Legal Ethics
Judge Accused of Groping Probation Officers Blames Drinking and the 'Holiday Spirit'
A New Jersey judge accused of inappropriately touching female probation officers at a party says he has no recollection of the incident.
In his answer (PDF) to an ethics complaint, Judge Marquis Jones Jr. of Ocean County says he doesn’t remember touching multiple probation officers at the December 2010 party, but he “does not question the perceptions” of his accusers, the New Jersey Law Journal reports.
If he did act improperly, the answer says, “it was perhaps the result of having a little too much to drink, in the holiday spirit.”
“Respondent is embarrassed and mortified by the events in question and deeply apologizes to those offended as well as his fellow members of the judiciary, and last but not least, his own family,” the answer says.
