TRAVERSE CITY -- Former Meijer Inc. attorney Timothy Stoepker and his law firm will try again to bar a local judge from presiding over a lawsuit filed by five Acme Township officials.
Stoepker wants the Michigan Court of Appeals to remove 13th Circuit Court Judge Philip Rodgers from continuing in a three-year-old lawsuit, alleging Rodgers is "unable to act as an impartial judge."
Stoepker and Dickinson Wright PLLC represented Meijer and the Village at Grand Traverse LLC in legal battles to build a superstore and shopping complex in the township on M-72. Along the way, Meijer and the Village individually sued several Acme Township officials.
Five Acme officials responded with lawsuits of their own, and alleged Meijer and its interests intentionally harmed them through frivolous lawsuits, illegal campaign activity and secret financial support of a citizens group that targeted township officials.
In June, Rodgers said Stoepker "lied" to him in court a year earlier about his knowledge of Meijer's illegal involvement in two Acme Township elections.
Rodgers later apologized when he realized Stoepker hadn't made that statement.
Benzie County Circuit Judge James Batzer denied a previous request from Dickinson Wright to remove Rodgers. Batzer ruled the comments were based on Rodgers' failed recollection of facts from previous proceedings, and the apology should be accepted at face value.
"I don't think ... under the recusal rule we psychoanalyze judicial statements and say, 'Oh, what deep-seated ideas lurk behind your words,'" Batzer said.
In Stoepker's appeal, his attorney Roger Wotila argued "the apology did not purge the taint of Rodgers' injudicious remarks" and will not maintain an "appearance of judicial neutrality."
Attorney Mike Dettmer represents the township officials. He said he expects the appeals court to reject Stoepker's appeal, just as they've turned down other efforts by Meijer to avoid facing a Grand Traverse County jury.
"This filing is simply another futile effort to avoid accountability," Dettmer said.
Unlike previous appeals, Stoepker's appeal will not delay the Acme officials' lawsuits.
Over the next month Dettmer said he plans to depose -- interview under oath -- members of a citizens group created and funded by Meijer, as well as attorneys from Dickinson Wright, and Ginny Seyferth, president of the Grand Rapids public relations firm Seyferth Spaulding Tennyson.
Meijer hired the public relations firm to secretly manipulate Acme Township elections in 2005 and 2007.
Should the appeals court remove Rodgers, the case would be assigned to a judge from outside of the 13th Circuit Court, which covers Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Antrim counties.
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For complete reporting on the Acme-Meijer dispute, see record-eagle.com/acme-meijer
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