My research project on judicial ethics has found a new low.
In May, Arkansas Judge O. Joseph Boeckmann, Jr. resigned amid allegations that
he swapped sex for reduced sentences and took thousands of nude photographs of
defendants and victims.
There is more to the story than the tawdry details. The
judge got into trouble after the state’s judicial ethics commission filed 14
charges of rules violations against him. Boeckmann was accused of verbally
abusing people -- mostly women and minorities -- in his courtroom, failing to
recuse himself from cases involving business partners of his family, and
offering young white men more lenient rulings in court if they agreed to
perform sexual favors.
The commission alleged that Boeckmann chose certain young male
defendants to receive "substitutionary sentences." The Judge didn't
alert court staff to what the sentences would be and simply wrote
"community service" in court documents.
Investigators seized 4,600 photos from the judge's computer.
Most photos showed young men who were defendants in his court. Many images
depicted naked young men from behind, bending over after an apparent paddling.
On a less repulsive note, last week a New York judge
resigned after pleading guilty to taking bribes Justice John Michalek has been charged
with receiving hockey game tickets and political fundraising from a Democratic
operative while this person had an interest in civil cases before the judge.
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