Ontario judge resigns over misconduct

An Ontario judge facing removal from the bench for misconduct during a 1999 murder trial has resigned.

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced Thursday that he has received a letter of resignation from Judge Paul Cosgrove.

Cosgrove's resignation from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice is effective immediately, Nicholson said.

The Canadian Judicial Council recently sent a report to Nicholson recommending Cosgrove's removal.

Nicholson said that in view of Cosgrove's resignation, no further action will be taken.

Had Cosgrove not resigned, votes in the Senate and House of Commons would have been required to strip the 74-year-old of office.

It was only the second time the council has recommended a federally appointed judge be stripped of office.

Judge Jean Bienvenue of the Quebec Superior Court landed in trouble for making caustic remarks about women and resigned in 1996 before Parliament could decide his fate.

The Canadian Judicial Council's 16-page report recommended Cosgrove be removed from office for "pervasive" misconduct at a 1999 murder trial. Cosgrove had apologized, but the report by 22 of Canada's chief justices and senior judges said that didn't help.

"In this case, it is our conclusion that the misconduct by Justice Cosgrove was so serious and so destructive of public confidence that no apology, no matter its sincerity, can restore public confidence in the judge's future ability to impartially carry out his judicial duties," the report said.

Former prime minister John Turner appointed Cosgrove, a former Trudeau cabinet minister, to the bench in 1984, and he worked in Brockville, Ont.

The case that proved to be his undoing was the murder trial of a former Barbados masseuse in the killing of Kemptville, Ont.-area mechanic Larry Foster.

In September 1999, after two years of legal argument, Cosgrove freed Julia Elliott, ruling that the Crown and police committed more than 150 violations of Elliott's charter rights.

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in 2003 that most of Cosgrove's conclusions were without foundation, including a finding that the deputy attorney general directed prosecutors to furnish the court with false information.

The appeal court also faulted Cosgrove for misuse of his contempt powers.

Elliott later pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Foster's death and is serving a prison sentence.