The Long Trial of Judge Gilbert - A year of agony ends in a decision not to run for re-election to the 86th District Court

Judge Gilbert was suspended without pay for six months last September by the Michigan Supreme Court. Today, his biggest concern is struggling for a way to atone for his error, and finding a way to move on.
Born and raised in Saginaw, Gilbert attended Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing and established a private practice in Traverse City in 1991 before being elected to a four-year term as a district court judge. He is married to Marsha, has a stepson, and is active with his church, Kiwanis and other organizations. In person, he is contrite and reserved with his comments -- speaking slowly and weighing each thought carefully -- holding in what has to be a great deal of pain.

NE: How tough has this year been for you?
Judge Gilbert: It‘s been very difficult -- very difficult to address this illness (alcoholism) and to take the steps necessary to grow through a recovery program -- extremely difficult.
I went for a 28-day inpatient treatment program in Minnesota and frankly, that was nothing short of a miraculous, life-changing experience. I‘ve been working a program of recovery and working real hard at recognizing this disease and its affect on me, my family and the community.

NE: You‘ve been put in this terrible spotlight where you must have had your social system and so many institutions fall out from under you overnight. Can you address that?
Gilbert: It‘s really been nothing short of total public humiliation. And what I‘ve learned is that there are lessons to be learned and sometimes I need the pain to be caused before I can learn those lessons. Very few people come to recovery because they see the light -- they come to recovery because they feel the heat. And that‘s true with me.

NE: Did you feel like your friends stood by you through this? Were you dismayed at times? Did you feel like people were there for you?
Gilbert: Well, like anything, I‘ve had my ups and downs. But when I made the public announcement of what I did and went away to the rehabilitation center, my wife and I received over 250 cards, letters and phone calls. And that spoke volumes to us of the caring nature of some of the people here.

NE: Have you decided to run again for judge?
Gilbert: Well, that‘s funny that you ask that. We have made a decision and I‘m not going to run for re-election. This is the first public acknowledgement of that. I‘m going back on the bench March 29th to finish my term and then December 31st of this year, I‘m going to move on to something else.

NE: How did you come to that decision?
Gilbert: Well, my wife and I took a vacation, went away to get some quiet time by ourselves. We analyzed the pros and cons and came to a decision that was best for our family.

NE: I imagine this has been very difficult for your family too.
Gilbert: Extremely difficult.

NE (later): How has it been for your wife Marsha?
Gilbert: She‘s an amazing woman and I‘m fortunate to be married to her. I‘m sorry that she‘s had to go through all of this.

NE: So what do you intend to do?
Gilbert: Well, I‘m looking for opportunities to be useful. I know that it will involve some sort of service to others, but the slate is wide open at this point. I won‘t eliminate private practice as a possibility.

NE: Have you thought about writing a book about your experience?
Gilbert: I have thought about it. I think that would be an interesting proposition.

NE: Will it discuss the war on drugs or the history of marijuana in this country?
Gilbert: I have no idea what the theme of any book would be. It would most likely share some experience, strength and hope.

NE: What would you like to tell the readers about your experience?
Gilbert: I‘d like to once again apologize for my behavior. It was so grossly wrong, and I‘d like to do the very best I could to right the wrongs of the past. And to do that, my actions will speak louder than my words. I‘d like people to understand that I‘m not the same person I was 15 months ago. God willing, nothing like that will happen again.
It also puts me in a position to help other people with the same disease. Alcoholism-slash-addiction or compulsive behavior. Recognized by the American Medical Association back in 1957; recognized by the American Bar Association and the Michigan Bar Association.
And I guess when you talk about the disease of alcoholism, some people say, well he hides behind that as an excuse. I‘d like to clear that up because I take full responsibility for my actions. I did what I did and I‘m not proud of it.

NE: How did this all start for you? Did you start like most people experimenting with marijuana in high school?
Gilbert: I started drinking alcohol when I was 18 and tried marijuana in college. And pretty much the alcohol continued -- marijuana not so much. And I found that four years ago I was drinking every day in the evenings after work.

