Courts

Judge Accused Of Groping A Court Employee

It's been recommended the judge be removed or retire.

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Judge Paul M. Sushchyk of Worcester, Massachusetts, has been accused of groping a court employee at a court-sponsored event. A hearing officer assigned to the matter found the judge engaged in misconduct by touching the woman without her consent and gave false statements during the course of the investigation.

As reported by the ABA Journal, the hearing officer found the judge’s behavior clearly crossed the line of propriety:

“The line crossed here is not a murky one,” said the report by the hearing officer, Bertha D. Josephson. “The touching engaged in here was offensive and an affront to one’s bodily integrity and dignity.”

The incident took place in April of 2019, when there’d been a conference followed by a happy hour, followed by a dinner, followed by a trip to a pub. According to the woman, Sushchyk brought a flask of whiskey with him to these events. At the pub, the hearing officer’s report says the woman “felt the distinct sensation of a hand grabbing the left side of her buttocks and applying a full-handed squeeze to it.” “The contact lasted several seconds. Stunned, [the worker] froze in place, making no move to acknowledge the affront or the culprit. She was aware at that moment that Judge Sushchyk was the only one passing behind her.”

The woman decided to report the incident, and the judge initially said he “couldn’t have done something like that” but failed to disclose his flask of whiskey in his first account.

But Sushchyk’s story of exactly what happened would change:

In a written statement to the chief justice, Sushchyk said he “was somewhat unsteady on [his] feet, feeling the effects of past hip replacement surgery, the long day, the evening meal and the alcohol consumed.”

He said after returning from the restroom, he passed the worker and placed his hand in the direction of her chair, reached out to steady himself, and “came into momentary contact with a portion of her lower body.”

The story changed when Sushchyk testified under oath, the report said. Sushchyk denied any physical contact with the worker at all. Because he didn’t think the worker would lie, Sushchyk said, he had concocted a scenario in the written statement to rationalize what she said.

The hearing officer said the court worker “gave a cogent, credible, consistent account of what occurred,” while “Judge Sushchyk has not been honest in his accounts.”

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The hearing officer wrote that this lack of forthrightness doomed the judge’s credibility:

“One problem with lying is once it begins, it’s hard to know when it ends,” the hearing officer wrote. “Judge Sushchyk’s lack of candor at the inception of this matter undermines his credibility at hearing. His initial response suggests that he did what he was accused of doing and sought to minimize his culpability for it. I do not find Judge Sushchyk’s testimonial denials of intentional contact with [the worker] reliable or believable.”

The hearing officer’s recommendation is that the judge be removed from office, or be allowed to retire.

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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