The Cross County district judge accused by a state commission of abuse of office and cultivating sexual relationships with male defendants faces new allegations, including that he asked a teenager about being “paddled” and offered a defendant $300 to pose nude for photos.
On Tuesday, officials with the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission released an amended complaint detailing more allegations against Judge Joseph Boeckmann of Wynne, as they continue investigating accusations that the parttime judge violated more than a dozen judicial rules.
The administrative charges against Boeckmann were first announced in November.
Boeckmann has denied any wrongdoing. On Tuesday night, his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, declined to go into detail but said a brief denying the allegations will be filed and that the allegations will go to a hearing later this year. Boeckmann has 30 days to respond to the allegations contained in Tuesday’s amended complaint.
“We have, at this time, 68 witnesses on our witness list,” said David Sachar, commission director. “Some of [them] came directly as a result from the news coverage. We believe there are others out there and hope they contact us.”
The complaint also stated that Boeckmann routinely issued checks to attorneys appearing in his court, includ- ing attorneys who represented people employed privately by Boeckmann.
According to investigators, the allegations suggest that Boeckmann may have broken several state and federal laws in addition to judicial ethics codes.
Sachar said his office is relaying appropriate information to law enforcement officials and other professional groups.
Boeckmann will have the chance to fight the allegations at a public administrative hearing before the commission in early October.
Boeckmann, who first became a judge in 2009, has been suspended from the bench since November. He is not seeking re-election.
In November, the judicial commission alleged that Boeckmann approved the release without bond of a theft suspect who had been facing a bail amount of $50,000. The suspect’s brother had been a romantic partner of Boeckmann, the commission alleged.
It also accused Boeckmann of taking pictures of men from behind as they picked up cans for “community service” he assigned them and of arranging lenient sentences or community service for younger men in exchange for sexual favors.
The complaint also accused Boeckmann of possessing child pornography on a computer.
According to the additional information released Tuesday, several witnesses stepped forward and described uncomfortable encounters they had with Boeckmann involving community service, cans and a camera.
Instead of being fined $500, one unnamed defendant who appeared before Boeckmann agreed to meet the judge at his house carrying two bags of cans, which the judge said would go to a charity.
When he arrived, the judge had been drinking scotch or whiskey, and he took the accuser into his yard so he could take pictures of him picking up cans, the ethics complaint said.
The man said Boeckmann told him to “spread my legs further and further apart” and, after several drinks, started asking him questions about his “politics, beliefs and his relationships.”
Eventually, the accuser said, Boeckmann offered him $300 “if he would allow Boeckmann to photograph him posing as Michelangelo’s statue of David.” The man said he declined and that he “felt uncomfortable and as if he were in danger during the time he remained” at the judge’s home.
A teenager whose traffic violation was dismissed by Boeckmann went with the judge to a cemetery to pick up cans for community service.
“During this ride, Boeckmann asked [the teenager] if he had ever been paddled by his football coach,” the complaint reads. “At some point prior to the end of the encounter, [the teenager] alleges Boeckmann told him not to speak of the ‘brief community service’ because it would or could get the judge into trouble.”
Witnesses also told the commission they had seen multiple criminal defendants who had been in Boeckmann’s court leave the courthouse with the judge.
Tuesday’s complaint said evidence and testimony suggested that Boeckmann may have violated the state’s statute concerning abuse of public trust, which is a felony.
The commission’s complaint also said Boeckmann may have violated laws on coercion, sexual assault and forced labor.
An examination of Boeckmann’s finances by ethics investigators found that Boeckmann routinely issued checks to attorneys appearing in his court, including those representing clients who worked in some capacity for Boeckmann outside of court.
Sachar said a judge giving money to attorneys appearing in his court creates a conflict of interest and could violate judicial ethics rules.
“I’m from Rose Bud. I understand small towns,” Sachar said. “But it’s incumbent on the judge to make people aware, ‘oh, by the way, I’m a business partner with this person or I have a financial relationship.’ … If I’m on the other side of the case, I might want to know that there’s a relationship there that’s different from a normal judge/attorney relationship.”