Sexual predators in the judiciary

Amid new reports that Pasadena-based Judge Alex Kozinski groped women, including a law student, an East Coast federal appeals court was assigned Friday to conduct an investigation.

The Washington Post reported Friday that nine more women have complained of improprieties by Kozinski, including four who said he touched them improperly.

  LA Times

Have you been keeping track of the sheer number of allegations against Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski? The Washington Post has, and with the new allegations included in their most recent follow-up on the judge’s alleged serial sexual harassment, that number is now up to 15.

Since the story first broke a week ago, there’s been a steady stream of women coming forward to tell their stories of how Kozinski treats women in a professional context  [...] . While it is unclear at this point what, if anything, will happen to Kozinski and his lifetime appointment, the Ninth Circuit has opened an inquiry into his behavior. Plus, as Above the Law first reported, three of Kozinski’s clerks abruptly quit yesterday, leaving the judge short on staff.

  Above the Law

We now know - it's clear - what will happen to Kozinski.

Federal appeals judge Alex Kozinski, beset by allegations of sexual misconduct, on Monday announced his retirement effective immediately.

[...]

In a statement released by his lawyer, Susan Estrich of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Kozinski said he “always had a broad sense of humor and a candid way of speaking to both male and female law clerks alike. In doing so, I may not have been mindful enough of the special challenges and pressures that women face in the workplace. It grieves me to learn that I caused any of my clerks to feel uncomfortable; this was never my intent. For this I sincerely apologize.”

Kozinski said family and friends had urged him to remain on the bench, at least long enough to defend himself from the sexual misconduct allegations.

“But I cannot be an effective judge and simultaneously fight this battle,” he said in the statement. “Nor would such a battle be good for my beloved federal judiciary. And so I am making the decision to retire, effective immediately.”

  Law

What? No comments about the groping?

Oh, and this isn't the first time Judge Kozinski has made headlines.

June 2008

One of the highest-ranking federal judges in the United States, who is currently presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles, has maintained a publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos.

Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged in an interview with The Times that he had posted the materials, which included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal. Some of the material was inappropriate, he conceded, although he defended other sexually explicit content as "funny."

Kozinski, 57, said that he thought the site was for his private storage and that he was not aware the images could be seen by the public, although he also said he had shared some material on the site with friends. After the interview Tuesday evening, he blocked public access to the site.

[...]

The sexually explicit material on Kozinski's site earlier this week was extensive, including images of masturbation, public sex and contortionist sex. There was a slide show striptease featuring a transsexual, and a folder that contained a series of photos of women's crotches as seen through snug fitting clothing or underwear. There were also themes of defecation and urination, though they are not presented in a sexual context.

[...]

Kozinski said he would delete some material from his site, including the photo depicting women as cows, which he said was "degrading - and just gross." He also said he planned to get rid of a graphic step-by-step pictorial in which a woman is seen shaving her pubic hair.

Kozinski said he must have accidentally uploaded those images to his server while intending to upload something else.

  LA Times

He's either a liar or an idiot. Or maybe both.

Before the site was taken down, visitors to http://alex.kozinski.com were greeted with the message: "Ain't nothin' here. Y'all best be movin' on, compadre." Only those who knew to type in the name of a subdirectory could see the content on the site.

Okay, definitely a liar. If he gave out that information, he knew it could be seen and spread.  Or else he was too stupid to be a judge, and by all accounts, he was "brilliant" at it.

The judge said he began saving the sexually explicit materials and other items of interest years ago.

"People send me stuff like this all the time," he said.

Why?

Oh, yeah, the case he was about to adjudicate?

Opening statements in the trial are scheduled for this morning. In the case, Ira Isaacs, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, is accused of distributing criminally obscene sexual-fetish videos depicting bestiality and defecation.

[...]

The judge said it was strictly by chance that he wound up presiding over the Issacs trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

He did eventually step down from that case.

Back to that business of stupid or a liar...

Some nonsexual material on the website might also be considered demeaning to women: There was a mock mathematical equation presented as "proof that girls are evil," and a photo of a 1950s-era mother and her daughter sharing a book titled, "Becoming a Bitch."

[...]

Kozinski himself occasionally linked the public to his site. For example, in a letter published on the New York Times website in November 2005, he directed readers to his site so they could see an old clip of him on "The Dating Game" show.

More recently, the files containing the sexual content were found by Cyrus Sanai, an attorney from Beverly Hills, who then alerted The Times. Sanai said he was conducting research in connection with a dispute he was having with Kozinski when a Google search led him to a directory on the judge's website containing the material.

  LA Times

So, basically just all around disgusting.

I don't object to people having or sharing pornography per se. But I do object to judges being sexist pigs who assault women (or men or children or animals, for that matter).

In my opinion, the outing of judges may be the most important aspect of any outing scandal. These are people who literally have life and death and untold impact on other people's lives in their hands. They need to be held to very high standards.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.