• Email this story
• Print this story
• Comment on this story

LITTLE ROCK -- A 20th Judicial District circuit judge whose son is a prosecutor in the same district does not have to disqualify himself in all cases handled by the prosecutor's office, though he might have to disqualify himself if his son were to come before him in court, a panel on judicial ethics said Tuesday.

The state Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee issued an advisory opinion at the request of Charles E. Clawson Jr., Third Division circuit judge for Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties.

Clawson had asked whether the Aug. 1 appointment of his son, Charles E. Clawson III, as deputy prosecutor for the 20th District required the elder Clawson to disqualify himself in cases handled by the prosecutor's office.

The judge told the committee his son would not be assigned to represent the state on any matters appearing before him and would not have any association with criminal cases in the Third Division.

Canon 3(E)(1) of the Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct requires a judge to disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge's impartiality "might reasonably be questioned," the committee said in its opinion.

"Were we in a perfect world it could be argued that a judge of 13 years should recuse always in cases where a law firm of a governmental office such as that of the prosecuting attorney has employed his son who bears his exact name," committee member Edwin Alderson wrote.