Journal of the House of Representatives
of the Second Session of the 110th General Assembly
of the State of South Carolina
being the Regular Session Beginning Tuesday, January 11, 1994

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| Printed Page 5250, Apr. 28 | Printed Page 5270, Apr. 28 |
Printed Page 5260 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
He believes that his experiences in the community working with young people of all ages gives him a unique perspective. His experiences within his own family including raising two children, ages six and two, will help. Being a part-time Municipal Judge has given him additional valuable insight to the courtroom.

These experiences along with his 11 years of practice in all areas of Family Court as a lawyer and Guardian ad Litem adds to the knowledge necessary for the many complex, sensitive and personal issues in Family Court.

47. Five (5) letters of recommendation:
(a) Thomas H. Richardson, Vice President
First Union
P. O. Box 728, Columbia, SC 29202
749-3900
(b) John E. Montgomery, Dean
University of South Carolina School of Law
Columbia, SC 29208
777-6857
(c) Dan B. Maultsby, Dean
Wofford College
Spartanburg, SC 29303-3663
597-4000
(d) The Reverend Robert C. Wisnewski, Jr.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
115 Tram Road, Columbia, SC 29210
798-2776
(e) John O. McDougall, Esquire
Weinberg, Brown, McDougall & McMillan
P. O. Drawer 1289, Sumter, SC 29151-1289
775-1274

Printed Page 5261 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
PERSONAL DATA QUESTIONNAIRE - ADDENDUM

2. Positions on the Bench:
Part-time Municipal Judge; Irmo, South Carolina; October, 1991 to present

10. Extra-Judicial Community Involvement:
He is a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church and the Columbia Kiwanis Club. He has not used his judicial office to further these interests.

The Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline reports that no formal complaints have been filed against you. The Judicial Standards Commission has no record of reprimands against you. We've checked with the records of the applicable law enforcement agencies, Richland County Sheriff, Columbia City Police, SLED and FBI, and all those are negative.

The Judgement Rolls of Richland County are negative. The Federal Court records are negative. We do have one complaint that we have received and one witness who is present to testify today.

Prior to turning you over to Ms. McNamee for questioning, I'll give you the chance to make an oral statement or you may provide a written summary, if you'd like, to be included in the record.
MR. WILLIAMS: I'll be glad to waive that.
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. Ms. McNamee.
MR. WILLIAMS - EXAMINATION BY MS. MCNAMEE:
Q. Good afternoon, Mr. Williams.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Mr. Williams, you are a -- or have been a Municipal Court judge for the town of Irmo; is that correct?
A. That's right, for a little over two years now.
Q. And you're also in private practice?
A. That's correct.
Q. How do you do juggle those two kind of roles?
A. Well, just from scheduling purposes, let me explain to you that my role as town judge in Irmo, I hold court twice a month. We have night court on Wednesdays every week. Mickey Epting is the other town judge in Irmo. He takes -- he's responsible for two weeks of the month and I am responsible for the other two weeks. We alternate weekend as far as those responsibilities, signing arrest warrants, setting bonds and anything else that might come up with the Clerk and officials in Irmo.

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Judge Epting's office is in the Irmo area, so primarily each week he's responsible for that unless he has some conflict and they might call me to come help him. So as far as scheduling, that's how I handle that part of -- that's how my day -- my weeks go in that area.

As far as how I handle it in my practice, I found having served as the judge of Irmo to have been very helpful in the sense, it's been a great learning experience. I think Mr. Dennis indicated earlier I think he felt sort of the same way.

When I first began as town judge in Irmo, I'm not sure I had quite the appreciation for judges of any level whether they were Municipal, Magistrate, Family Court, Circuit Court or any level as to their particular roles. But once I put on the robe in Municipal Court, I felt a great weight in the sense that I learned that the roles are quite different from that which you must follow as an attorney, as an advocate for someone.

