Federal judge had sex in chambers with top police officer

A federal judge has been disciplined for having sex their chambers with a high-ranking law enforcement officer within earshot of staff, attending a partisan political event and for lying to superior judges who investigated the claims, a disciplinary committee revealed.

But the identity of the judge and the district court in which they sit is being kept private by the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Council of the United States in its decision issued Friday, which was first reported by Reuters.

The committee, comprised of seven judges, upheld the findings of judicial misconduct issued in February by the Judicial Council of the 11th Circuit, the federal appeals circuit that handles cases arising from U.S. District Courts in Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

The 11th Circuit imposed sanctions on the judge, who agreed to them, which included ordering that they write letters of apology to six former law clerks who were interviewed in the probe; foregoing service as the chief judge in the federal district where they sit; and refraining from sitting on any Judicial Conference committee.

A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts declined to comment on the decision, which affirmed those sanctions, and on the withholding of the judge’s name.

According to the decision, William Pryor, the chief circuit judge of the 11th Circuit, in September, was made aware of a complaint against the unnamed judge based on a memorandum received by the chief judge in the district.

“The information in the Chief District Judge’s memorandum came from one of the subject judge’s law clerks,” the decision said.

“The law clerk reported that, on multiple occasions, the subject judge engaged in sexual activity with a uniformed law enforcement officer in chambers during work hours within earshot of the judge’s staff,” the decision said.

“The law clerk also reported that the subject judge failed to mentor the law clerks and edit their work, displayed visible anger to the law clerks, including yelling and cursing, and, on one occasion, told staff that the judge had ‘too many martinis the night before’ at an event for a District Attorney.”

After the judge who was the subject of the complaint was notified by the chief circuit judge, they submitted a response that denied the allegations, calling them “outrageous” and “baseless,” the decision said.

A special committee was then appointed to investigate the allegations, which included interviewing six of the judge’s former clerks and reviewing documents, security footage and visitor logins.

It also included “conducting testing in a chamber with a similar layout to determine whether law clerks seated outside chambers could hear sounds from within; arranging forensic testing of a couch cushion in the subject judge’s chambers,” the decision said.

The special committee in December issued a report finding that the judge “engaged in judicial misconduct by … engaging…