Prominent Pasadena Appeals Court Judge Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Judge Alex Kozinski. -Courtesy Photo

A prominent federal appeals court judge in Pasadena has been accused by several former clerks and junior staff members of sexual misconduct. Six women — two of whom spoke on the record — said Judge Alex Kozinski had “subjected them to a range of inappropriate sexual conduct or comments” over the years, as recently as 2012, The Washington Post reported. 

One ex-clerk said Kozinski, 67, a veteran jurist and former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, repeatedly showed her pornographic images on his computer and asked if she was sexually aroused by them. This has been widely reported in New York Times and Huffington Post.

“I was in a state of emotional shock,” Heidi Bond, who clerked for Kozinski in 2006 and 2007, told the Post. “What I really wanted to do was be as small as possible and make as few movements as possible and to say as little as possible to get out.”

Kozinski ― still a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the country’s largest federal appeals court ― dismissed the accusations in an interview with the Los Angeles Times

“If this is all they are able to dredge up after 35 years, I am not too worried,” said the judge, who is well known for his candid and colorful court opinions. He said he didn’t remember ever showing porn to his staffers, according to the Los Angeles Times.