Five days into the trial about serious family abuse in Finnmark, the case took an unexpected turn. The accused man began to lash out at district court judge Jon Mjellekås. It turned out that he had ruled in previous cases between the parties. Finnmarkingen therefore thought the judge could not judge. The head of the district court agreed. Thus the whole case was stopped. District court judge Jon Mjellekås was disqualified. Here from a trial in 2018, at the time Mjellekås was a police attorney. Photo: Màret Eli Buljo / news The case must now be heard completely again with a new judge. This means that both the victims, the accused, witnesses and the police must explain themselves once more. None of them are excited about it. – It is very regrettable in terms of the victims, the defendant and the use of resources, says prosecutor and police lawyer Victoria Bendiksby Wilkinson. Believes the blunder should have been avoided The Finnmarkingen in his 50s is accused of threatening and mistreating his wife for 17 years. According to the indictment, he is also accused of abusing all the couple’s children from an early age. – It goes without saying that this is a big burden, and going through this again is not an ideal situation for her, says Roy Arteid, who is the woman’s legal aid lawyer. Assistant lawyer Roy Arteid says that he has not previously been a lawyer in a case where the judge is declared incompetent on day five in court. Photo: Law firm Fari Han points out that it took a whole day for the woman to explain herself to the judge in the previous court round. He believes that the judge’s impartiality should have been raised at the outset of the case. – Given that the judge was aware that he had also been a judge in another case between the same parties, I think that the parties should have been made aware of that. The defendant is also frustrated that the case must be processed completely anew. To news, he denies all allegations of violence, and points out that he currently has custody of several of the children. The case has also been a big burden for him. Wanted to keep the mistake a secret The case in Vestre Finnmark District Court will be heard again at the end of November. When the case was stopped in August, news asked to see the ruling. The district court rejected it. They also did not want to be interviewed about the content. Instead, they chose to keep the entire decision secret. Only the parties in court would then know about the mistake. In order to deny news access, the district court indicated that “there are strong reasons for ordering a total ban on public reproduction of the ruling”. They argued that information about the parties should not be disseminated. But the criminal case had long since been discussed by the press, and anyone could be present in the courtroom. It was only now in November that news’s request for access ended with the Hålogaland Court of Appeal. They only spent a day changing the district court’s secrecy. They have unanimously given news full access to the blunder. The ruling shows that the district court judge was incompetent because he had previously ruled in child protection cases between the woman and the man. Then he ruled in favor of the woman. Subsequently, there have been several court cases between the parties, where other judges have ruled. Those cases went in favor of the accused, according to himself. He says that he therefore has no confidence in Mjellekås. – The judge sat there for four days and knew he was involved in the case. Still, he just let it roll and go. He could have stopped this at an earlier stage, had someone else come in, so we could have finished this, says the man. The fact that he himself did not draw attention to the judge when the case started, he reasons with his poor mental state when the case was ongoing. He had a statement from a doctor to that effect. The criminal case, which was interrupted by the judge’s error, will be heard again at the end of November. Photo: Stian Strøm / news Will not answer if wrong news has again asked for an interview with the district court, but they will not answer now either. – We do not comment on decisions that have been made, or cases that are pending, writes head of Vestre Finnmark district court, magistrate Torbjørn Saggau Holm, in an email. The question of why the judge did not consider his own competence when the trial started remains unanswered. So does the question of whether the district court tried to hide the mistake when they refused to give the ruling to news. In its justification for giving news access, the Court of Appeal points out that the ruling was read out in the district court, which was open to both the public and the press. There were also no restrictions against reproducing the ruling in public. Confidence in the judge Assistance Attorney Roy Arteid, says nothing was said in court that the ruling on disqualification was sealed. – No, I think the district court only decided on that after they received the access request from news. None of those present were required to remain silent about the content of the ruling. It was just a normal announcement of a ruling, says Arteid. But usually it is fine for a judge to judge in different cases between the same parties, according to Rune Bård Hansen. He is a team referee and a member of the referees’ media group. – Another system will make it very difficult to find competent judges in many places in the country, he says. Rune Bård Hansen is a team referee and a member of the referees’ media group. He explains that there is basically nothing wrong with a judge being able to judge in different cases between the parties. Photo: Aina Indreiten / news Hansen has no insight into the case itself, but says that the judge may have given the impression of who he believes in from the parties when judgments were made in previous cases. – It is also important that defendants and victims in a criminal case have confidence that the judge sees the case with an unbiased eye and is not bound by something the judge in question may have already stated in a previous case. news has also been in contact with the children’s welfare lawyer, Benny Solheim. He does not wish to comment on the matter.
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Court in Finnmark wanted to keep blunder secret – news Troms and Finnmark
