Sunday, May 20, 2018

10 Jailed Judges

Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman

Motivated by lust, greed, and arrogance, some judges commit criminal acts ranging from the ludicrous and the bizarre to the despicable and the horrific. Of course, people from all walks of life commit crimes, but the public holds judges to a higher standard than it holds ordinary citizens. After all, they swear to uphold the law and to pursue justice, and the legitimacy of the political system depends on the people's perception of it as being unbiased, equitable, and fair. When judges violate the law, they suggest the justice system itself may be corrupt. Therefore, judges who commit crimes are often subjected to stiffer penalties than others who commit similar offenses, as the examples of these 10 jailed judges indicate.

10 Donald Thompson

In 2003, Oklahoma District Judge Donald Thompson, a 23-year veteran of the bench and a former state legislator, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $40,000, after his court reporter, Lisa Foster, complained to authorities that she'd witnessed Thompson expose himself 15 times or more, between 2001 and 2003, while conducting trials, one concerning a defendant charged with killing a toddler. At least four times, Thompson also employed a penis pump, which he kept on hand under the bench.


The judge said he'd never used the device to masturbate. It was a gag gift from a friend, he claimed. However, Foster testified that she'd heard the pump's distinctive “whooshing sound” almost every day as the judge squeezed the pump's handle, and her account of the incidents was confirmed by the recording she made of the trials' proceedings. A police officer, testifying during a murder trial, saw a plastic tube running under Thompson's robe, and, during a break, officials photographed the pump under the judge's bench. (LINK 1)

9 Samuel Kent

U. S. District Judge Samuel Kent referred to himself as “the Lion King,” “the emperor of Galveston,” and “the government,” (LINK 2) but Cathy McBroom, one of his victims, dubbed the 6' 4”, 250-pound judge “a drunken giant.” Kent, she charged, had “molested” and “groped” her. (LINK 3)


In a plea bargain, sexual assault charges were dismissed, but, in 2009, Kent, impeached by the U. S. House of Representatives and convicted of obstruction of justice for lying to authorities, was sentenced to 33 months in prison. He was also ordered to undergo counseling for alcoholism, because his drinking to excess during lunch breaks was a factor in his conduct toward McBroom and his other victim, Donna Wilkerson, his personal secretary. (LINK 4)

During his imprisonment, Kent, kept in solitary confinement, complained that he was caged in a cold, dirty cell without a mattress for the concrete slab that served as his bed. He also reported hearing a fellow prisoner scream as another inmate raped the man. A “cruel sergeant” made him do nude calisthenics, he said. In addition, he charged, he'd been improperly identified as a sex offender; he wasn't allowed to enroll in a substance-abuse prevention program, which would have reduced his sentence by a year; and he'd been shunted from one prison to another for no apparent reason. Such unjust and inhumane conditions, he contended, qualified him for an early release. (LINK 5)

8 Jack Camp

“I'll watch your back anytime,” semi-retired federal judge Jack Camp assured Atlanta stripper Sherry Ann Ramos. The exotic dancer helped topple the leering judge, who pleaded guilty to helping Ramos purchase cocaine, marijuana, and prescription painkillers for sale to prison inmates.

Ramos, an ex-con convicted of helping to distribute methamphetamine, secretly recorded Camp, who boasted of carrying a gun and vowed to protect her, as they bought drugs from an undercover agent. In addition to the drug charges, Camp also pleaded guilty to a gun possession charge and to illegally loaning the laptop computer the court had issued him to Ramos for her personal use.


Until his drug buy, Camp had enjoyed a distinguished career. After graduating from the Citadel and the University of Virginia, where he obtained both a master's degree and his juris doctor degree, he served in the U. S. Army, before being appointed to the federal court by President Ronald Reagan. Camp's wife, Elizabeth, blames her husband's bipolar disorder and the head injuries he sustained in a bicycle accident for the crimes he committed. (LINK 6)

7 Michael Maggio

Bribery landed Arkansas Circuit Court Judge Michael Maggio in federal prison. Sentenced to 10 years for reducing a jury's award in a negligence case in return for $50,000, he was removed from the bench in 2014 after repeating confidential information concerning an adoption in which actress Charlize Theron was involved.


