Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Judge Resigns After Swapping Sexual Favors with Defendants; Second Judge Resigns After Taking Bribes


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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