[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 25, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E229-E230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              A SPECIAL SALUTE TO JUDGE WILLIAM K. THOMAS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. LOUIS STOKES

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 25, 1998

  Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to salute an outstanding member 
of the judicial system, United States District Judge William K. Thomas. 
Judge Thomas recently retired after nearly 32 years on the federal 
bench. I take special pride in recognizing him at this time.
  President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 appointed Judge Thomas to the U.S. 
District Court in Cleveland. In an article which appeared on January 
30, 1988, the Plain Dealer newspaper paid tribute to Judge Thomas, 
highlighting his distinguished career. The article is entitled, ``A 
Fair Piece of Work,'' and recognizes an individual who earned a 
reputation as a thorough, hard-working and dedicated judge. His 
reputation for fairness earned him the respect of his colleagues and 
peers.
  Mr. Speaker, during my career as a practicing attorney, I tried cases 
in Judge Thomas' court. In my opinion, he is one of the finest trial 
judges in the nation. He is also a gentleman whom I respect and greatly 
admire. For this reason, I want to share the Plain Dealer article with 
my colleagues and others around the nation. I extend my personal 
congratulations to Judge Thomas and wish him the very best in his 
retirement years.

                          A Fair Piece of Work

                         (By Mark Rollenhagen)

       When William K. Thomas was sworn in as a federal judge, one 
     of the speakers at his swearing-in ceremony invoked the words 
     of a former law partner who had long ago said Thomas could 
     never be a good lawyer.
       ``The trouble with Bill Thomas is he wants to be fair to 
     both sides,'' the partner had said.
       Thomas, who retires today after nearly 32 years on the 
     federal court bench in Cleveland, flashed a contented smile 
     earlier this week when he recalled those words.
       At 86 years old, he leaves what he sometimes refers to as 
     ``the judging business'' with a reputation as a meticulous, 
     hard-working jurist who treated lawyers, criminals and 
     parties to civil lawsuits with respect and fairness.
       ``He's one of the best I've ever tried a case in front 
     of,'' said James R. Willis, a veteran criminal defense lawyer 
     who represented Cleveland Mafia boss James T. Licavoli when 
     Licavoli was convicted in 1982 of racketeering. ``He was 
     patient, he listened to what you were saying and the ruled 
     decisively. That's the whole package.''
       The Licavoli case, in which the mob figure and others were 
     convicted of conspiring to kill mobster Daniel J. Greene, was 
     perhaps the highest profile criminal case of Thomas' career. 
     Greene, killed by a bomb in 1977, was in competition for 
     control of organized crime in the Cleveland area.
       But Thomas also presided over a trial in which porn king 
     Reuben Sturman and several associates were found not guilty 
     of obscenity charges, and he helped negotiate an end to a 
     police standoff in 1975 with bank robber Eddie Watkins, who 
     was holding hostages at a bank in Cleveland.
       Watkins was sentenced to prison in 1967 by Thomas, but 
     escaped.
       Watkins had asked for Thomas.
       As for civil lawsuits, Thomas also shepherded a settlement 
     of lawsuits brought by students injured when Ohio National 
     Guardsmen fired on a crowd of demonstrators at Kent State 
     University. With the jury deliberating, Thomas met with the 
     lawyers in his chambers and pounded out a carefully worded 
     agreement in 1979 in which the state of Ohio agreed to pay 
     the plaintiffs $675,000.
       Thomas said it would be difficult to pick out any of his 
     cases as being bigger or more difficult than any of the 
     others. He said he had never been one to look back.
       What he has enjoyed the most, the judge said, is the view 
     of life he had from the bench.
       ``I think the contact with individuals that comes to a 
     trial judge is a great reward,'' Thomas said. ``You have a 
     chance to see the ebb and flow of humanity.''
       Thomas said his judicial temperament was formed in part by 
     the experience of being dressed down in front of a client by 
     a federal judge when he was a lawyer. ``I vowed that I would 
     never do that if I became a judge,'' Thomas said.
       Thomas became a judge in 1950 when his friend, then-Gov. 
     Frank Lausche, appointed

[[Page E230]]

     him to the bench in Geauga County. He was credited with 
     closing the Pettibone Club, a gambling club in Chardon.
       He later moved to Chagrin Falls and was appointed to the 
     Cuyahoga County Common Pleas bench by Lausche in 1953. He was 
     the judge who released Sam Sheppard on $50,000 bond in 1954 
     after Sheppard was arrested and charged with murdering his 
     wife, Marilyn.
       Thomas served on the Common Pleas bench until 1966 when 
     President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the U.S. District 
     Court in Cleveland.
       He earned a reputation as a hard-working, thorough judge 
     who worked through most federal holidays. He was careful and 
     deliberate in what he said, preferring to issue his decisions 
     in writing and avoiding rash decisions from the bench.
       His approach to the courtroom was simple, he said: ``Keep 
     your head. Don't sound off until you've really had an 
     opportunity to think things through.''
       Retired U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Lambros--who was 
     appointed by Johnson in 1967--said he first met Thomas when 
     they were both Common Pleas judges and Thomas was serving as 
     president of a statewide association of judges.
       Lambros said Thomas worked hard at improving both the court 
     operations and dealing with the flood of civil rights law 
     that was made in 1960s and 1970s.
       ``We had to deal with some very important constitutional 
     issues which touched the lives of millions of people,'' 
     Lambros said. ``It was truly one of the highlights of my 
     judicial career to have had the opportunity to serve with 
     Bill Thomas.''
       Thomas has been a senior judge since 1981, handling a small 
     docket of cases and occasionally handling trials to help out 
     other judges.
       He said he was not certain what he would do in complete 
     retirement. His wife, Dorothy, passed away in 1992. He 
     remains close to his four children and plans to do some 
     writing--``nothing fancy, just a few notes for my children,'' 
     he said.
       ``I've learned over the years to never look backwards and 
     be thinking in terms of I'm missing what I was doing,'' he 
     said. ``I just try to find new things to do.''

     

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