Judge Claims Head Trauma Caused Her to Forget Shooting Details
An Indiana judge acquitted last week of obstruction of justice is fighting a related judicial misconduct complaint stemming from a shooting at her home.
The judge, Jennifer Evans-Koethe of LaPorte County, says she has no recollection of many events cited in the ethics complaint, according to the Herald Argus. The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications contends Evans-Koethe misrepresented facts in a police investigation of a December 2008 shooting that left the judge with a superficial gunshot wound to the head.
According to the commission, Evans-Koethe at first told police that the gun accidentally discharged. Later she said she put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger to make her husband think she was committing suicide, the South Bend Tribune reports. She told police she didn’t realize the gun was loaded.
The commission also alleges Evans-Koethe asked police to destroy potential evidence, a note written to her husband before the shooting.
In her answer to the misconduct complaint, Evans-Koethe said her knowledge of the incident was affected by “head trauma.” She changed her story, she said, after her husband told her some things she didn’t know. She also says she has no memory of asking police to get rid of the note.
The judge was suspended with pay last year.
