KARK / Via nbcnews.com
An Arkansas judge resigned just days after he was found with thousands of pictures of nude men in his computer, many who appeared in his courtroom and received reduced sentences from the judge.
Cross County District Judge Joseph Boeckmann was accused of trading softer sentences in his court for men who went to his home and posed for him, sometimes bending over, sometimes nude, and sometimes in acts of masturbation, according to documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News.
In some cases, men sentenced by Boeckmann were photographed at the judge's home before Boeckmann paid their court fines himself.
Boeckmann, who was assigned to the bench since 2009, submitted his resignation Monday, just days after the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission told his attorney they had obtained nearly 4,500 photographs of men in his home computer and camera, including several young men who had been sentenced to "community service."
According to the commission, Boeckmann would often offer "substitutionary sentences," to young men in his court, asking them for their personal number or giving them his personal cell phone number in court.
The men were typically white and between the ages of 18 to 35, according to the documents.
Instead of defendants being sentenced to picking up trash on county roads, the men would be invited to the judge's home where they would simulate the act of picking up cans from the ground, while, "Boeckmann would photograph the buttocks of the men as they were bending to retrieve the garbage."
In one case, the defendant told investigators Boeckmann asked him to take two bags filled with cans to his home, and began to take pictures of him picking up the cans at the judge's backyard.
Victims told investigators Boeckmann would tell them how to pose, sometimes telling them to spread their legs further. One defendant told investigators that after Boeckmann took pictures of him bending over, the judge asked him if he would go inside his home and pose "like Michelangelo's David."
Boeckmann is accused of keeping thousands of those pictures in his computer before he resigned and promised the commission to never again seek a job as a local, county, or state employee.
The commission had been investigating the judge for several months for allegations of improper relationships with defendants and conflict of interest.
In Nov. 2015, Boeckmann had been accused by the commission of reducing a $50,000 bond for a woman charged with theft. The woman, who was the mother of Boeckmann's niece, was also the sister of a "former intimate partner Boeckmann."
Another defendant told investigators he was paid for years to perform maintenance duties at rental properties owned by Boeckmann, and also for posing nude while the judge took pictures.
The judge would allegedly ask him to "spread my legs further and further apart," and later told him he would not have to pay a $500 court fine.
In some cases, investigators found that Boeckmann wrote personal checks to pay the court fees of the same men who appeared before his court as defendants.
The commission pointed out that during his time as judge, Boeckmann has paid court fees, overlooked court fees, hired, or become involved in personal, sexual relationships with young white men defendants at his court, while at the same time "patronizes, yells and screams at those litigants who are minorities or female, with whom he does not have an intimate personal relationship with."
The judge repeatedly denied the allegations in statements to the commission during the investigation, and said the pictures were "solely for the purpose of recording proof of community service."
He submitted his resignation three days after the commission said it had reviewed 1,050 photographs, and was in the progress of receiving 3,400 more.
"Boeckmann denies engaging in any pattern of seeking out young Caucasian male litigants for the purpose of forming personal sexual relationships," the statement read.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1WZcrtC
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