A Fairbanks attorney was held in contempt of court Tuesday for comments he made questioning a ruling on evidence admission by Superior Court Judge Douglas Blankenship.
The judge accused Jason Gazewood of "contemptuous conduct" and fined him $200 for questioning the ruling during the June 10 hearing, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.
In court Tuesday, Blankenship played a recording of the hearing in which Gazewood can be heard telling Blankenship that "you clearly don't know the law, but I'm trying to guide you to it."
"I tried to guide you to it before, you didn't follow. Now I'm telling you what it is," Gazewood continued during the June hearing.
Blankenship warned Gazewood that he was out of order and told him not to make "personal attacks."
The attorney said he wasn't personally attacking the judge but simply telling him "what the law is."
After playing the recording, Blankenship told Gazewood that his conduct lacked respect for the institution for the court and fostered "disrespect by the folks that we serve here — the public — and it was just a shocking display."
Gazewood said Tuesday that he didn't feel his actions merited a contempt order, but nevertheless apologized.
"I think that the way that we conduct ourselves should be done with more decorum and should be done with a little more grace and a little more etiquette," said Gazewood.
"And I apologize to the court for disrupting, you know, the general flow of traffic that day and certainly for making a tense situation worse. I could have conducted myself in a better way."
Gazewood's attorney and law firm partner, Jason Weiner, said Gazewood has sought counseling for his behavior and said Blankenship wasn't able to be impartial.
"There's a lot of history," said Weiner. "Mr. Gazewood has apologized to the court for his behavior. I don't know whether you're saying that apology isn't sufficient or what the goal is to be here. That was not an easy thing for any attorney to do."
The judge said he would not recuse himself in the case and levied the $200 fine, which he suggested Gazewood give to charity.
After the ruling, Gazewood addressed Blankenship.
"You know judge, we might not have these problems if, one, you didn't make fun of my (closing arguments) on a regular basis and, two, didn't talk to my clients and tell them to fire me and hire Bob Downes," he said.
Blankenship apologized and said he didn't remember telling Gazewood's clients to hire Downes, but said he respects Downes.
"Really?" said Gazewood, cutting the judge off. "You think that's appropriate to tell a client that he should hire someone else?"
Weiner stepped into the exchange, calming Gazewood down and suggesting the two find a way to move past their difficulties.
"There is a certain history which also needs to go away to some degree," said Weiner. "There needs to be healing between the two. The $200 sanction, we can easily do a donation. I don't think that's a very harsh penalty. Being found in contempt is, but it's something that I think everybody's accepting responsibility for."
Gazewood apologized to Blankenship but stated that he didn't think his actions warranted a contempt order.
Blankenship also fined Gazewood $200, and suggested he give the money to charity.
Gazewood's attorney and law firm partner Jason Weiner questioned whether Blankenship should even be hearing the case due to him being the aggrieved party.