Prosecutor seeks judge's removal for allegedly interfering with intern's drunken-driving arrest
A prosecutor in a legal ethics case says a Michigan judge should be removed from the bench, both for allegedly interfering with an intern’s drunken-driving arrest and for lying afterward about doing so.
Some 14,000 texts exchanged by 14th District Court Judge J. Cedric Simpson and the intern over a four-month period “were not about work,” examiner Paul Fischer told the Judicial Tenure Commission on Monday during oral arguments in Detroit. “He lied. He lied under oath at the hearing.”
But a lawyer for Simpson said he was simply acting as a mentor to Crystal Vargas. She was a student of Simpson’s when he was teaching as an adjunct at Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and Simpson mentored her, attorney Kenneth Mogill said, just as the judge had mentored other male and female students, reports MLive.com.
Mogill also argued that Simpson had done nothing wrong as he stood by after Vargas was arrested following a 2013 auto accident.
“There is no evidence of interference at all,” said Mogill, urging the commission to watch a video of Vargas’ arrest.
Related coverage:
MLive.com: “Officer let J. Cedric Simpson at intern’s arrest scene because ‘he’s a judge’”
MLive.com: “Former intern of Judge J. Cedric Simpson says ‘we just knew we could go to him’”
MLive.com: “Judge’s former intern releases video, says there was no romantic relationship”
