Butler Co. probation officer sues Common Pleas judge, alleges sexual misconduct

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A probation officer in Butler County has accused the president judge of the county’s Common Pleas Court of sexual misconduct, including having sex with her on the floor of his chambers, as part of a salacious federal workplace discrimination suit.

The woman, identified only as “Jane Doe,” filed the complaint Wednesday against President Judge Thomas Doerr, along with Thomas Holman, the court administrator, and Douglas Ritson, the chief probation officer.

According to the suit, the woman met the judge at a Christmas party in 2004 and they started a sexual relationship at his insistence. The judge said the affair would be a “business” relationship, with the understanding that the judge would get the woman hired as a probation officer.

The woman was hired in 2005. The sexual relationship continued, according to the suit, for four years.

The woman said she felt pressured to continue it because she feared she could not reject the judge without losing her job. She said Judge Doerr would summon her to his chambers, and she couldn’t say no because of his power over her.

“She felt she had no choice, given the power disparity,” attorney Ed Olds said in the complaint. “Therefore, she succumbed.”

She eventually ended the