As a judge, I've learned that you have to sit and listen and show your patience and try to make a good decision based on the information that's presented to you and it's a role where you have to be the person in the middle and appear and, in fact, act fairly on the information that you hear. So I handle it in the sense that during this period of my practice, if anything else, it's given me a greater appreciation of the judiciary and their roles. And it does not appear -- does not create any conflicts. I don't handle those matters in Irmo, so it doesn't create a conflict.
Q. And what are your -- what do you think are the most important traits of good judicial temperament? Is there a model of a judge sitting on the Federal or the State bench that you emulate?
A. Well, I'll answer the second question first. I've heard you ask that question and had the opportunity to sit and think about that and I've been very fortunate, I've seen so many good judges in Family Court, in particular, because that's been my primary area of practice over the last 12 years. And I guess if I wanted to try to credit my life, put different bits and pieces of judges together as far as things I found to be complimentary to them, from my days of practice beginning in 1982, I've always thought that Judge Rickborn, who retired in Lexington County, was a wonderful judge. Judge Burnside, Judge Byars, whose name you've heard before. I don't want to slight any of them by not mentioning them. Those are just some that I could pick out things about all the judges. And if I am successful in being elected and lucky enough in that sense, I would hope that I could put together my experience to -- or from my experience that I would hope to put together the proper traits and proper demeanor in the courtroom.

Printed Page 5263 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
As far as the things that I think I've seen from them is that when you leave the courtroom -- and this answers the question to demeanor as well. When you leave the courtroom, the litigants need to feel as if the judge cared about the problem. They might not actually agree with his decision or her decision, but the feeling -- they need to feel the judge cared about their problem, that they were treated with proper respect in the business in the courtroom because they are there because they have a problem. And I think importantly they need to feel good about their lawyers. In Irmo, for example, I've always had the practice in the litigated matters when the person is represented to take the opportunity to compliment the lawyers who are involved in the case.

I think that serves a good purpose and when people leave the courtroom, they feel good about our judicial system, they feel good about the people who they're representing and I hope that I can continue to do that. And I think that would be a proper thing to do for someone appearing in Family Court needs to feel that way when they leave.
Q. Well, since you have a mainly Family Court background and I guess that -- does that include all the things we've ticked off before, you have handled custody matters, contested custody matters, TPR, adoption, equitable distribution, juvenile matters and I'm probably leaving something out?
A. The answer to all those would be yes and even the ones you may have left out. I think I've done everything there is to do in Family Court.
Q. Well, with that experience, if you became a Family Court judge, are there any innovations in Family Court that you would like to institute? What things might you do differently?
A. I guess as far as innovation, the only thing I -- I focus on this because I've always been actively involved with young people in high school days, working with young children in depressed areas and now I work with high school students at Columbia High in some volunteer work that I do. And I guess innovations I would want and could see would depend on what's -- what would be available to make some innovations.

As far as what's there, what I want to do is to show that a judge does have the time to sit and listen to every one who comes in that courtroom, so they don't feel like they've been hurried through the system. I would want, if it ever becomes available, for there to be ways either through government provided or through privately provided alternatives for young people who appear in that court.

I think you've talked a great deal today about the juvenile issues and there are some, the Marine Institute, which are alternatives for Family

Printed Page 5264 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
Court judges. I think also in Richland County, we have mentor programs and that's an alternative. And I think we're seeing that to institutionalize a young person for every infraction may not be the appropriate response. While a young person might be successful in an institutional environment, the problem is that we're going to have to put them back on the street and they may not be successful in the street. And I think the goal would be to attempt to develop and look at alternatives in the community, to make -- help them be successful in the community. Because if they're successful in the community, that's where they're going to stay.

