Courts

Federal Judge Reprimanded For Sexual Harassment

The judge was more apologetic over getting caught than over anything he actually did.

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Yesterday, Judge Carlos Murguia of the District of Kansas was formally reprimanded by the Judicial Council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, chaired by Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich, for “inappropriate behavior.” The council found Murguia sexually harassed court employees, had a years-long extramarital relationship with a felon on probation (who is now back in prison), and was “habitually” late for court.

As reported by Law.com, Murguia’s sexual harassment of employees included the following behavior:

The council determined that Carlos Murguia “gave preferential treatment and unwanted attention” to female judicial employees, and engaged in “sexually suggestive comments, inappropriate text messages, and excessive non-work-related contacts, much of which occurred after work hours and often late at night.”

The council also found that his affair with the felon put the judge “in such a compromised position that he made himself susceptible to extortion.”

As for his habitual lateness, well, he’d been warned about that but it didn’t change his behavior:

The council also chastised Murguia’s habitual tardiness for court proceedings, often requiring attorneys, parties and juries to wait and sometimes making lawyers late for other judicial proceedings. A repeated cause of Murguia’s tardiness was his “regularly scheduled lunchtime basketball games” on days when he had scheduled hearings or trials. According to the order, Murguia was counseled repeatedly about his tardiness “fairly early in his federal judicial career,” but his conduct “persisted never-the-less.”

Additionally, they found Murguia was more apologetic over getting caught than over anything he actually did:

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“He tended to admit to allegations only when confronted with supporting documentary evidence,” the order said. “His apologies appeared more tied to his regret that his actions were brought to light than an awareness of, and regret for, the harm he caused to the individuals and to the integrity of his office.”

Despite all of this, and the relatively severe nature of the reprimand (it is the most severe punishment the council can dish out), they also found Murguia’s behavior insufficient to recommend impeachment.

Read the reprimand below.

[pdfjs-viewer url=”https://abovethelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judgeorderreprimand.pdf”]

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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