“We need to be transparent and accountable to the people of Massachusetts,” said Patrick McDermott, the Norfolk County Register of Probate and head of the Massachusetts Association of Registers of Probate. However, the Administrative Office of the Trial Court has been working with court clerks to come up with a better, quicker way to discipline clerks without conducting a lengthy investigation and hearing process first. As a result, any change would require approval of the Legislature in two different sessions, as well as a statewide vote. For instance, Buonomo managed to win the Democratic primary in 2008 even though he had already resigned in disgrace.īut it is highly unlikely that the elections for registers will be abolished any time soon, because the Massachusetts Constitution recognizes registers as elected positions. The vast majority run unopposed, and many voters know very little about the candidates. He eventually went to prison.Īlthough they are elected posts, registers of probate are purely administrative officials managing cases involving divorce, child custody, and other family issues.
Nine years later, Antonelli’s successor, John Buonomo, avoided a lengthy review and resigned after being caught on camera stealing money from courthouse copy machines. Antonelli was removed from office in 1999 for mistreating employees and creating a hostile work environment, but only after a two-year review and a ruling by the state’s highest court. Middlesex County Register of Probate Robert B.
Judges are often reluctant to act on reports of misconduct by elected court officials who are accountable to the voters first. If Campatelli comes to the court without permission, court officials plan to ask the Supreme Judicial Court to order her out of the building, said two people who have been briefed on the court’s strategy. “She has agreed to stay out” of the courthouse voluntarily for the time being.Ĭourt officials said they could not comment on a “confidential personnel matter,” but a spokeswoman reiterated that Campatelli remains on administrative leave while court officials complete an investigation of her conduct. “The administrative office cannot suspend her only the can do that,” said Boncore. After she threatened to return to work Monday, her colorful case has quickly become a test of a more serious question: How much authority do judges have to discipline court officials who were elected by the voters? And hopefully everything will be resolved Tuesday.”Ĭampatelli insists that court administrators do not have the authority to suspend an elected official such as her and that she has been the victim of a smear campaign.
“There have been no problems,” Boncore said in an interview.
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