Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who watches the watchmen themselves?

The question comes to mind because two trial court judges in two different states have been accused of exploitation of the criminal defendants who have come before them. We  trust our trial court judges with immense amounts of authority. The costs of litigation make all but the wealthiest pretty much helpless in the face of those judges’ rulings. Most trial court judges, in WC’s experience, honor and respect that authority. But there are serious exceptions.

Judge Boeckmann’s mug shot

Judge O. Joseph Boeckmann, Jr., 72, pleaded guilty last year to charges of wire fraud and witness tampering. As a district judge for the First Judicial Circuit of Arkansas, he admitted to dismissing charges against defendants in exchange for sexually related conduct, and bribing a witness to try to obstruct an investigation into his behavior.

Judge Poeckmann’s misconduct was found by accident; the state judicial commission was investigating Judge Boeckmann over a possible conflict of interest in an unrelated case. The lid blew off when court employees began asking the investigators if they had heard about “the boys.” Boeckmann was sentenced to five years, two years longer than the prosecutors were recommending.

 

 

Judge Tim Nolan, mug shot

Then there’s Judge Tim Nolan, a trial court judge in Campbell County, Kentucky. Nolan plead to 20 counts of crominal conduct. The sordid list included:

• Nolan paid some victims with heroin and painkillers in exchange for sex.
• At least one victim lived on his property in southern Campbell County. He threatened eviction unless sex acts were performed.
• He threatened some victims with arrest, including telling one victim he’d call friends in the FBI and other law enforcement to arrest her.

Nolan, who also served as a volunteer and poll watcher for Donald Trump, plead to charges that included human trafficking. Nolan was sentenced this month to 20 years of jail time.

Alaska’s judges’ offenses seem like pecadillos by comparison. The only thing close to a criminal offense since statehood was Judge Dennis Cummings’ improper  parte contact with defense counsel, compounded by his perjury when investigated. Bad stuff – he quit before he could be kicked off the bench – but not in the same solar system as Judges Nolan and Boeckmann.

Judge Arthur H. Noyes, 2nd District at Nome

Of course, if you go back far enough in Alaska’s history you encounter Judge Arthur H. Noyes, part of the McKenzie syndicate, the effort to steal the richi diggings on Anvil Creek outside of Nome. Noyes was a tool of Alexander McKenzie. The story is too long and too good to tell here – you can read Rex Beaches The Spoilers for a thinly fictionalized version – but Noyes was kicked off the bench by President Teddy Rooseveldt and Judge James Wickersham – ahem – sent to Nome from Fairbanks to clean up the mess that McKenzie and Noyes had created. But that was in 1900.

It’s probably just a coincidence that Boekmann, Nolan and Noyes were all Republicans.

Or not.