Suspended Former Judge Reinstated
The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board has reinstated an attorney who was suspended for three years.
Wade H. McCree, P 37626, Detroit, Michigan, by the Attorney Discipline Board.
Reinstated, Effective June 8, 2020
Petitioner was suspended from the practice of law in Michigan for three years, effective January 22, 2016. His petition for reinstatement, filed in accordance with MCR 9.123(B) and MCR 9.124, was granted by Tri-County Hearing Panel #6. The panel concluded that petitioner satisfactorily established his eligibility for reinstatement in accordance with the guidelines of those court rules. On November 8, 2019, the panel issued its Order of Eligibility for Reinstatement. On June 2, 2020, the Board received confirmation that petitioner paid his bar dues in accordance with Rules 2 and 3 of the Supreme Court Rules concerning the State Bar of Michigan, and that he was recertified by the State of Michigan Board of Law of Examiners.
The Board issued an order reinstating petitioner to the practice of law in Michigan, effective June 8, 2020.
Our report on the suspension is linked here.
CBS 62 Detroit reported on judicial sanctions in 2013
Metro Detroit’s infamous sexting judge has been suspended by the Michigan Supreme Court.
Wayne Circuit Judge Wade Harper McCree is suspended without pay, effective immediately, until further order.
“He was the judge who had ‘no shame in his game’ when he sent half-naked pictures to court employees. “He only received a censure then,” said WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton. “But now he’s been disciplined for having a relationship with a woman whose boyfriend had a case in front of Judge McCree.”
Genine Le’Shay Mott, who reportedly came to McCree’s courtroom seeking child support, became pregnant — she said with the judge’s child. Text messages allegedly show him urging her to have an abortion, writing, “you’ll get whatever you want 4 it.”
Fox 2 News reporter Charlie LeDuff, who broke that story in December, told Langton records show McCree texted her from the bench, asking her to weigh in sentencing for the baby’s father.
In one text, McCree writes: “OK, The math will be based on his failures since being placed on probation, but if U’r right, the threat of jail will loosen his purse strings!” (Read more here).
McCree’s salary will be held in escrow pending the final resolution of disciplinary proceedings.
McCree is the son of the late Wade Hampton McCree, Jr., notable as the first African-American appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the second African-American Solicitor General in the history of the United States.
The sanction order from the Michigan Supreme Court
We affirm almost all of the JTC’s factual findings and conclusions of law, and we adopt its recommendation. The evidence establishes that respondent (a) had a sexual relationship with a complaining witness in a case pending before him without recusing himself for several months, (b) engaged in numerous ex parte communications with her concerning the case, as well as concerning another case in which one of her relatives was a party, (c) violated various policies of the courthouse by permitting his mistress to enter the facility through an employee entrance without going through security, allowing her to remain alone in his chambers while he was on the bench, arranging for her to park her vehicle in an area reserved for judges, and sneaking her cell phone into the courthouse for her, (d) transmitted numerous text messages to her while he was on the bench that contained inappropriate and derogatory references to defendants, litigants, and witnesses appearing before him, (e) lied about when and why he finally did recuse himself from the case in which his mistress was the complaining witness, (f) sought to use the prosecuting attorney’s office as leverage against his then ex-mistress by concocting charges of stalking and extortion against her, and (g) lied under oath during the JTC proceedings. The cumulative effect of respondent’s misconduct convinces this Court that respondent should not remain in judicial office, and we therefore remove him from office and conditionally suspend him without pay for six years beginning on January 1, 2015, with the suspension becoming effective only if respondent is reelected to judicial office in November 2014. In addition, because respondent engaged in conduct involving “deceit, or intentional misrepresentation,” pursuant to MCR 9.205(B) we order respondent to pay costs of $11,645.17 to the JTC.
In respondent’s words in his own defense, “Wade should have recused himself,” but the failure to do so resulted in “no harm no foul.” We disagree. The “harm” done was to the parties’ rights to a fair legal process and the public’s right to an impartial judiciary, and the “foul” committed was the resulting violation of Michigan’s Code of Judicial Conduct.
One of my great thrills in life was arguing a case in the U.S. Supreme Court opposed by the attorney’s father Solicitor General Wade McCree. (Mike Frisch)