A former judge admitted Thursday that he handed out leniency to certain young male defendants in Cross and St. Francis counties in exchange for sexual favors or their agreement to let him photograph them bending over to pick up aluminum cans and litter.
As a district judge for the state's 1st Judicial Circuit from 2009 until he resigned in May 2016, Joseph Boeckmann presided over misdemeanors and traffic violations in Cross and St. Francis counties, and sometimes in other judicial circuits as well. In pleading guilty Thursday to wire fraud and witness-tampering charges before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker in her Little Rock courtroom, the 71-year-old Wynne resident admitted to a list of allegations that state judicial officials first raised in 2015 after conducting an investigation that began with a complaint over suspected judicial favors for family members.
"At one time, we had close to two dozen witnesses who were prepared to testify," David Sachar, executive director of the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, said Thursday from Austin, Texas, where he had just made a presentation at a judicial conference.
Sachar said his office never determined an exact number of victims of Boeckmann's abuse of his judicial authority, but witnesses were prepared to testify that "the behavior had gone on for decades," dating to his days as a prosecutor and, before that, as a private attorney.
"The vast majority of judges serve honorably, but this case sticks out among other cases of bad judicial behavior," Sachar said. "It's probably the most egregious case."
The commission never had to pursue its ethics complaint against Boeckmann to the point that he was forcibly removed from office because in May of last year he resigned his elected position and agreed to a lifetime ban on being a judge or holding any other position of public service.
Boeckmann was indicted a year ago by a federal grand jury on 21 charges -- eight counts of wire fraud, two counts of witness tampering, one count of bribery and 10 counts of violating the federal Travel Act. The charges alleged that Boeckmann used his position as a judge to obtain personal services and sexual contact with nine men and boys between the ages of 16 and 22 by requiring them to engage in his own brand of "community service" in return for his dismissal of their cases.
Boeckmann pleaded guilty Thursday to just two of those charges. In admitting to a charge of honest-services wire fraud, he agreed that his dismissals of the boys' cases defrauded the state and various cities and counties of their share of fines, fees and court costs the boys would have paid had their cases not been dismissed. In the tampering charge, he admitted calling a boy in Tennessee in 2015 to try to persuade him to retract a statement he had given to the judicial commission, in return for money.
In a plea agreement, prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice's Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., stipulated that in return for the plea, they won't object to a sentence of between 30 and 37 months, or 2½ to just more than three years in prison, when the former judge is sentenced in about three months. However, Boeckmann's attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, told Baker that Boeckmann reserves the right to present evidence about his age and health as grounds for a lower sentence.
Boeckmann used a cane Thursday to shuffle toward the courtroom lectern with Rosenzweig at his side. They stood for several minutes until Rosenzweig noted that Boeckmann was "having some problems standing," and Baker allowed them to finish the hearing while seated.
Baker isn't required to abide by the agreement, which doesn't mention that federal sentencing guidelines also call for a potential fine of between $10,000 and $100,000.
The crimes are punishable by up to 20 years in prison, under federal statutes.
Boeckmann made no comments to reporters after the hearing, and in the courtroom he let Rosenzweig speak for him except when Baker asked him a series of yes-or-no questions to ensure he had thoroughly reviewed, discussed and understood the agreement.
After Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Halpern read aloud a statement of what the government was prepared to prove at trial, had it gone forward Oct. 23, Boeckmann told Baker, "What he said is accurate."
When she asked if he was guilty, he replied, "I stand on the statement." She asked again, and he replied, "Yes, ma'am."
In the statement, Halpern said Boeckmann instructed seven boys during their court proceedings to wait until after court for details of how they could perform "community service" to eventually have their charges dismissed. Then after court, Halpern said, Boeckmann would call the boys up to the bench individually and give them his telephone number, telling them to call to arrange their community service.
"Boeckmann then would either instruct the individual to collect aluminum cans or litter from the ground on his own and bring the cans or litter to Boeckmann's house, or Boeckmann would instruct the individual to come to Boeckmann's house, at which point Boeckmann would arrange for the individual to go with Boeckmann to a location to pick up aluminum cans," Halpern read.
"In either event," Halpern continued, "Boeckmann, under the pretense of documenting the individual's 'community service,' would photograph [them] with the cans or litter." In six of the cases, he said, "those photographs were taken while the individuals were posed in compromising positions."
An eighth boy, referred to only as Person D, performed manual labor at Boeckmann's home in return for the judge dismissing a pending case, Halpern said, noting that Boeckmann "engaged in sexually related conduct with Person D while Person D had cases pending before Boeckmann."
Halpern said Boeckmann also engaged in sexually related conduct with a ninth boy, who worked for Boeckmann's private business and had a court case pending before the judge. He said Boeckmann later falsely certified that the boy had completed community service and dismissed the case.
Halpern identified the entities that lost money as a result of Boeckmann's actions as Cross County, St. Francis County, Crittenden County; the cities of Wynne, Parkin and West Memphis; and the state.
Since shortly after his arrest in the federal case, Boeckmann has been staying at his sister's home in Hot Springs under electronic monitoring by U.S. probation officers. After his guilty plea Thursday, he was allowed to remain on the same conditions until his sentencing.
Metro on 10/06/2017