So I think the innovations would be in looking at ways where the government may be able to offer, but also what private individuals could offer to the court on a voluntary basis, to offer those alternatives in the community, so I guess in that sense that would be some innovation, trying to look at as many other people to participate in our system on a volunteer basis, to assist the Family Court, and give these people some alternative versus institutionalization in certain kinds of cases.
Q. Are you aware of juvenile arbitration programs; is that one thing --
A. I know in Lexington, there is -- they've done that a great deal and to some extent the program they do in Richland County, the Mentor Program accomplishes the same goal. They will -- before the child ever gets to the Family Court, the Solicitor will make a decision as to what the alternative program might be, so whether it be arbitration where they deal with individuals or victims of crimes, I know that's been used in Lexington County. It's been very successful and certainly, I would be a proponent of that.

I've used it myself in representation of some of my own clients in Lexington County, so I would think that that would be another alternative certainly that the Court should consider.
Q. And just to be complete, would you tell us about the hours of your usual workday and the way that you handle the myriad of jobs that you have to do, cases that you handle, et cetera?
A. Well, I usually wake up around 5:30 in the morning or so. If I have work that needs to get done and sometimes I will start working early in the morning to get some things done before my family wakes up. My family usually wakes up a little later than that. And at that point, I try to assist my wife as best I can, and sometimes I do a good job and sometimes I don't, but I try to assist her in the children getting ready for school.

The reason I get up so early is I like to get some work done before they get up. My normal practice is that I take my oldest child who is six years old to school and it allows me to get to the office around 8:00 o'clock in the morning.

Printed Page 5265 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
My workday usually continues until 6:00, at least 6:00 normally until 7:00 or so, mostly in time to get home to have dinner with the family. I would suspect that I have had -- that my practice would be to continue my workday and I don't know why I would change. I've been doing that since I've been in private practice. In the beginning, I worked many hours.

You also asked the question about Friday afternoons, I think that is also true of my practice that I have done that, so I don't think that that practice would change. I don't mind working and have done that my whole career.
Q. What is your experience with giving back to the legal community in terms of bettering it? Do you -- by that, I mean, do you participate in the presentation of CLE's? Do you write articles for Bar magazines? Do you head any important sections of the Bar, that sort of thing?
A. As far as writings and participation in CLE's, no, I haven't participated on that level. I am participating in the planning of a CLE for the Trial Lawyers Association's coming convention. I'm Chairman of the Family Law Section of the Trial Lawyers and have been active in it. I think that would answer your question.
Q. Do you participate in other extrajudicial organizations that you might have to curtail your participation in if you became a Family Court judge?
A. I think you notice on my questionnaire, the only other activity other than church is my involvement in my Kiwanis and my involvement there deals with -- primarily with my high school group of Columbia high.
Q. Key Club?
A. Key Club. And Keywanette which is two distinct clubs who have been very successful over at Columbia High and they've have been voted the best clubs -- service clubs in the last 20 years. I'm very proud of them and I've been involved for the last ten.

I would hope that I would not have to give up my involvement in community work with those young people. I just got back from a convention two weeks ago where I chaperoned 12 young men in Greenville with the teacher who is involved and I would hope that I would not have to give that up. I don't think that would create any conflict.
Q. Have you ever been disciplined by a court that you've appeared before?
A. No, I have not.
Q. If you were elected a Family Court judge, Mr. Williams, would you hear a case if Mr. Trotter, one of your former partners, is one of the counsel in it? At what point might you --

Printed Page 5266 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
A. Well, I think that was asked earlier of one of the other participants in this process. I don't think I would, and I don't know the answer. I've always found practicing law that if you don't know the answer, I'd go find the answer. And I don't know what would be an appropriate time period to wait and I think I have heard there may be some time period, but I would never want it to appear that there was some conflict of interest in a case, that I would appear too partisan to him or in any circumstance, so I guess the point where either I find out the answer that there is some specific time period or a point in time where that appears to be no longer a problem with any litigant and any other lawyer that would appear in a court, but not until such time as that occurs.
Q. What is your philosophy and your attitude and what do you plan to do in the area of social entertainment and the area of gifts? You have a beach house, perhaps, some of your friends have beach houses, will you entertain them, will they entertain you, that kind of thing?
A. Again, I wouldn't want to do anything that is going to make any litigant or lawyer feel that I couldn't be fair to their problems and present them to the court, so I would take steps not to do those things with that -- such an appearance, where there might be such an appearance. And the beach house is owned by my father-in-law, so I don't think that creates any conflict. He's kind enough to let us use it on occasion.
Q. How have you been going about the job of introducing yourself to Members of the General Assembly?
A. When Judge Campbell indicated that he was going to retire, I sent out a letter of interest to the entire legislature. Since the legislature has been in session, I've been here meeting legislators and making every effort to let them know who I am.

