WHETHER YOU LOVE HIM or loathe him, Judge Eugene Hammermaster has returned to the bench. In Pierce County’s Sumner Municipal Court, where accused speeders and stoplight runners queue up anew to relate their “pity-pot” tales of woe, as Hammermaster calls them, the judge has agreed to no longer threaten life sentences and deportation for traffic offenders or hold trials even when defendants fail to show. Such unconstitutional conduct got him suspended for six months by the state Supreme Court for “ignorance and disregard for the limits of his authority” (see “Hammerin’ man,” SW, 2/17).

The Sumner City Council nonetheless welcomed him back (because of the money he raises in stiff fines, say his critics), and, as he told us in an interview earlier this year, “They asked me to discontinue these practices. So I will.”

Is Hammermaster Washington’s worst judge? He’s got plenty of competition. Consider the latest contender: Yakima County District Court Judge George “Champagne” Colby, 54. The state’s judicial watchdog agency has just charged the judge, first elected in 1987, with what may be a modern state record of offenses on the bench.

The Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC) claims Colby abused his power in a 12-year reign of misconduct. In a 14-page Statement of Charges based on a long investigation, the CJC asserts:

*He drank champagne in the courthouse and smelled of alcohol on other occasions, although he often presides over drunk-driving cases.

*He imposed an order on two witnesses to abstain from drinking when they left the court; when they violated it, he had them hauled before him, where he denied them counsel and had them jailed two days.

*He repeatedly disregarded sentencing standards for drunk drivers and sent some defendants to jail without finding them guilty.

*He ordered a man convicted of fourth-degree assault to attend church with his wife and bring back church bulletins as proof of attendance.

*He had his brother-in-law’s case transferred to his court, quashed a bench warrant, and then dismissed all charges.

*He held hearings off the record or falsely approved documents claiming that hearings were held.

*He wrote a letter to a traffic offender he knew—whom Colby thought had knowledge of the theft of some of the judge’s property—stating, “Langan, if you know where my stuff is, I will let you out & dismiss your case.”

*He used court facilities to campaign for an appointment to the US Court of International Trade, presigned court orders that his staff could then issue, and, to prevent other judges from ruling on his cases, created a rubber stamp he applied to documents: “Any Further Review of This Case For Any Reason Will Be Done Solely By Judge Colby, By Order of Judge George W. Colby.”

CJC director David Akana says Colby is accused of violating 10 canons of judicial conduct. The judge in a statement says, “All assertions, implications, or inferences [of wrongdoing] are denied.” Colby, on administrative leave from his $96,000 a year job, promises to prevail at a conduct hearing, tentatively set for August.