A Cross-Dressing Judge Hangs Up His Heels
Or at least his robes. A quick update on a recent Judge of the Day, from Robert Ambrogi over at Legal Blog Watch:
By all accounts, Robert Somma had been a top-notch U.S. bankruptcy judge since his appointment to the bench in 2004 and a top-notch bankruptcy practitioner for many years before that. The sense of many in the Boston area is that the 63-year-old's retirement Friday from his $158,000-a-year bench seat is a tragedy....A footnote to this story is that a legal-blogger may have contributed to the judge's decision to resign.
No, not us! By the time we got to the story, it had been all over the news. Also, for the record, we fully support transvestism.
More after the jump.
Still from the Legal Blog Watch post:
One fact left out of initial news reports was the judge's attire at the time of his arrest [for DUI]: black cocktail dress, fishnet hose and high heels. Even the police report omitted this, except to note that the judge "had a difficult time locating his license in his purse."Enter New Hampshire blogger Chris King, a former lawyer and journalist who claims both on his blog and on BostonNOW to have "scooped" the news media in reporting the judge's attire. On the day after the judge entered his plea, King described the judge on his blog as having been "in drag" at the time of his arrest. The day after that, the story appeared in the New Hampshire Union Leader and the judge resigned.
We question whether Judge Somma should have resigned. Is this really that big a deal? When you strip away the women's clothing, colorful but irrelevant details, you're left with a DWI arrest -- which, while not exactly commendable conduct, is something other judges have survived.
But others feel differently -- like this blog commenter:
Well, my beloved and I don't cross-dress, drag dress, or play dress-ups. It does make a difference that a JUDGE was DUI and in Fishnets (pleeze, tell me they were thigh-high). As I remember they are suppose to be exemplary citizens, who abide by the laws (not break them). So, his resignation is necessary, dignified as it gets, and makes way for another competent esq. to take the job. At least he had some shred of decency, to off-set his poor taste.
Poor taste -- where's the evidence of that? When the judge was arrested, he was wearing a "little black dress" -- which is, while unimaginative, the epitome of classic, understated good taste.
The Blawger and the Bankruptcy Judge [Legal Blog Watch]
Earlier: Male Judge + DWI + Little Black Dress + Fishnets = Judge of the Day
(21) Comments
first
High profile people get DUI's all the time. It's no big deal.
F'ing f*ggot!
Right on, 9:39!
I dress up in drag all the time, even when I am in public; it's no big deal. Maybe the judge resigned so he can run for mayor.
DUI = breaking the law
Dressing in drag = lawful activity
Nice comment Iron Sheik (09:43 post). I am sure that you are the darling of your firm's diversity committee. And for the record, most cross-dressers are straight, not gay. Whatever the judge's faults may be, drinking and driving is the only relevant one here.
I always wondered what judges wore under their robes. Now I wish I never knew...
Sheik,
Maybe while he was sobering up someone in the pen made him humble!
Guys in my high school used to get dressed up in black cocktail dresses, fishnets, and high-heels to drive around drunk with bankruptcy judges all the time. It was no big deal.
9:59 - get over yourself. Iron Sheik was a not-so-PC 80's WWF (World Wrestling Federation, not World Wildlife Foundation)character.
MAYBE, JUST MAYBE HE STEPPED DOWN BECAUSE OF THE DUI, NOT THE CROSS-DRESSING.
OH, WHO AM I KIDDING.
On a serious note, I feel profoundly sorry for Judge Somma. You don't find that sort of behavior in an individual who's happy with his life, I think.
I practiced before Judge Somma. I didn't particularly care for his pro-debtor bias, but I thought he did an exemplary job on the bench. I dislike drunk drivers and don't condone it in the least, but still it's a shame to see a career end like this, subject to the derision of the haters out there.
-- ET!
i still want to know if he was wearing a wig...i support full-blown balls-out tranvestism, not half-assed man-hair transvestism!
I wonder if anyone has anecdotal info about other judges (federal or otherwise) who "simply" had DUI's, and somehow managed to keep their positions, either through a suspended sentence, rehab, etc.
The idea that most transvestites are straight is ridiculous. Who surveyed most transvestites? Next we will hear that most rapists are not agressive, that mosts theives are not covetous, and that most molesters are not pedophiles.
Common sense folks. Common sense.
3:48:
Get a clue. It has absolutely been verified that most crossdressers are heterosexual. For a summary of one study indicating as such, see here: http://www.susans.org/reference/mcross.html
you may be thinking of "drag queens" rather than transvestites/crossdressers. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing for a breakdown of the different types of sex/gender-nonconforming individuals.
Am I really that much of an idiot that I would actually waste my time reviewing a study claiming that transvestites are actually mostly straight? Hold on, let me check.
Nope, not going to do it, sorry.
Wait a minute, did you say it was on Wikipedia. Oh, OK, sorry. For a minute there I thought you were citing a source that couldn't be edited by any Joe Palooka with a sexual-minority-normalizing agenda.
By the way, I found a study that proves 5:32 has issues: it's called "goatse" and I think you'll find it highly pursuasive, counselor.
3:48/5:49:
methinks your conviction bespeaks experience, you crossdressing homosexual, you!!!!!!!!!!!
ahh yes, the classic sexual-special-interest groups' defeatist yet bullying argument of last resort. to wit: i disgree w you so you must secretly be in denial of the fact that you really favor the agenda i advocate.
uh... no.
and besides, i'm one of the tiny minority that really *are* straight! Ooops! Did i say that out loud?
What if sex crimes really *are* morally wrong? What if sexual turn-on's and experiences really *were* to be private?
Whay am I asking a bunch of lawyers about sex?
ahh yes, the classic sexual-special-interest groups' defeatist yet bullying argument of last resort. to wit: i disgree w you so you must secretly be in denial of the fact that you really favor the agenda i advocate.
uh... no.
and besides, i'm one of the tiny minority that really *are* straight! Ooops! Did i say that out loud?