A judge presiding over criminal court cannot participate in a mock trial program to train prosecutors because the course is not open to defense attorneys and the judge’s participation could be viewed as “teaching or giving partisan advice on litigation strategy or tactics” to a one-sided audience, the Committee on Judicial Ethics has held in overruling a seven-year-old precedent.
Opinion 12-44, which appears on page 2 of the print edition of the Law Journal, involves an unidentified full-time judge who is a former prosecutor and was asked to judge a mock trial competition designed to train young prosecutors. The committee said the judge cannot ethically take part for the same reason that judges have been advised not to teach police officers how to prosecute traffic cases or how to draft a proper accusatory instrument, or teach newly employed institutional defense attorneys cross-examination techniquesbecause their participation could create a perception of bias.
