Ex-Arkansas judge freed to live with kin until U.S. trial

Joseph Otto Boeckmann
Joseph Otto Boeckmann

Former Cross County District Judge Joseph Boeckmann was allowed Tuesday to stay at his sister's home in Hot Springs until his federal jury trial on bribery charges involving young male defendants who appeared before him.

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But Boeckmann, 70, who resigned from his elected post in May during an investigation by state judicial officials, must be placed on electronic monitoring at his expense and is subject to being jailed for the slightest infraction of his pretrial release conditions -- most notably an order prohibiting any contact with the victims.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe read aloud a list of the conditions when Boeckmann appeared Tuesday, for the third time in eight days, in Volpe's Little Rock courtroom.

"This is an extremely close call, given the gravity of the allegations and the issue of tampering," Volpe said, referring to the charges and an FBI agent's testimony last week that two of Boeckmann's victims had reported being offered money to retract earlier statements and be a witness on Boeckmann's behalf.

Volpe told Boeckmann, who sat at a courtroom table beside his attorney Jeff Rosenzweig, that he especially wanted to "hit hard" on the requirement that Boeckmann have "no contact with anyone even remotely associated with the case."

"That burden is going to be on you," Volpe said, looking at Boeckmann. "If there's even a hint of contact with anybody, I promise I will act swiftly" to have U.S. marshals arrest Boeckmann and take him back to the courtroom in handcuffs, which, Volpe noted, generally occurs "within hours" of any reported violation.

Boeckmann nodded his agreement, and Rosenzweig promised that Boeckmann's passport, which Volpe ordered him to surrender, would be delivered to the court within an hour.

At Rosenzweig's request, Volpe redacted from court documents the names of the people who agreed to be Boeckmann's third-party custodians, who have a duty to ensure he complies with the pretrial release conditions. But in a motion filed Friday, Rosenzweig said Boeckmann's sister and brother-in-law, who live in Garland County, had agreed to be the custodians and had been approved by the U.S. probation office. Rosenzweig didn't identify them by name in the document.

Boeckmann's jury trial before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker has been tentatively set for Nov. 21. He faces 21 charges in an Oct. 4 indictment, unsealed last week, that accuses him of offering lenient punishment of "community service," followed by the dropping of charges, to misdemeanor and traffic offenders who agreed to special conditions.

Those conditions included performing "community service," such as picking up cans, at places including the judge's home; allowing the judge to photograph them bending over or in other "compromising positions;" and in some cases, letting the judge paddle them.

The specific charges Boeckmann faces are wire fraud, witness tampering, bribery and violating the federal Travel Act.

Boeckmann's first appearance before Volpe occurred Oct. 17, the day of his arrest. He then appeared for a detention hearing Friday, with prosecutors at the U.S. Justice Department arguing he should be detained until trial because, if released, he posed a danger to the community.

They presented testimony from Mike Wood, the FBI case agent, who discussed his interviews with three unidentified people who said that in the past year, Boeckmann tried to influence official statements to authorities.

Wood testified that one person, identified only as Person J, reported being contacted in November on Facebook by another former defendant in Boeckmann's court, Person K, who relayed that Boeckmann would pay any amount J wanted if he retracted a statement given to the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission.

Wood said K later confirmed J's account, except that K denied J's claim that K said he "would be made to disappear" if he didn't cooperate.

Wood said J was paid $750, the amount he asked for simply because that's the amount he had to pay for car repairs. Wood said the FBI later determined that the car repairs had been completed and paid for during that same time period.

Wood also testified that "Person D" reported that Boeckmann offered him $500 in April to be a witness on the former judge's behalf before the judicial officials. Wood said Person D also had been a defendant in Boeckmann's court and had allowed Boeckmann to photograph him picking up cans in the judge's yard. Wood said a photograph of Person D was found in Boeckmann's home during a search.

During the first detention hearing Friday, Volpe said it appeared that the prospect of danger, in the event of Boeckmann's release, applied only to people in Wynne, where Boeckmann and his purported victims live. Volpe also expressed concern about Boeckmann's age and the uncertainty of how long he might have to remain in custody until trial. Initial trial dates are routinely postponed, sometimes for months or years.

Volpe suggested that Rosenzweig find a way for Boeckmann to remain out of jail but also outside Wynne until his trial, leading to Rosenzweig's request that Boeckmann reside in Hot Springs, which is in the Western District of Arkansas.

Wynne is in Cross County, which is in the jurisdiction of the Eastern District of Arkansas, based in Little Rock. Hot Springs is about 160 miles west of Wynne, which is about 2½ hours by car.

Metro on 10/26/2016

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