Help needed: Judicial misconduct

Al Stevens

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The premise:

A divorce court judge and a divorce lawyer are in cahoots. When the lawyer gets an attractive and willing lady client, the lawyer offers to accept sex in lieu of a fee, and the judge offers to tilt the settlement in the woman's favor in exchange for sex.

In the story, a city detective finds that he was the victim of the conspiracy, which included, of course, his ex-wife.

My questions:

Given sufficient evidence (via a sting), would criminal charges be brought against the judge and lawyer? Would the vice squad be involved? Would it be treated as solicitation? Would criminal charges be brought against the ex-wife?

Or would it be a matter for the bar association and subsequent civil actions against the city or state by wronged ex-spouses?

Or just a big scandal and early retirements?

Thanks in advance. My WIP's subplot depends on your advice.
 

jclarkdawe

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The premise:

A divorce court judge and a divorce lawyer are in cahoots. When the lawyer gets an attractive and willing lady client, the lawyer offers to accept sex in lieu of a fee, and the judge offers to tilt the settlement in the woman's favor in exchange for sex.

In the story, a city detective finds that he was the victim of the conspiracy, which included, of course, his ex-wife.

My questions:

Given sufficient evidence (via a sting), would criminal charges be brought against the judge and lawyer? Yes. Would the vice squad be involved? Depends upon the police department. Most likely this would be investigated at a state level, rather then a local level. Your police officer would not be in the know until charges are actually made. Would it be treated as solicitation? More likely as bribery. Would criminal charges be brought against the ex-wife? Maybe. Or maybe the women would be viewed as victims. I could see it going either way. But if one woman is charged, all the women would be charged.

Or would it be a matter for the bar association and subsequent civil actions against the city or state by wronged ex-spouses? Although civil actions would be filed against the city or state (depends upon who controls judges), it's not likely the actions would be too successful.

Or just a big scandal and early retirements? In this day and age, they'd be jail and disbarment for the judge and attorney.

Thanks in advance. My WIP's subplot depends on your advice.

You might want to go poking around into the story of Judge John Fairbanks of New Hampshire. The fraud was the more concrete charge, but definitely there was evidence if you were a guy, and willing to assist the judge in satisfying his needs, your criminal case could go away.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

Al Stevens

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Thanks, Jim, that's exactly what I needed to know.

Al