Judge who wanted parking discount should be ousted for faking document with colleague's stamp, ethics board says
According to a judicial ethics commission, a part-time Washington judge should be removed from office for using a fraudulent document and the “accoutrements of another judge’s judicial status” in a failed attempt to get a parking discount. (Image from the Washington Commission on Judicial Conduct’s April 25 decision and order)
A part-time judge in King County, Washington, should be removed from office for using a fraudulent document and the “accoutrements of another judge’s judicial status” in a failed attempt to get a parking discount, according to a judicial ethics commission.
Judge David Ruzumna of the King County District Court in Washington was accused of giving a parking attendant a document in February 2023 that included the official seal of the King County District Court and the signature stamp of a different judge. The document stated that Ruzumna was a part-time judge in the county.
Ruzumna was trying to get a discount for county employees at the Seattle parking garage near the courthouse, according to an April 25 decision and order by the Washington Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Part-time judges don’t qualify for the discount that lowers the $30 parking fee to $20, according to testimony at the ethics hearing.
The judicial conduct commission censured Ruzumna and recommended that the Washington Supreme Court remove him from office, Law360 reports. Ruzumna has already resigned from the courts in King County. He has also been serving as a part-time judge in Snohomish County, Washington.
Ruzumna told the judicial conduct commission that the fake document was a joke, an assertion that he also made in an interview with HeraldNet.com in May 2024. Ruzumna told the publication that the document was part of a running joke in which he also showed the attendant a pay stub and his judicial robes in repeated fruitless attempts to get the discount.
Ruzumna told the judicial conduct commission that the document was clearly a joke because it had multiple stamps, including his notary stamp, his signature stamp and other stamps. That testimony did not square with a picture of the document taken by the facility manager at the garage after the attendant brought it to her.
The photo showed that the document had only the district court stamp and the presiding judge’s stamp. The manager testified that the photo showed everything on the sheet of paper, even though it didn’t show the full page and there was no photo of the back.
The judicial conduct commission did not believe Ruzumna’s assertion that there were more stamps on the document.
“When confronted,” the judicial conduct commission said, Ruzumna “lied about the content of the document” to court personnel and the judicial conduct commission.
“Apparently,” the judicial conduct commission said, Ruzumna’s “initial lie [about multiple stamps] bound him to the same story as the situation progressed and he felt required to keep lying.”
Ruzumna’s lawyer, Anne Bremner, told Law360 that Ruzumna will appeal the judicial conduct commission’s decision.
“The decision is based on the determination that he lied. He never lied,” Bremner said.
Bremner did not immediately reply to an ABA Journal email requesting comment.
Ruzumna reflected on the consequences of his actions in testimony during the ethics case.
“This whole thing has been a source of embarrassment—taking the dumbest thing I’ve done and like the centerpiece … amplifying it as my legacy,” he said. “To have this embarrassing stupid incident be the defining feature of my life is the source of sadness and embarrassment.”
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