| ► Former Judge Hila Cohen of Haifa, Israel; monumental loser |
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Former Judge Hila Cohen of Haifa, Israel; monumental loser Hila Cohen was appointed to the Haifa Magistrate’s Court in 2002. She was tossed off the bench in 2005, and is the only judge in Israel’s history to be removed by the Judicial Appointments Committee.
The Judicial Appointments Committee found Judge Cohen guilty of the following misconduct.
On two occasions, Judge Cohen fabricated stenographic records of hearings that never took place in order to conceal her late arrival at court. She also tossed away the lawyer’s requests to defer those hearings.
In a 2-1 ruling, the disciplinary court found Cohen guilty of conduct unbecoming a judge for fabricating official records to conceal her lateness to court and punished her by gifting her with a complimentary reprimand. The dissenting judge recommended that Cohen be tossed from the bench.
Shortly thereafter, Judge Cohen was reassigned to another court in the northern district, but the president of that court refused to have her on his bench. Former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak urged Cohen to solve the problem by resigning, which is what most disgraced judges do, but she refused.
Eventually, the Justice Minister convened the Judicial Appointments Committee, which voted to oust Cohen; however, the committee didn’t decide what severance pay or pension she should receive.
Under Israeli law, a government employee guilty of misconduct can be denied severance pay, but in Cohen’s case, the state agreed to pay her 200,000 shekels ($53,500 U.S.). However, Cohen was not entitled to a state pension, because the state had been contributing to a pension fund setup for all judges since 1999.
Cohen then had the chutzpah to file a lawsuit demanding a state pension, arguing that he firing precluded any change of her ever being able to work as a lawyer and therefore left here with no way to earn a dishonest, I’m sorry I mean honest living. In 2006, Cohen and the state agreed to have the issue settled via arbitration.
In late 2012, the arbitrator, Former Supreme Court Justice Tsevi Tal awarded Cohen a monthly pension of 8,000 shekels ($2,146 US) for the rest of her life. The 8,000 shekels is a net figure! Justice Tal ordered the 8,000 shekels to be paid retroactively to 2005, which amounted to 672,000 shekels ($18,000 US).
Since Cohen is 57-years-old and the life expectancy of a female is 83, she’ll likely collect about 3.2 million shekels ($860,000 US) for working a mere three (3) years. Who said being dishonest doesn’t pay? It sure as hell wasn’t Cohen the Fabricator!
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