In recommending the 10-year sentence, prosecutors recounted how Maggio had obstructed justice by trying to delete incriminating text messages and had violated his plea agreement by lying and otherwise refusing to cooperate with investigators. U. S. District Judge Brian Miller called Maggio “crooked” and implied his actions were worse than those of drug peddlers. (LINK 7)

6 Tim Wright

In Texas, Williamson County Judge Tim Wright became a gunrunner of sorts, selling guns to a felon, trading other firearms without a license, and lying to the police about his crimes. As a result, he could have been sentenced to 60 months in federal prison, but, due to his poor health, the sentencing judge, Sam Sparks, ordered him to serve 18 months and to pay a $15,000 fine. (LINK 8)


When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives informed Wright that he needed a federal firearms license to sell guns, the judge agreed to obtain one. However, he sold guns before obtaining the license, and, after the license was issued to him, he sold guns to a felon. (LINK 9)

5 Angus McGinty

San Antonio District Judge Angus McGinty accepted bribes from attorney Alberto Acevedo. In all, the payments, some in cash, others to a mechanic, Michael Otten, who repaired McGinty's Mercedes-Benz vehicles, totaled nearly $7,000. In return, McGinty treated Acevedo's clients favorably, in one case reducing a convicted drunk driver's sentence from prison to probation.


Otten, a former client of Acevedo, was working with the FBI and recorded Acevedo boasting about bribing the judges. McGinty was sentenced to two years in prison, while Acevedo, who testified against him, was sentenced to 366 days. (LINK 10)

4 Robert Mulgrew

Philadelphia Traffic Court Judge, who started his criminal career with mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and filing a false tax return, awarded state grants to community organizations with which he had a personal involvement. These offenses earned Robert Mulgrew a 30-month federal prison sentence.


Another 18 months were added to this term as punishment for fixing traffic tickets, which he dismissed outright or found the defendants guilty of lesser offenses, allowing them to evade or pay lower fines and avoid points on their driving records. As a result of Mulgrew's ticket-fixing shenanigans, the Pennsylvania state assembly disbanded the traffic court, the functions of which are now performed by the Philadelphia Municipal Court. (LINK 11)

3 Abel Limas

U. S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sentenced Texas District Judge Abel Limas, a former police officer and lawyer, to six years in prison and three years of “supervised release” for racketeering in his Brownsville courtroom. In doing so, Hanen exceeded the prosecutors' request for a four-and-a-half year sentence.


Limas had big expenses. His children were in college, and he liked to gamble. He went to Las Vegas at least 30 times and owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. Having apprised attorneys of his need for cash, he turned his courtroom into a moneymaking enterprise that netted him $257,000 in bribes and kickbacks. In one instance, County District Attorney Armando Villalobos bought Limas' silence for $5,000, handing it to him in a McDonald's bag.

After recording Limas' telephone calls, the FBI charged him with racketeering. His testimony at four other defendants' trials ended the careers of a district attorney and a former state legislator and cast suspicion on many attorneys. (LINK 12)

Limas was also ordered to pay $6,777,270.50 in restitution and to forfeit another $257,300 he obtained as a result of his crimes. (LINK 13)

2 Thomas J. Spargo

New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. Spargo solicited $10,000 from a lawyer, telling the attorney that he'd been assigned to handle the lawyer's pending divorce case. The attorney believed his divorce and other cases his firm was handling might be endangered if he refused to pay. 


Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer told the press, “We cannot and will not allow the public's faith in our legal system to be shaken by judicial corruption.” However, there seems to be a limit to the extent to which officials are willing to go to punish “judicial corruption”: Spargo could have been handed a 30-year sentence for attempted extortion and bribery; instead, he was sentenced to 27 months in prison and two years of supervised release. (LINK 14)

1 Mark Ciavarella, Jr., and Michael Conahan


Mark Ciavarella, Jr.

One of the most flagrant crimes to land a judge in jail was committed by Pennsylvania's Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr., whose case the media dubbed “kids for cash.” Robert Mericle, the builder of two private juvenile detention centers, needed inmates, so he offered Ciavarella and a confederate, Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan, a $2- million bribe. In return, Ciavarella sentenced children, including first-time offenders and some who were 10 years old, to Mericle's facilities. Both judges were also charged with extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the detention centers' co-owner, Robert Powell.


Michael Conahan

As a result of Ciavarella's conviction, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned 4,000 of the convictions issued by Ciavarella on the grounds that he'd violated the defendants' constitutional rights. Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years in prison, a term that Ciavarella's attorney, Al Flora, said was longer than anticipated. (LINK 15)

Conahan pleaded guilty. During his sentencing, he assured U. S. District Judge Edwin M. Kosik, “The system is not corrupt. I was corrupt.” Assistant U. S. Attorney William Houser told Kosik, “Mr. Conahan abused his power to enriched himself and his friend, Mark Ciavarella,” and called for a stiff sentence. “The justice system in Pennsylvania was shaken to its very foundation,” he said. Apparently, Kosik agreed. Despite the fact that Conahan had cooperated with the prosecution, he received a prison sentence of 17 years and six months. LINK 16)




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