On many instances, I have been able to talk to legislators and express my interest, tell them who I am, but I understand that I could not seek a commitment and have not sought any commitments. It's been more of trying to let the legislature know who I am and, in particular, about my experience of Family Court.
Q. Are you aware of any letters that have been sent out on your behalf by --
A. I'm not aware of any.
Q. And mediation, I just wanted to ask that question, what do you think about the use of mediation?
A. I think mediation is good. We know the docket in Family Court is crowded. I think lawyers can be good mediators and lawyers should be encouraged to be good mediators in settling disputes. That should be their role as much as being an advocate in many cases. I think that the

Printed Page 5267 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
mediation process is still new to us and we're going to have to study -- and I would have to do more studies to determine exactly what I think it best should be used for.

There are two theories of thought. Some say that mediation should be at the very beginning of the case when it first comes to court, get it out of the court system and send it to the mediation. That could be very costly to the litigants. Not only do they now have lawyer's fees, they have mediation fees to pay for. I think the judge has to carefully weigh which cases they send to mediation, especially at that point in time. I've also seen judges use mediation near the end of the case where the parties have done a good job in resolving most of the issues and it maybe just one or two issues left and then use mediation at that point on a limited basis.

There is a certain limited cost involved. I think -- over the years of my practicing law, most people who go to Family Court are not wealthy people. And I think that needs to be a factor in what other alternatives we consider.

So if mediation is an alternative, I think we need to weigh those cost factors to them. In some cases, it would work and save them a lot of money in relation to lawyer's fees. In other cases, it could be a tremendous cost to them. And it needs to be evaluated thoroughly.
THE CHAIRMAN: Questions from the Committee Members? All right. Thank you, Mr. Williams. We do have someone who is hear to testify. I'll ask you to sit down and you'll have a chance to respond.
A. Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Ms. Burnette, if you'd come forward please. Would you raise your right hand.
MARTHA BURNETTE, having been duly sworn, testified as follows:
THE CHAIRMAN: Ms. Burnette, we were reviewing, or I've reviewed your letter and also the documents you provided, I believe I have the court order and Ms. McNamee will ask some questions of you. I'll ask you is -- I don't think you were here in the morning session, but we asked the witnesses to try to confine themselves to the issues before us and that, in this instance, is Mr. Williams' involvement in the case that you were involved in. And I apologize if I try to redirect you, but if you get on a tangent that I think is inappropriate for that hearing, I may interrupt you to do that. Ms. McNamee.
MS. MCNAMEE: Thank you.
MS. BURNETTE - EXAMINATION BY MS. MCNAMEE:
Q. Good afternoon, Ms. Burnette.
A. Good afternoon.

Printed Page 5268 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
Q. Ms. Burnette, we just wanted to ask you what your complaint is about Mr. Williams. I understand that Mr. Williams was the court appointed guardian ad litem in your contested custody proceeding?
A. Uh-huh.
THE CHAIRMAN: Ms. Burnette, if you could respond orally. She takes down what you say.
A. Yes. That's correct.
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
Q. And the reason for your appearing here today is your dissatisfaction with his completion of that role; is that correct?
A. Yes, and I guess what I perceived as his performance of that 0role, I can see that it has implications for his ability to function as a judge, so it's partly opinion in that respect.
Q. Would you please tell us what happened with your -- with the -- in your custody case, Mr. Williams' participation in it that you were dissatisfied with?
A. I think that there were probably three areas that I felt
-- let me preface this, and I don't want to get off the track, but let me just tell you, having never done this before, I didn't know what to expect from a guardian ad litem, so please read my comments as these were expectations that I would have, you know, maybe expected from a guardian ad litem in their role.

