The judge at the center of the controversy says he’s become a bit of an object rather than a person suffering through an addiction. James Weaver talked with Radio Iowa by phone. “I acknowledge I suffer from diseases. I think that I’m entitled as a human being to recover from the active symptoms of those diseases. I’m working very hard to do that,” Weaver says. “My active symptoms are in remission and through my own work and medication I anticipate that they will remain in remission and as long as they do, I’m capable of discharging any contractual obligations I have with anyone, includcing the state public defender.” Weaver has been on a list of potential lawyers for indigent defendants in Muscatine County since early January, and he’s worked on a handful of cases already. Legislators accuse Weaver of “double-dipping” by getting a pension worth nearly 60-thousand dollars annually and then getting more from the state by doing legal work for poor clients who can’t afford a lawyer. Weaver says there’s no law that bars him from working after he retired as a judge. “I’m 51-years-old — and I want to be employed and this is one avenue in the legal profession for employment,” he says. Weaver says half of his pension goes to support his estranged wife and children. One legislator called Weaver a “drunk” and suggestion he wouldn’t be hired to work in a fast food restaurant because of his drunken driving conviction and drug use. “I find it to be somewhat incredible,” Weaver says. “It seems somewhat of a stretch.”
