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Group gets signatures to put judge recall on ballot GRANTS PASS -- A group seeking to recall a judge over his handling of a sex abuse trial has gathered enough signatures to put the matter on the ballot, the Josephine County clerk announced Monday. Petitioners gathered more than the 4,056 signatures of registered voters required by law to recall Judge Loyd O'Neal, said County Clerk Georgette Brown. As long as O'Neal decides to fight the recall, rather than resign, the election must be held by June 19. The recall drive was mounted by supporters of T.J. "Jack" Burris, a Hugo log truck driver now serving an eight-year prison term following his conviction last year of sexually abusing his granddaughters. An earlier trial ended in a hung jury. Recall leaders accused O'Neal of "railroading" Burris by suppressing evidence helpful to the defense, failing to remove a biased juror and ranting at people in the audience when he sentenced Burris to the mandatory Measure 11 prison term. O'Neal has maintained that he conducted the trial according to established courtroom procedures and legal precedents, which also kept prosecutors from introducing evidence damaging to Burris. Among those mounting the recall is a woman who served on the jury in the Burris case. The recall was supported by the Josephine County Taxpayers Association, a conservative government watchdog group whose membership includes a Grants Pass businessman who was convicted of looting American Indian artifacts from a cave in northern Nevada. O'Neal presided over that trial, too. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA