By admin 
South Carolina state Judge Carmen Mullen told a judicial discipline panel on Tuesday that she was compelled to intervene in a rapidly-evolving neighborhood situation to help a mentally troubled man.
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Because it was a matter of potential life and death, she said she should not be found in violation of ethical rules requiring judges to be independent, in testimony++ to the Commission on Judicial Conduct.
“He clearly was having a psychotic incident. We needed to take care of him and protect him,” Mullen testified, referring to a 57-year-old man who was screaming and threatening people in a normally sedate Hilton Head neighborhood on the chilly, rainy night of Dec. 7, 2017.
Her greatest concern was making sure the man quickly got to a proper place, such as a hospital, where he could be evaluated and treated, Mullen testified.
Erica Williams, the prosecuting lawyer for the disciplinary panel, didn’t agree with Mullen’s decisions. The judge knew there were police on the scene, and she should defer to them rather than interjecting herself into the middle of a law enforcement situation, Williams told the panel.
Mullen “blurred the lines” and got “actively involved in a police investigation,” thus putting herself in violation of judicial ethical rules that require judges to be independent and act impartially, Williams told the panel.
“The facts are not really in dispute. Our characterization of those facts differ,” Williams told the panel.
Mullen’s testimony was only one highlight in a hearing lasting more than four hours in the S.C. Court of Appeals courtroom, with its Italian black marble panels streaked with white and rounded podium where the members of the discipline panel sat.
It was a rare proceeding. No one could remember the last time a judge testified in a public disciplinary hearing in South Carolina to answer questions about their conduct. The hearing also shown a rare light on the lack of treatment options for the mentally ill, at least in that part of South Carolina and in that year.
Not only did Mullen testify, but also former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Costa Pleicones and Donna Schwartz Maddox — a noted forensic psychiatrist who has testified in numerous state high profile trials — also took the witness stand.
Pleicones vouched for Mullen’s good character. Maddox testified about the severity of the mental illness in the man Mullen said she was trying to help.
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Moreover, at the hearing’s end, Mullen’s attorney — Dawes Cooke Jr. — told the panel that it was three “political enemies” of Mullen who filed complaints about the incident that gave rise to Tuesday’s hearing. No one involved in the incident had any complaint about Mullen’s conduct, Cooke said.
Cooke did not identify the complainants, either in the hearing or afterward to reporters in the room.
Besides Keesley, panel members included Strat Stavrou , Rosalyn Frierson-Smith, James Willlingham II and Foster Routh.
Background
In her testimony, Mullen related how she was driving through the neighborhood with her then 15-year-old daughter on Dec. 7, 2017, when she saw the man, Ernie Lotito, waving his arms and surrounded by law enforcement. She drove to her home, dropped her daughter off and picked up her husband, George Mullen, who was a longtime friend of Lotito.
Once Lotito had been a brilliant lawyer but years ago had to leave the legal profession because he was given to fits of delusion that could come upon him suddenly, Mullen testified. During these spells, he could make wild threats, but he never carried them out, Mullen testified.
The reason she and her husband drove back to where she had seen Lotito was to make sure he would be safe and not get in an incident with the officers, who might not know his history, Mullen testified.
Once on the scene, Mullen learned that Lotito had been in a dispute with his landlady, who wanted him removed from her house because he had been a disruptive influence in her household, where she lived with her five young daughters. Lotito was threatening to break into her house and also claiming he was going to go live in a “tree fort” in the woman’s back yard, Mullen testified.
The woman then threatened to shoot Lotito, Mullen testified. To protect Lotito from the woman and also from the elements — it was 37 degrees and raining — Mullen began exploring with the officers the best ways to get him to a hospital. A hospital was the best place for someone in his condition, she said.
At the hearing’s end, the panel’s presiding officer, retired state Judge William Keesley, said there would be no immediate decision.
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This is a breaking news story and will be updated.