The Fight to Sack Troy

When he was appointed a Boston municipal court judge in 1962, Jerome P. Troy, 55, had few credentials for the bench other than his record as a loyal Democratic Party functionary. Once he put on judicial robes, however, Troy seemed set for life.

But in the working-class South Boston community of Dorchester, where Troy sat, there was a growing feeling that the judge was becoming a local tyrant who dispensed a highly personal brand of justice. "Troy's heavy hand touches everyone in the community," said Donna Finn, a young mother and one of Troy's strongest critics. "If they haven't been in his court themselves, they have relatives or neighbors who have." But what could they do?

Last year Mrs. Finn and other young activists in a group called The People First collected 10,000 signatures in support of Troy's removal. In 28 affidavits drawn up with the help of the Boston Legal Assistance Project, lawyers and law students accused Troy of denying defendants everything from the right to remain silent to the right to cross-examine. More recently, three different federal and state judges reviewing Troy decisions went out of their way to criticize his performance. In one case he was found to have been "both accuser and judge" of two men charged with nonsupport of their children. In another, a judge found that Troy had "coerced" a defendant by telling him his sentence would be suspended if he waived his right to appeal.

Eventually the evidence forced Judge Franklin Flaschner, chief justice of the state's district courts, to convene a closed "hearing not unlike an inquest." For a month, a panel composed of Flaschner and two other judges heard witnesses, including Troy, then sent the State Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) a 49-page report on what Flaschner called Troy's "total inadequacy."

The SJC returned the report to Flaschner, telling him that he had the power to discipline Troy for "certain possible irregularities." What power? asked Flaschner, passing the buck back. The SJC said that he could transfer.a judge to another court and order him to change his courtroom procedure. So Flaschner assigned Troy to five different courts during the past month and restricted him to civil cases.

In some distress at the spectacle, the Boston Bar Association petitioned the SJC to act. Last week the SJC met once again and decided once more not to commit itself. It did hint that if the Bar Association formally requested Troy's disbarment, somebody might then be willing to fire him. All of which left the militant members of The People First somewhat frustrated. "Just look," said Mrs. Finn. "Troy's still on the bench."

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