ETHICS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
STATE OF WASHINGTON
OPINION NO. 86-13



QUESTION

     Is it proper for a judge’s spouse to work as a volunteer probation
person in the same court as the judge sits?  Would the answer be any
different if the spouse/volunteer probation person were assigned to another
District Court in the same county?

ANSWER

     Our answer is premised on the following representations made to the
committee:  1) although the position is unpaid, the spouse/probation worker
performs all the services of a paid probation officer;  2) the court has
two other judges and the spouse is not permitted to work on the case of any
defendant sentenced by the judge/spouse;  3) in the capacity of probation
worker, the spouse uses her maiden name although not for any other
purposes;  4) the District Court Probation Department is managed by a
director who has the ultimate responsibility for hiring and firing all
employees, but individual probation workers are assigned to various courts
on a fairly permanent basis; and  5) which probation department is under
the direct supervision of the District Court.

     A judge does not violate the Code of Judicial Conduct when a fellow
judge’s spouse works as a volunteer probation person in the same court as
the judge sits.

     CJC Canon 2 requires a judge to avoid impropriety and the appearance
of impropriety and also requires a judge not allow social or other
relationships to influence the judge’s judicial conduct or judgment.  CJC
Canon 3 (C)(1)(d) requires the judge to disqualify himself or herself where
the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.  The committee’s
opinion is that
under some circumstances the marital relationship between a fellow judge
and he volunteer probation worker might give rise to a circumstance wherein
the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

     It is the committee’s opinion that the proper course of action for a
judge faced with assigning or having responsibility for assigning to a
defendant a probation worker who is the spouse of a fellow judge in he same
court would be to notify the defendant of that relationship and to
seriously consider a request for the assignment of another probation worker
to the defendant’s case if the defendant chooses to make such a request.