In Re Noecker

This appeal is from the recommendation of the Judicial Tenure Commission (JTC) that respondent 45th Circuit Judge James E Noecker be removed from office and required to pay the costs of his prosecution. We determine that respondent should be removed from office but that costs should not be assessed against him.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On March 12, 2003, respondent was involved in a motor vehicle accident in Sturgis, Michigan. The vehicle he was driving turned from a road into the parking lot of a store, the Klinger Lake Trading Post. According to witnesses, respondent’s vehicle neither…