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Many cops think having a gun and a badge means you have
a God given right to have sex with any woman you want.
I didn't know the same was true about having a black robe!
Arizona Supreme Court suspends former Tucson judge Investigation shows he harassed female lawyers by Luci Scott - Jun. 4, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic The Arizona Supreme Court has suspended former Tucson City Judge Ted Abrams from practicing law for two years after an investigation showed Abrams sexually harassed female lawyers. Abrams, who resigned, also is forbidden from ever working as a judge in Arizona. Abrams' lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to reconsider and shorten the suspension of his Bar license. "I made mistakes," Abrams said in a phone interview. "I wish I had a time machine to go back and do things differently. Absent that, I can try to go forward." Before the Supreme Court ruled, the State Bar of Arizona wrote a brief that said Abrams "engaged in a prolonged and relentless effort to sexually harass an assistant public defender who appeared in his court," and "in a gross misuse of his power, he inflicted his retribution from the bench for the victim's refusal to yield to his pursuit." Abrams, 47, also had a sexual relationship with another attorney, a private defense lawyer who appeared in his court, and he sent sexually explicit e-mails to a third attorney, an assistant city prosecutor who appeared in his court. The State Bar brief said the judge "victimized a young lawyer for his own personal gratification and when she did not enjoy, welcome or otherwise relent to his constant requests for sexual contact, he berated and humiliated her from the bench during a jury trial." The Commission on Judicial Conduct ruled the women's names should not be public, so the State Bar refers to them as Attorney A, B and C. Over 14 months, from fall 2009 through December 2010, Abrams sent Attorney B, the assistant public defender, at least 28 "repeated and unwanted" voice mails and at least 85 text messages, many containing sexual innuendos or sexual content. He would mumble inappropriate things as he walked past her and would make slurping noises. The judge repeatedly pressured the attorney for sex, the brief said. She repeatedly told him she was not interested in a sexual relationship with him and reminded him such an affair would be improper because of his position as a judge, her routine appearances in his court and the fact that he is married. In December 2009, "the attorney told him he was crazy and disgusting," the brief said. As she was walking away from him, the judge fondled her buttocks. Shortly thereafter, he left another voice mail with a vulgar message similar to an earlier one. "This record paints a picture of a man who was willing to abuse the power of his position and whose actions were and are predatory," the State Bar's brief said. Abrams takes exception with the Bar's description of him. He says that he was an exemplary member of the Bar for two decades and that he was praised in evaluations of his judicial conduct and his performance as a part-time law professor at the University of Arizona, a position he also resigned. "The Bar's characterization of me being abusive is not a fair characterization of who I am and who I was as a judge," he said. He said the Bar's stance was not an effort to get at the truth, but "it started to get into the realm of the politics of personal destruction. I should not be punished for the systemic problems with the way judges are handled." At the same time, Abrams said he "fell well below the standards." He said he is "working hard to make sure the changes I've made in my life hold. I'm working diligently, and my wife is an unbelievably great woman." His wife, Lisa, a commissioner in Pima County Superior Court, submitted a declaration in support of him. Abrams called her "the truest victim in this whole situation." |