Mass. judge fighting for job after admitting court affair

BOSTON — Massachusetts’ highest court will decide the fate of a judge who admitted to having an affair with a clinical social worker that included sexual encounters at the courthouse.

The Commission on Judicial Conduct is asking for Judge Thomas Estes to be suspended indefinitely without pay to give lawmakers time to decide whether to remove him from the bench for his relationship with Tammy Cagle, who worked in the special drug court where Estes sat before she was reassigned last year.

If the Supreme Judicial Court agrees, it will be the first time in three decades it has taken such action against a judge for misconduct. The case comes amid the #MeToo movement that sparked a national reckon- ing over sexual misconduct in the workplace.

“This case couldn’t come at a worse time for Judge Estes,” said Martin Healy, chief legal counsel of the Massachusetts Bar Association.

The Supreme Judicial Court will consider Estes’ case Tuesday.

Cagle has accused Estes, who’s married and has two teenage sons, of pressuring her into performing oral sex on him in his chambers and her home. Then after she tried to end the relationship, she asserts he treated her coldly and pushed her out of the drug court.

Estes is fighting for his job and urging the Supreme Judicial Court for a fourmonth suspension. He denies ever harassing Cagle or causing her to be removed from her job. He says that Cagle initiated their first encounter and he was “wracked with guilt,” but that Cagle pressed to continue their relationship.

“I hardly have the words to express the shame and sorrow that I feel,” Estes, who was first justice of the Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown, said in a statement before the Commission on Judicial Conduct. “I’ve brought disrepute to the bench that I am so proud to be a part of.”

The decision to oust Estes from the bench would be up to state lawmakers, who could either impeach him or issue a “bill of address” calling for his removal. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who supports Estes’ removal, and the Governor’s Council would both have to sign off on a bill of address to strip Estes from the bench.

The last Massachusetts judge removed through a bill of address was Judge Jerome Troy of the Dorchester District Court in 1973.