BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts family court judge who was charged with misconduct for allegedly groping an administrative office worker could retire or be removed from his post.
The Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct held a virtual hearing Monday on a recommendation that Judge Paul Sushchyk is unlikely to “command the respect and authority” required of his post, the Cape Cod Times reported.
“The sanction recommended is not an effort to punish Judge Sushchyk so much as an attempt to maintain the trust and confidence in the judiciary and the mechanisms designed to protect the public against judicial wrongdoing,” Bertha Josephson, the hearing officer, wrote in a report.
Formal charges were filed with the Supreme Judicial Court alleging that Judge Sushchyk inappropriately touched a colleague at a bar after a work conference held at Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster in April 2019.
Sushchyk was charged with willful judicial misconduct and conducting himself in a manner unbecoming of a judiciary official.
Sushchyk’s attorney, Michael Angelini, said in a statement that his client denies nonconsensual, intentional physical contact.
The commission has 90 days to make its final recommendation to the Supreme Judicial Court.
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