Oregon Bar Weighs Ethics Case Against Bigamist Ex-Judge

SALEM - Former Judge Robert Kirkman showed "gross stupidity" by being husband to two women, but he shouldn't lose his license to practice law, his lawyer has told the Oregon Supreme Court.

But an Oregon State Bar lawyer told the court yesterday that Kirkman deserves nothing less than disbarment for bigamy and other conduct violating criminal laws.

"These were not just acts of stupidity, they were acts of dishonesty," said bar attorney Mary Cooper.

Garr King, a Portland attorney representing Kirkman, said his client is rehabilitating himself and that disbarment would be too severe as punishment.

The state's top court heard arguments and took under advisement the disciplinary case against the former Multnomah County District Court judge.

Kirkman has admitted he wasn't divorced from Susan Kirkman, his first wife, when he married Jane Kingsbury in April 1987.

He also has admitted he showed Kingsbury a bogus divorce decree and that he falsely declared in his marriage-license application to wed Kingsbury that he was divorced.

Kirkman has said he could not remember whether he or someone else signed the name of another judge on the phony decree. A bar trial panel concluded Kirkman signed "or caused another to sign" the document and that the conduct either way amounted to forgery.

The trial board said Kirkman also engaged in bigamy and unsworn falsification for a total of two felonies and a misdemeanor.

The board said the behavior violated bar ethics rules against lawyers engaging in criminal activity and in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.

Authorities didn't bring criminal prosecutions because the statute of limitations had run out.

Kirkman, 48, had been a judge since 1984 when he resigned from the bench last January. The resignation occurred shortly before the Supreme Court was to consider a state commission's recommendation that he be removed from the bench.

Cooper told the Supreme Court the matter is a "tragic case to all concerned" but that there's no evidence Kirkman has been rehabilitated.

She said he "used his legal skills and knowledge to perpetuate dishonest acts" and that the repeated acts were not "aberrations" as Kirkman claimed.

The bar is not leaning especially heavily on Kirkman because he was a judge, Cooper said. The bar "would seek to disbar any lawyer who committed two felonies and a misdemeanor," she said.

King said Kirkman already has suffered punishment from ridicule and by losing his judgeship.