Sex Harassment Complaint Against Judge Dismissed
A Florida judicial commission has dismissed a sexual harassment complaint filed against the former chief judge of a state appeals court.
The complaint had alleged Charles J. Kahn Jr. of the 1st District Court of Appeal had affairs with two court employees and traveled with them at state expense, the St. Petersburg Times reports. The 13 appellate judges who filed the complaint questioned whether the consensual relationships amounted to sexual harassment.
Details of the decision by the Judicial Qualifications Commission are confidential. Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, a former ABA president who is Kahn’s lawyer, told the newspaper his client was guilty of “some pretty stupid conduct,” but not sexual harassment.
The commission is still considering a complaint against another judge who wrote an opinion criticizing Kahn for failing to recuse himself in an appeal of a state senator’s bribery conviction.
