with.
Hopefully Judge Weill will unseal all of the file.
If we only had a newspaper in town, perhaps they would intervene to that effect.