I don't know legally exactly what a guardian ad litem is supposed to do, but based on what I would have expected one to do in the process, I really had three areas in which I was concerned about Mr. Williams' participation.

The first was that I feel he was very indecisive. His -- when he was asked for his recommendation in court, he said, and this is in the court transcript, let me see if I can find it. He did address the judge. He said, "I think in the end you will see I'm not going to have an ultimate recommendation. I'm going to let the court make that ultimate decision which the court indicated in the beginning is probably what you were going to do anyway no matter what I said." So he did not have a clear-cut recommendation to the Court and I consider that to be quite indecisive and I was very surprised by that more than anything.
Q. And your other two?
A. The second area is that I felt in his questioning me and in his trying to address some of the issues that were being brought up in court, some of the ways that he worded things indicated to me that there was some presuppositions there that I could not go along with and that I think will make it hard for him to make unbiased decisions about things and I have

Printed Page 5269 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
written down some examples, if that will help you, you know, specific things that he said that -- that to -- that are what I read as indicating some bias. Is that okay for me to read those examples?
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes. Explain a little bit. There are some examples from the transcript that you're referring to?
A. Yes, from the transcript.
THE CHAIRMAN: And these -- having read your letter, have they
-- do they further illuminate on the points that you make in the letter about -- I knew there was several areas. You mentioned an instance with --
A. There are more direct quotes. In the letter I kind of was just remembering things in general. And I did go back to the transcript and pull out some direct quotes, so that we have his actual words that he used.
THE CHAIRMAN: Okay.
A. And if you think that will be helpful, I will read some of these to you and, you know, how I feel that they're not necessarily appropriate. I did mention in the letter that I felt that he looked at my former husband's neighborhood with a very positive attitude and as a matter of fact, in the transcript he says when he's describing the neighborhood, "I think you might think of it, parts of it like St. Andrews here in Columbia. The house has been there for a long time. The neighborhood that you've heard about being close knit, I think that's all true. Everybody seems to know each other. It appears to be very positive in that sense."
THE CHAIRMAN: Now, was this in Durham, North Carolina?
A. Yes, this is Durham.
THE CHAIRMAN: So he visited --
A. He visited the neighborhood.
THE CHAIRMAN: -- the home of your ex-husband in Durham, North Carolina? Okay.
A. And that was his description of that neighborhood.
THE CHAIRMAN: Was there any -- was the charge specified about whether he was required to visit that neighborhood or not, the charge of the Court?
A. I don't think it was specified. I believe he was going up there to a basketball game or a football game or something and he -- since he was in the area, he went through the neighborhood.
THE CHAIRMAN: Okay.
A. And did interview some of the neighbors there. While I don't necessarily disagree with his comments about Durham, what I was concerned about is then he said turns around and follows with some comments about the neighborhood that I live in, here in Columbia, which is the Eau Claire-Hyatt Park neighborhood and he says, "The situation in
Printed Page 5270 . . . . . Thursday, April 28, 1994
Columbia is essentially what you've heard," and this was -- came from something that my husband said, my ex-husband. And he's talking about my apartment here. He said, "It's a small two-bedroom apartment with a living area and bath and it's like a dorm, a little bigger than a dorm room. Some of the parents that are living there kind of get together in the afternoon. The kids play on the playground. They do kind of look out for each other. Again, like the neighborhood in Durham on a much smaller scale. I think they all for whatever reason desire safety. They kind of stay close to that little area where the apartments are, but they have a little sense of community there, too."

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