NE: At the concert you were basically just caught up in the moment weren‘t you? You‘d had some beers -- that could really happen to anybody.
Gilbert: I don‘t know about anybody, but it happened to me. I had a decision as to whether to lie about it or tell the truth. Today I‘m glad I chose to tell the truth.

NE: Some of the sharpest criticism of you when you came back is that you were judging people for marijuana and yet it had been shown that you had smoked it yourself. Any thoughts on that period?
Gilbert: When I came back to the bench after rehabilitation I didn‘t actually sit on drug or alcohol cases. I expect to be sitting on a full docket when I return March 29th, which will include drug and alcohol cases. Frankly I‘ll have a much clearer insight into the problems of drugs and alcohol in our community.

NE: And what‘s your assessment of that?
Gilbert: They‘re everywhere. It‘s a community-wide tragedy that needs to be addressed.

NE: It seems like you were plastered all over the local paper from the get-go. Do you feel like you were treated fairly by the press?
Gilbert: You know, I have come to be saddened by what looked like editorial opinions expressed in the news versions of the stories. And I also thought my story warranted coverage, but the real story was the amount of alcoholism and drug addiction in our community. I guess I‘ve been saddened by the lack of coverage on that problem and the bigger picture.

NE: I was a bit surprised that the Record-Eagle didn‘t run your statement on what had happened. (Judge Gilbert issued a lengthy statement on his case to local media last fall which was published in full in the Express.) Was that a shock to you?
Gilbert: I was disappointed.

NE: Did they ever give you any reason for not publishing your statement?
Gilbert: No.

NE: You canceled your subscription to the paper?
Gilbert: It ran out and I didn‘t renew it.

NE: I get the feeling that there‘s a lot more you‘d like to say about what you‘ve been through, because that had to be a terrible experience. It‘s almost worthy of a novel -- you‘ve got to have been through hell.
Gilbert: The biggest lesson that I learned is that it‘s not all about me. It really isn‘t. And the other lesson that I‘ve learned is that whatever people think of me is none of my business. The bigger story is the enormous cost and misery inflicted in our community by drugs and alcohol.

NE: What actually would be the sentence for two puffs of marijuana if someone came before the bench for that? Would there even be a sentence for that?
Gilbert: Typically, it would be a $100 fine, and if it was a first offense, perhaps after a period of probation it would be eliminated from the person‘s record. The maximum penalty, however, is 90 days in jail for the use of marijuana.

NE: Have you had any thought on the value of decriminalizing marijuana?
Gilbert: No, my thought process has gone the other way. I haven‘t seen anything good come out of the use of marijuana or alcohol.

NE: Has it been tough fitting back in the community? Do people give you any attitude out there?
Gilbert: Oh sure. Walking through the drug store, a stranger looks at me and says loud enough for the two of us to hear, ‘You should lose your job.‘
But more often than that, strangers come up to me and say, ‘Hang in there.‘

NE: How do you feel about the involvement of area legislators? (State Sen. Michelle McManus, Rep. Ken Bradstreet, and Sen. Alan Cropsey submitted a questionnaire to Gilbert demanding answers regarding his marijuana use and threatening to take legislative action to remove him from the bench.)
Gilbert: The questions that they‘ve asked are basically irrelevant in that the judicial branch -- the Supreme Court of Michigan -- asked the relevant questions and received 100 percent truthful answers. The Supreme Court voted six-to-one that this was the appropriate sanction. That was the constitutionally-correct approach and it‘s the reason we have three branches of government, to balance each other out.

NE: Do you feel like they were using you for political purposes?
Gilbert: Whatever motivations they may have had will be best left to them.

NE: Getting back to your decision not to run again, do you feel that running for the judgeship would be too divisive...?
Gilbert: There comes a time when enough‘s enough. We decided -- I decided -- that we don‘t want to put our family through this anymore. And the other side of that is that I believe there‘s another way for me to be useful in this community. There‘s another plan for me. And I‘m looking forward to whatever that may be.

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