Glass-Encased Photos of Judges Removed Because of Broken Shards Risk, Supervisor Says
Visitors to the Onondaga County Courthouse in New York will no longer see the photo of a judge removed from the bench after allegations emerged that he molested his deaf 5-year-old niece 40 years ago.
The photo of former Judge Bryan Hedges is gone, along with photos of other family court judges on display at the courthouse, the Post-Standard reports. Judge Martha Walsh Hood refused to tell the newspaper whether the ethics case influenced her decision to remove the photos from the family court clerk’s office.
The photos were encased in glass, she said, and if they were broken during an altercation, the shards could be used as weapons. She added that there had been a disturbance recently in the office, but refused to elaborate. “It was my feeling that having glass-framed photographs presented a security risk,” she told the Post-Standard.
Hedges resigned in April, and he was retroactively removed from office last month.
