Manatee Judge John Lakin says inexperience led him to take baseball tickets

MANATEE -- Circuit Judge John Lakin has admitted he violated the rules of judicial conduct when he requested and received baseball tickets from a law firm that had a case before him, but he said he did so out of ignorance and that it did not influence his decision.

"He had no wrongful intent," Lakin's attorney, John A. Weiss, wrote in a statement responding to the charges filed by the Judicial Qualifications Commission. "He can only offer an explanation that, as a relatively new judge, he was not familiar with the Canons as he could have been and this contributed to his mistaken belief that he only had to disclose the use of the baseball tickets on his annual disclosure form."

The Judicial Qualifications Commission charged Lakin with misconduct Feb. 1 for requesting and taking Tampa Bay Rays baseball tickets from the Kallins, Little & Delgado law firm while presiding over the case Wittke v. Walmart.

A jury trial in June ruled in favor of Walmart, and Lakin later overturned the decision to the benefit of Wittke, the law firm's client.

Kallins, Little & Delgado gave Lakin baseball tickets four times while the case was pending, with five tickets coming the day before Lakin overturned the jury decision.

Lakin admitted to all charges in his response, except for a charge saying he violated a requirement to "dispose of all judicial matters promptly, efficiently, and fairly." He also denied that his actions demonstrate an unfitness to serve, as the JQC notice of formal charges concluded.

"Judge Lakin adamantly denies that a few baseball tickets would influence his decision," Weiss wrote. "Judge Lakin has a 25-year history as a lawyer and a judge that, until these events, was sterling."

Lakin was elected to the bench in 2012 and has served on the criminal bench since then. At the time of the alleged offense he had served on the civil court for six months.

Weiss said though Lakin was an inexperienced judge at the time, he has a lot of experience as a civil trial lawyer and that background influenced him to overturn the jury decision in the Wittke v. Walmart case.

Melton Little of the Kallins, Little & Delgado firm said in a statement that the firm has five season tickets to Rays games and they commonly give away tickets to members of the community.

"To suggest that Judge Lakin would have been influenced by a couple of tickets to a Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox game and put his judicial career in jeopardy is ridiculous," Little concluded.

The Florida Supreme Court has ultimate jurisdiction in the case and will decide what penalties Lakin will face, up to and including removal from the bench.

Kate Irby, Herald online/political reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7055. You can follow her on Twitter @KateIrby

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 11:49 PM with the headline "Manatee Judge John Lakin says inexperience led him to take baseball tickets ."