Reprimand Urged for Judge Accused of Joking About Murderous Marital Urges
A Minnesota judicial ethics board is recommending reprimands for a Hennepin County judge accused of calling potential witnesses a “bunch of drunkards’ and joking about murderous urges in his marriage.
Judge Stephen Aldrich is seeking dismissal of the complaint by the Board on Judicial Standards, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The allegations stem from two instances.
One stems from a hearing on an order of protection. Aldrich is accused of saying, “I’ve been married 45 years. We’ve never considered divorce—a few times murder maybe.”
In a second incident, Aldrich is accused of calling potential witnesses to a murder a “bunch of drunkards.” “Something like 50 percent of all people on the street are intoxicated at 1 in the morning, right?” he allegedly said. He is also accused of telling one prosecutor in the case, “You take the risk of boring me here.”
