Another federal judge quits amid alleged misconduct
A federal judge in Kansas who was publicly reprimanded last year for sexually harassing employees resigned Tuesday amid heightened scrutiny of workplace misconduct in the federal court system.
The judge, Carlos Murguia, of the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, has served as a district court judge since 1999.
On his resignation, effective April 1, he will become at least the third federal judge in four years to leave the judiciary after facing allegations of harassment or misconduct, underscoring a growing apprehension about a court system that some said has lacked rigorous protections against judges’ bad behavior.
In December 2017, a high-profile federal court judge in California, Alex Kozinski, retired after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment. In September 2016, a district court judge in Texas, Walter Smith, retired amid accusations that he made inappropriate and unwanted sexual advances toward an employee.
“Harassment and discrimination in the federal courts is not an issue of one bad apple; it is a systemic problem,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement Wednesday. This month, Nadler and a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to federal court officials questioning safeguards against workplace misconduct.
Court officials revealed in September that an investigation into Murguia had found that he had made sexually suggestive comments and sent inappropriate text messages to some employees. Murguia continued to harass employees even after one of them told him to stop, according to an order written in September by Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich of the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
The order also said that Murguia had engaged in an affair with a felon that made him “susceptible to extortion.”
It is not clear when exactly a complaint was filed against Murguia or when the misconduct occurred. Murguia apologized and admitted to the misconduct in the fall, but Tuesday, in a letter addressed to President Donald Trump, he said it had “become clear that I can no longer effectively serve the court in this capacity.”
“I therefore tender my resignation with a heavy heart and profound apologies, out of respect for the federal judiciary, my colleagues, my community and — most importantly — my family,” Murguia wrote.
He resigned “without eligibility for pension or any retirement benefits,” according to a statement from Chief Judge Julie Robinson of the U.S. District Court in Kansas City.
In a statement emailed Wednesday, Murguia said, “I am deeply sorry and apologize to all the victims of my inappropriate conduct. I sincerely regret any pain or harm caused.
“I have taken corrective action and steps, both personally and professionally, to ensure that this behavior is behind me.”
His resignation came as society’s broader reckoning with sexual harassment is playing out in front of judges — with film producer Harvey Weinstein on trial for rape and sexual assault, for example — and behind the scenes of the often opaque justice system. Federal judges serve for life and can be removed only through impeachment.
After Kozinski’s retirement in 2017, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the federal court system had to do more to protect employees from sexual harassment. In March 2019, court officials strength- ened provisions about inappropriate behavior in their code of conduct.
But some advocates said the changes did not go far enough. Investigations into misconduct typically end once a judge retires or resigns, said Deeva Shah, a founder of Law Clerks for Workplace Accountability, which seeks to root out harassment in the courts. Shah said that the investigations should continue past that point and that employees should have more avenues to report harassment by judges outside their district or circuit, where officials may be sympathetic to the judge.
“The public seems to be taking it more seriously, and I think that after 2017, the judiciary, to its credit, is also taking this seriously,” she said. “I’m just not sure that they’ve made the changes in the best way possible.”
Earlier this month, the lawmakers who questioned the federal court system’s safeguards said in a letter that the reprimand of Murguia had documented “very troubling” behavior.
Nadler, who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that despite Murguia’s resignation, “the matter is not closed.”
“We still need to know what has been done to protect the employees who were harmed, fully investigate what happened and why this misconduct went unreported for so long, and develop policies and procedures to prevent this kind of misconduct from happening again,” he said.