BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts judge suspended after the state’s highest court found that he groped a court employee during a conference in 2019 and then lied about his conduct has resigned.

Associate Probate and Family Court Judge Paul M. Sushchyk tendered his resignation in a one-sentence letter to Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday.

The Supreme Judicial Court in a ruling last week that upheld a decision by the Commission on Judicial Conduct suspended Sushchyk “for a reasonable time to permit the executive and legislative branches to consider, if they wish, whether he should retain his judicial office.”

The SJC said Sushchyk’s “intentional wrongdoing — both the unwanted touching of the complainant and the lying that followed — violated the canons of judicial conduct.”

A message seeking comment was sent to Sushchyk’s attorney.

The alleged inappropriate contact occurred at a three-day judicial conference in April 2019, the SJC said. Sushchyk walked behind the seated woman at a restaurant and put his hand on her buttock for several seconds, the SJC said.

Sushchyk in his written explanation to the Commission on Judicial Conduct said he reached out to steady himself and accidentally touched the woman.

Sushchyk was nominated by Baker in January 2018.

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