A former Arkansas judge has been arrested by federal agents on charges he solicited sexual favors in exchange for a favorable ruling in a criminal case.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Thomas David Caruth was caught on an audio recording suggesting sex from a woman who asked him to help her boyfriend—a defendant in a criminal case Caruth was presiding over.
The woman’s boyfriend was on parole and had violated a no-contact order, typically issued in domestic violence cases, a recently unsealed indictment against Caruth reveals.
“I got one area I want to explore with you … And I don’t know how you’re gonna react. Um … how do you feel about sex?” Caruth is alleged to have been recorded by the woman as saying.
After the woman refused his proposition, Caruth is alleged to have been captured on audio telling her that she would be “buying” an earlier trial for her boyfriend to preempt a parole violation hearing and thus dodge a finding he broke his conditions.
Caruth could not be reached for comment.
According to Arkansas court records, when confronted with the recording, Caruth told FBI officials he had no intentions of finding the man not guilty unless the evidence supported such a finding.
Caruth has since retired from the bench. Until his retirement, the 63-year-old Monroe District Court judge presided over a variety of cases including criminal, civil, and family.
Records obtained by The Epoch Times show that before being elected as a judge, Caruth was disciplined as an attorney in 2002 by the Arkansas Committee on Professional Conduct on a variety of ethical complaints, mostly financial misconduct—including fraud and conflict of interest.
He was “cautioned” for his conduct and fined $400.
Caruth is the latest in a growing list of judges that are either facing charges or have recently been reprimanded for sexual misconduct.
In November, South Carolina Judge John Ray Steele was arrested and charged with second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor after nude pictures of children were found on his cell phone.
The children’s photos were discovered as part of an investigation into his granddaughter on allegations of criminal sexual conduct involving several minor children.
In Maine, a civil complaint was recently filed against Penobscot County District Judge Charles Budd on allegations he sexually propositioned two high-level court employees including a district attorney.
Earlier in July, Tennessee Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Young was permanently suspended by Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct on allegations of sexual misconduct including asking a woman in an adoption case he was presiding over to send him sexually explicit pictures of herself.
Like Caruth, Young presided over family court matters involving custody of minor children.
Also in July, Washington Judge Scott Gallina was sentenced to 15 months in jail after pleading guilty to multiple counts of assault with sexual motivation following an investigation into charges he raped two female court employees. The cases Gallina presided over included domestic violence cases against women.
And in yet another case of sexual misconduct by a family court judge, Judge Robert Miller—a referee for the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct—wrote in his decision not to remove Judge Richard Miller from the bench that “the draconian sanction of removal of an elected judge” was not warranted in the case.”
Keith Neely, an attorney with the Institute For Justice, told The Epoch Times that judges have for “too long” been treated “nearly like gods” by the justice system and that is time for states to start passing legislation to take away their immunity.
While he sees Caruth’s arrest as a sign of hope that judges will start being held accountable for their misdeeds, it is “exceedingly rare,” he emphasized, for judges to get much more than a slap on the wrist.
A website entitled noethics.net chronicles more than 100 cases of judges that received what amounts to a slap on the wrist for sexually-related acts—including the bizarre case of Pennsylvania Judge Isaac Stoltzfus who was initially charged by police with disorderly conduct after he was caught passing out acorns he had shelled out and stuffed with condoms to random women on the street.
Not only were the charges dismissed against Stoltzfus, the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline determined his actions did not warrant any sanctions.
In a 2020 article on the issue, Stephen Gillers said that the practice of “judges judging judges undermines the system’s ability to prevent misconduct on the bench.”
According to the Reuters article, headlined “Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws or oaths remained on the bench,” nine out of 10 judges were allowed to remain on the bench even after they were found guilty of misconduct.
Reuters reported that it found an “excessively forgiving judicial disciplinary system.”
Other recent cases involving sexual misconduct include Judge Paul Suschyk, also a family court judge, who resigned after Massachusetts’s Supreme Court found he had groped a female employee and then took actions to cover it up.
Suschyk has never been criminally charged for his conduct.
Late in 2021, Wisconsin Family Court Judge Brett Blomme pled guilty to distributing child pornography.
According to Wisconsin Attorney General records, Blomme, who was seated in Milwaukee, used the online name “dommasterbb” to transmit images and videos of young children posed in lewd positions and involved in sexual acts with adults.
Blomme is now serving a 9-year prison sentence. Like Gallina, Blomme is serving less time than sentences he passed down to defendants on lesser criminal charges.
North Carolina District Court Judge Randy Pool was “only censured” by the state’s Supreme Court for sexually charged social media posts he made to some 35 different women while he was conducting court proceedings.
At the time of his censure, the North Carolina Supreme Court wrote that censuring Pool was an appropriate punishment because he showed remorse and had an “otherwise distinguished career on the bench.”
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