By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
An Ottawa County judge will retire six months before the end of his term under a consent agreement resulting from a domestic violence complaint against him.
Judge Bradley S. Knoll of the 58th District Court in Holland will step down from the bench effective July 1 under the consent order that was approved March 25 by the Michigan Supreme Court. His current six-year term was to expire in December.
In a separate order, Knoll was suspended immediately with pay until further order of the court. “The suspension is independent from the Supreme Court's order (under the consent agreement),” according to the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission website.
Knoll, 74, has served as a district judge since January 2003 and was not eligible to seek re-election this year because state law does not allow judges to be elected after the age of 70.
The Judicial Tenure Commission filed a complaint against Knoll in April of last year in connection with a December 2023 incident at the judge’s Grand Haven home in which Knoll struck his wife “with an open hand and slapped (her) on the top of her head,” then verbally threatened a Grand Haven Department of Public Safety officer, according to case records.
Knoll pleaded guilty to domestic assault and was sentenced in March 2024 to four months’ probation and ordered to complete an anger management class. He successfully completed his probation and the case was dismissed without entry of a conviction, case records show.
“Judge Knoll deeply regrets his loss of temper in his house and with the officers, and the embarrassment that he has caused,” the Judicial Tenure Commission said in its findings of fact.
In addition to agreeing to retire early, Knoll cannot preside over any case involving domestic violence “at any stage of the proceedings” during the rest of his judgeship, and after retirement cannot seek or accept appointment as a visiting judge until after Jan. 1, 2027, and cannot take any case involving any charge of domestic violence as a visiting judge, case records show.
Zeeland Record
An Ottawa County judge will retire six months before the end of his term under a consent agreement resulting from a domestic violence complaint against him.
Judge Bradley S. Knoll of the 58th District Court in Holland will step down from the bench effective July 1 under the consent order that was approved March 25 by the Michigan Supreme Court. His current six-year term was to expire in December.
In a separate order, Knoll was suspended immediately with pay until further order of the court. “The suspension is independent from the Supreme Court's order (under the consent agreement),” according to the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission website.
Knoll, 74, has served as a district judge since January 2003 and was not eligible to seek re-election this year because state law does not allow judges to be elected after the age of 70.
The Judicial Tenure Commission filed a complaint against Knoll in April of last year in connection with a December 2023 incident at the judge’s Grand Haven home in which Knoll struck his wife “with an open hand and slapped (her) on the top of her head,” then verbally threatened a Grand Haven Department of Public Safety officer, according to case records.
Knoll pleaded guilty to domestic assault and was sentenced in March 2024 to four months’ probation and ordered to complete an anger management class. He successfully completed his probation and the case was dismissed without entry of a conviction, case records show.
“Judge Knoll deeply regrets his loss of temper in his house and with the officers, and the embarrassment that he has caused,” the Judicial Tenure Commission said in its findings of fact.
In addition to agreeing to retire early, Knoll cannot preside over any case involving domestic violence “at any stage of the proceedings” during the rest of his judgeship, and after retirement cannot seek or accept appointment as a visiting judge until after Jan. 1, 2027, and cannot take any case involving any charge of domestic violence as a visiting judge, case records show.
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