Disgraced Supreme Court justice will collect $100,000 annual pension

Don’t cry for Diane Hathaway – it appears the scandal-ridden ex-judge will be trading in her $160,000 annual paycheck for a $100,000 state pension.

According to the Midland-based Mackinac Center, the disgraced Michigan Supreme Court justice who resigned earlier this week should be in line to receive a yearly pension of more than $98,000, based generally on the complicated formula used to calculate state pensions.

After spending months trying to fend off allegation that she defrauded a bank to escape $600,000 in mortgage debt on a Lake St. Clair home in Grosse Pointe Park, Hathaway resigned on Tuesday just as an internal investigation was concluded and sought a suspension of the jurist.

After a questionable short sale of the waterfront home and a home swap with her stepdaughter, the Judicial Tenure Commission probe charged that Hathaway was guilty of fraud, money laundering and misleading the JTC.

Hathaway had apparently been informed that the JTC report would be devastating and she turned in the required paperwork to collect her pension on Dec. 20.

Hathaway has served on the bench for 20 years, first in 1992 when she was elected to the Wayne County Circuit Court. When she was elected to the high court in 2008, she ran on the Democratic Party ticket.