Indicted ex-Arkansas judge, in jail, has release prospect

Former Cross County District Judge O. Joseph Boeckmann
Former Cross County District Judge O. Joseph Boeckmann

A former judge in Wynne who is accused of giving out lenient punishment in exchange for taking inappropriate photographs of defendants will remain jailed until his federal trial unless he can legally arrange to live on the other side of the state until then.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

That's what U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe decided Wednesday after presiding over a detention hearing in Little Rock for former Cross County District Judge O. Joseph Boeckmann. The 70-year-old Wynne resident is accused in an Oct. 5 federal grand jury indictment, which was unsealed Monday, of using his authority to sentence people on traffic infractions and misdemeanors to further his sexual interests in young men.

At the hearing, federal prosecutors from Washington, D.C., who are prosecuting Boeckmann through the U.S. Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section, argued that he should be locked up until trial because he is a danger to the community.

They presented testimony from an FBI agent who said two of Boeckmann's alleged victims reported that the former judge paid them or offered to pay them to feed false information to investigators to clear Boeckmann's name.

Boeckmann's attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, argued that the unrecorded, undocumented interviews constituted "flimsy" evidence of witness tampering. Rosenzweig also questioned the credibility of Boeckmann's accusers, noting that they have criminal records, and argued that if authorities believed the allegations were true, they weren't worried enough about the accusers' safety to arrest Boeckmann during the five months before he was indicted.

Volpe said he disagreed with Rosenzweig on the "flimsiness" of the accusations.

"I don't think there's any question that there was obstruction and tampering going on," Volpe said, noting that he considers it "very offensive" any time "there's even a hint of tampering."

However, Volpe said, he thought Rosenzweig made a good point about the FBI's failure to take action earlier to protect the witnesses, which he said minimizes concerns about danger to the community if Boeckmann is allowed to remain free until his trial.

While detaining Boeckmann for the time being, Volpe said, "I'm going to leave the record open" to consider any defense motions proposing a way for Boeckmann to stay away from Wynne until his trial. Volpe said it appears the danger in Boeckmann's case is limited to the Wynne community and might not be in an issue if Boeckmann were kept "in some strong confines" away from Wynne, perhaps staying with relatives in another part of the state.

Volpe said he was also concerned about detaining a 70-year-old man for an extended period of time, not knowing when the case might be tried.

Rosenzweig said Boeckmann has relatives in western Arkansas, some of whom were in the courtroom Wednesday. He said he would look into the possibility of Boeckmann living with them until his trial, and he and prosecutors agreed to look into whether such a move would be permissible under the Bail Reform Act.

FBI agent Mike Wood testified about his interviews with the young men who reported being offered money to derail investigations into Boeckmann's actions.

Wood said one person, whom he identified only as Person J, reported that he had been contacted through Facebook by someone referred to as Person K.

Wood said that according to J -- and eventually to K as well -- the pair met, in response to the Facebook contact, in November 2015 in K's vehicle at a Citgo station in Wynne. There, Wood said, K relayed a message from Boeckmann that it would be in J's "best interest" to edit a statement J had given to the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, which was investigating Boeckmann.

J said K told him he "would be made to disappear" if he didn't cooperate, Wood said, adding that the threat "terrified" J.

Wood said that when he later spoke to K, he and J had "absolutely" consistent accounts of all that had transpired, except that K denied threatening J.

Wood testified that after J agreed to write out a statement retracting what he had told the commission, he received $750 -- the amount he requested after K asked him to name an amount -- and used it to repair his vehicle. Wood said agents verified with the shop that did the repairs, as well as the shop where the parts were purchased, that the work on J's vehicle was done during that time period.

Wood said J told him he met with K about three weeks later to ask for more money, and this time received about $100.

The agent described K as a "family friend" of Boeckmann's for some time who had appeared before the judge for a minor infraction and received community service as punishment. The community service consisted of picking up cans in Boeckmann's yard and posing for photographs for Boeckmann, Wood testified.

Wood said K told him that Boeckmann had asked K to "reach out" to J to change his testimony. Wood said K "indicated that he did feel some pressure" to do as Boeckmann suggested, because compromising photographs of K existed.

Under questioning by Justice Department attorney Jonathan Kravis, Wood also testified that he interviewed a third young man, whom he identified only as Person D. He said D told him that he and Boeckmann discussed the commission's investigation of Boeckmann in April of this year, and during the conversation, Boeckmann offered D $500 to be a witness on his behalf.

Wood also said that "D was advised to tell any investigators to f*** off and say he and Boeckmann were only friends."

Wood said D also was told to deny that Boeckmann had ever taken any pictures of him, even though, as a defendant in Boeckmann's court, D's community service punishment consisted of cleaning areas of Boeckmann's yard and home and being photographed picking up a can in Boeckmann's yard. Wood testified that during the execution of a search warrant at Boeckmann's house last fall, D's photograph was among those found.

Under cross-examination, Wood said J acknowledged during his interview with the FBI that he had filed a lawsuit against Boeckmann, but Wood said he didn't realize it had been filed just a day earlier. Wood also said he wasn't aware that J's retraction letter was ever given to anyone at the judicial commission.

Kravis urged the judge to keep Boeckmann behind bars, arguing that his actions are "particularly troubling because he did this while he was a state court judge, while he was in a position of authority and sworn to uphold the law."

Metro on 10/20/2016

Upcoming Events