Magistrate who used slur has 'shown no aptitude for self-improvement,' top state court says in removal order
The Iowa Supreme Court has ousted a judicial magistrate accused of using a racial slur to refer to a Hispanic defendant and labeling a male youth’s sexual assault claim as “absurd.”
Judicial Magistrate David J. Hanson of Fayette County, Iowa, in the First Judicial District of Iowa did not consider his statements to be inappropriate and defended them up until the time of oral argument in the ethics case, according to the Iowa Supreme Court’s April 18 opinion.
The Legal Profession Blog published highlights.
The Iowa Commission on Judicial Qualifications had recommended a 90-day suspension without pay, along with anger management and bias training. The Iowa Supreme Court concluded, however, that Hanson should be removed from his position.
Hanson “has not shown regret for his choice of words,” the state supreme court said. “He has not shown genuine remorse for the effect his statements likely had on the litigants. He has shown no aptitude for self-improvement.”
The state supreme court pointed to Hanson’s suggestion in his brief that the commission should simply provide him with a list of “bad words” that he should avoid.
Hanson made the statements in two separate cases.
He used the racial slur in a case accusing a Hispanic defendant of driving without a license and insurance.
“Is this guy a wetback? An illegal?” Hanson asked in a July 2023 hearing, according to a complaint by an intern with the prosecution. He also allegedly asked the intern whether she was sure that the defendant was using his real name and commented that he probably stole someone’s ID card or identity.
Hanson commented on sexual assault when he denied an arrest warrant in 2022 in “a lengthy written order that reflected his own disparaging views about young male victims of sexual assault,” the state supreme court said.
Hanson said the 15-year-old boy was not likely “overridden by force,” even though the alleged female attacker was 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed 290 pounds. The teenage girl’s size was likely due to obesity, rather than muscular weight, Hanson said, and the male youth’s claim that he couldn’t push her away was “absurd” given a man’s “innate physical advantage.”
The male youth’s asserted rejection was “contrary to nature,” Hanson said, because the “normal, hormone-ridden teenage boy’s reaction to being undressed by a teenage girl” is, “Alright! I’m gonna get some!” He concluded that the male youth welcomed the advance, actively participated in the sex acts but later regretted his choice.
Hanson also commented that “common human experience” suggests that a man who drinks alcohol to the point that he cannot consent to sexual relations cannot perform sexually.
According to the Iowa Supreme Court, “The order then went into graphic detail about the physiology of the male sex organ—which we choose not to repeat—explaining why ‘common human experience’ undermined” the young man’s story.
In a brief filed with the state surpeme court, Hanson said all judges should fear false sexual assault allegations.
“I witnessed the televised atrocities visited upon U.S. Supreme [Court] justice nominees … by women, whom effective cross examinations showed to be, telling falsehoods,” he wrote. “I will never abet such ‘high tech lynchings.’”
Hanson did not contest the ethics allegations, although he said he doesn’t recall the circumstances in which he allegedly used the slur.
“The commission can make whatever decision it wants to make, and I will roll with the punch and take whatever you give me,” he said during an ethics hearing.
Magistrates in Iowa are part-time judicial officers who preside over misdemeanors, preliminary hearings, search warrant applications, county and municipal infractions, and small claims. They also issue warrants, order arrests and take bail.
Hanson did not immediately reply to an ABA Journal request for comment made in an email and a phone message left at his law office.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch covered the decision.
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