Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Grafton Minot Biddle; Laurie A. Steinman; Colorado Judge and Colorado prosecutor fired, disciplined for adulterous affair in courthouse

From the Rocky Mountain News (via Drudge):
A Douglas County judge and a female prosecutor admitted having sex in his chambers, and on more than one occasion he slipped into the women's showers at the courthouse for a tryst.
Those are some of the details included in a complaint filed Friday with the Attorney Regulation Council, which is looking into allegations that could result in their disbarment.

Grafton Minot Biddle, 57, resigned Dec. 18 after his fourth wife sent a letter to the chief judge saying he was having an affair with Laurie A. Steinman, 29.

Carol Chambers, district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, fired Steinman on Dec. 22, the day she admitted to the affair, the complaint said.

The adulterous affair occurred even though the DA tried cases in the Judge's courtroom and resulted in the Judge's attempts to cover it up:
As rumors of their romance became fodder for courthouse gossip, the complaint said, Biddle encouraged Steinman to permanently delete messages they exchanged using their e-mail accounts at work.

"If people read this stuff, we're dead," Biddle told Steinman, according to the complaint.

The pair is accused of other ethical lapses, including Steinman prosecuting two cases in Biddle's court without disclosing their relationship. Biddle gave Steinman feedback following one of the trials, which ended in an acquittal, the complaint said.

The pending disciplinary Complaint states that the pair "degraded the sanctity of the courtroom."

It is too bad for the Judge and the Assisant DA that they didn't do this in the 1990's when this sort of behavior was encouraged among government officials. It is also too bad that they didn't commit actual perjury, in which case they could have held on to their jobs.

The affair was initially reported to the Court by the Judge's wife, who says she is "disgusted" by the whole thing.

It is too bad for the Judge that he didn't marry a doormat like Hillary, who would have defended him and claimed to be the victim of a right wing conspiracy.
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update
It is also too bad for the Judge that he didn't simply pay a gay male prostitute for sex and allow him to use his apartment for a prostitution ring. He would have been guaranteed lifetime tenure in that situation.

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