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Cox hires justices' wives for staff;Conflict-of-interest questions surface as Gorcyca decides on alleged Fieger extortion
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has hired the wives of two Michigan Supreme Court justices, raising questions about whether the state's top law enforcement officer and the state's highest court appear sufficiently independent. About a month ago, Cox hired Kathleen Markman, whose husband, Justice Stephen Markman, received $34,000 in campaign contributions last year from a political action committee controlled by Cox. And in a no-bid contract in May 2004, Cox hired Lucille Taylor, wife of Chief Justice Clifford Taylor. Both women are lawyers with long legal backgrounds, and their arrangements with Cox are legal. As the state's top lawyer, Cox's legal team typically appears before the seven-member Supreme Court more than anyone else. Cox's ties to the high court have come under scrutiny after he went public last week with claims that Southfield lawyer Geoffrey Fieger tried to blackmail him into dropping a campaign finance probe using an intermediary. That criminal investigation involves Fieger's belatedly disclosed campaign efforts last year to oust Stephen Markman. ... Christopher Fairman, an expert on legal ethics at Ohio State University, said Cox's hires probably break no rules but may not sit well with the public. "Hiring a spouse wouldn't necessarily be an ethics problem, but it doesn't pass the sniff test," Fairman said. "It may leave the impression of the appearance of impropriety. ... It reeks politics, there's no doubt about that."
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