Hicks' judicial review yields no decision

Witnesses painted a disturbing picture Tuesday of Lincoln County justice of the peace Gary Hicks. Testimony in the judge's review by the Judicial Standards Commission characterized him as a man who made suggestive comments toward women while on the prowl for sex.

The following day, Hicks portrayed himself on the stand as a misunderstood individual who followed the law but admittingly blurred the line of proper judicial etiquette on a few occasions.

After hearing testimony from nine women, law-enforcement and court officials, a statistics expert, a mentor judge from Flathead County and Hicks himself, the five-member judicial committee apparently couldn't agree on a decision.

Following a meeting in chambers for about 30 minutes early Wednesday afternoon, Judge Ed McLean said the committee will take the matter under advisement. He offered no timetable as to when a decision may occur.

The committee is reviewing Hicks because of charges that he offered leniency to female defendants in exchange for sex.

The two-day courtroom drama got under way Tuesday with a parade of female witnesses who each had testimony about alleged inappropriate advances by Hicks.

Perhaps the most damaging testimony to Hicks' defense came from 27-year-old Sadie Rosling.

“He said I had cute, little toes and someday I would owe him for coming in on the weekend,” Rosling said in testimony about an occasion in June 2006 after she was arrested on theft charges. “He touched the bottom of my feet. … I was uncomfortable and kind of confused by what he said about I would owe him.”

Hicks later testified that he made the comments in a “fatherly” fashion.

“She was crying and I wanted to take the edge off,” Hicks said, adding that he commented about her toes, which were painted with “cute” turquoise nail polish.

But a meeting outside the courtroom or jail could be even more troubling for the second-term judge. Both Rosling and Hicks testified that they met in an aisle at a local grocery store and had a conversation. Each has their own version of what happened afterward.

Hicks said after finishing his grocery shopping on Nov. 18, 2006, he went to Rosling's home which was right next door.

“It dawned on me that we didn't have her current address,” Hicks said, referring to pending charges against Rosling and that she had recently been moving around. “She was supposed to appear (in court) in October. … Now I know that it made her uncomfortable.”

Prosecuting attorney Stephen C. Berg later offered documents that indicated a meeting at Rosling's home actually occurred after Dec. 2. Rosling's boyfriend, Jeremiah Kendall, was home recovering from a work injury when Hicks allegedly visited. He suffered that injury on Dec. 2 as hospital records showed.

Berg recalled Rosling to the stand on the second day and she testified that Hicks did not visit within the hour after the grocery store meeting.

Still, paperwork involving a Rosling appearance at court was dated Nov. 20 to further cause confusion.

Despite those details, the fact that Hicks made the home visit seemed to trouble the committee.

Flathead County judge David Ortley, who mentored Hicks and was called to the stand by defense attorney Tammi Fisher, also commented on that issue.

“It's open to bad perceptions and it should not happen,” Ortley said.

Fisher only recently took on the case and had a short time to prepare after a district judge ordered Lincoln County to pay for Hicks' legal defense. Hicks filed a lawsuit after the county had refused to pay.

A lot of second-day testimony revolved around Hicks' personality and sense of humor. That subject came up during Fisher's questioning of the judge about allegations from witness Cassandra Reuss.

Hicks admitted that he told Reuss she looked cute in blue.

“She has a very low self-esteem problem,” Hicks said. “Again, it's just the way I am, the way I talk to people to take the edge off.”

Fisher asked if he talked to men in the same manner.

“I've complimented a number of women … I've complimented men also,” Hicks said, who then shared an occasion when he told a male that he was a “big, strong, good-looking guy” as a way to help him get past a problem.

Ortley testified that a lack of training exists for judicial ethics.

Fisher also produced a college professor with a vast background in mathematical statistics. He completed a study of Hicks' cases from 2005-08 that showed the judge did not favor men or women in the high majority of 32 categories of various offenses.

The first day of testimony from witnesses had the common theme of Hicks allegedly asking women out and giving them his phone number.

Jenny St. Onge, 23, said Hicks asked her if she would like “to have an old, gray-haired judge for a boyfriend.”

At a later meeting, St. Onge said, “he said that I was beautiful and that he was interested in me.”

St. Onge also testified that Hicks made an unannounced home visit only a couple of weeks after she had given birth to a baby.

“It made me uneasy that he was coming to my house,” she said.

Hicks later testified that he stopped by the house to check on her after he had lunch in the restaurant where St. Onge's mother worked. He said her mother had expressed a fear for her safety because of an abusive boyfriend.

Another witness, 37-year-old Lynnette Hansberry, testified that Hicks asked her to lunch during a meeting in his courtroom related to her charges of tampering with public records.

“He told me that I looked very nice and I was too pretty to be in trouble,” she said. “He asked me out to lunch, movies, whatever, and said that he could help me.”

Hansberry also testified that she saw Hicks in his blue pickup outside her home in a trailer park on the outskirts of Libby.

Hicks dismissed those allegations and later testified that he had been in that trailer court but only because a friend had lived there and he was looking at his house.

Evelyn Switzer, 45, testified that Hicks pursued her with phone calls and tried to get her to go to a motel with him.

But Fisher later called two probation officers of Switzer's who both testified that she had trouble telling the truth, one even saying that she was “not credible at all.”

Alicia White, 23, also testified that Hicks made inappropriate advances. She charged that Hicks made the comment that he could “woo your body in ways I could not imagine.”

Hicks dismissed that allegation as well and added that he had never used the word “woo” in his life.

During Fisher's questioning of the judge, Hicks indicated that he had made changes in his courtroom procedures since the allegations surfaced.

Hicks said he no longer talks with female prisoners alone. He also does not go down to holding cells and utilizes videoconferencing.

Hicks added that he's also learned to “not make a statement that might be construed as inappropriate. Things I've grown up saying might be deemed inappropriate.”