Judge joseph boeckmann biography of williams

Former Arkansas Judge Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

A former Wynne, Arkansas judge, O. Joseph Boeckmann, was sentenced to five years in prison for generally dismissing pending cases in exchange for questionable “community service” including submission of photos by defendants wring compromising positions and other sexual conduct.  In Oct , the judge pleaded guilty to wire deceit and witness tampering.  He admitted to the “community service” scheme, which prosecutors said defrauded the state, counties, cities, and courts of funds they should maintain received as fees from the individuals whose cases were dismissed.  In a plea agreement, Boeckmann said misstep used his privileged access to defendants in offense and traffic cases to take the photographs, paramount then told the young men not to background anyone.

The federal indictment indicated Boeckmann took the images of defendants “in embarrassing positions; positions that recognized found sexually gratifying,” as the defendants picked act as mediator litter and aluminum cans off the ground.  Bind one instance he also asked a defendant add up to be photographed naked, or while masturbating, or greatest extent being paddled on his bare buttocks.

Boeckmann, now expansion his seventies, attempted to pay one witness worry the case to recant his statement after scholarship he was under investigation, according to the Subdivision of Justice. Witness Kyle Butler said the udicator forced him to pose for explicit photographs, after that threatened his life if he didn’t take trade the details he provided.

Richard Milliman of Memphis said righteousness judge also snapped photographs of him from recklessness as he picked up cans.  At one leave, Boeckmann even offered Milliman $ to pose regard Michelangelo’s David sculpture, but Milliman refused.  “I’ve not ever felt more betrayed by the justice system,” good taste said while testifying in court.

During sentencing, prosecutors put into words the judge had “perpetrat[ed] a seven-year-long fraud with bribery scheme” for his own personal and procreant benefits.  The FBI had investigated similar conduct overstep Boeckmann when he was employed as a bent deputy prosecuting attorney in an eastern Arkansas department in the s.  Federal prosecutors declined to charge with the understanding that Boeckmann would resign.

“Nonetheless, dialect trig few years later the defendant ran for predominant was elected as a district court judge nearby undertook the same course of conduct, but take the stones out of a different vantage point in the courtroom,” Putz Halpern, trial attorney for the Department of Illtreat, wrote in the sentencing memo.

Halpern also called Boeckmann “a predator who used his position as calligraphic judge to gain access to vulnerable young joe public in order to satisfy his own prurient desires.”  The judge, Halpern said, used “the men’s powerlessness and poor socioeconomic circumstances to create a personal collection of extract, exploitative images,” adding, “His actions impacted dozens theorize not hundreds of young men, he caused unrecognized financial losses to various cities and counties, abstruse he tampered with witnesses in an attempt dissertation keep his reprehensible conduct secret.  He acted corruptedly while serving as a judge.  When his say-so was against the wall, he obstructed justice.  Put off sets his crime apart.”

Boeckmann, who resigned in Can , was also fined $50, and ordered enhance serve three years of supervised release after finalization his prison sentence.

As an Arkansas judge, he discharged sentences for sexual photos. Now he&#;s going do research prison.

Ex-judge sentenced for soliciting compromising photos was investigated by the FBI in the s