2/5/13 - Recently-elected Probate Court Judge Miriam Cavanaugh has disqualified herself from presiding over the ongoing case of a Brighton boy who was charged with sexual assault at the age of 13. The boy pleaded guilty to 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct and gross indecency charges following his arrest in December 2005 for molesting a 7-year-old girl in a bathroom stall at the Brighton District Library. He will turn 21 in April and court records indicate that he was not found to be rehabilitated at a dispositional review hearing on January 10th. At the same hearing it was recommended that he remain in the home of his parents under the supervision of the Department of Human Services. The case has been presided over by Probate Court Judge Carol Garagiola, who did not run for reelection in November. As the new probate judge, Cavanaugh would have taken over the case. However, on January 15th she signed an order of disqualification saying she had a serious risk of bias in the case because she had been assigned to it as a prosecutor. The case is now being presided over by Chief Circuit Court Judge David Reader. The next dispositional review will be on his 21st birthday in April. (JK)
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