Sexual Favors Accepted as Community Service by Arkansas Judge
When there are positions of power to be filled, there will always be those who seek to fill and abuse them. Such is the case of Arkansas District Judge Joseph Boeckmann. In May, he was forced to resign because of numerous accusations from young men defendants — some of them underage — who alleged that Boeckmann had bribed them with lighter sentencing in exchange for sexual favors. He’s currently looking at twenty-one different federal charges that range from bribery to wire fraud to witness tampering.
The 70-year-old former judge’s life came crashing down when the men came forward. For years, Boeckmann held the gavel for misdemeanor and traffic offenses — a career deeply laced through and through with the aforementioned criminal behavior. As the original investigation launched in May progressed, more incriminating information continued to surface, inspiring the involvement of federal authorities which led to this week’s federal indictments.
The method to his madness:
Boeckmann did not plead guilty to the charges, which claim that he took advantage of his position as Cross County District Judge “to obtain personal services, sexual contact, and the opportunity to view and to photograph in compromising positions persons who appeared before him in traffic and misdemeanor criminal cases in exchange for dismissing the cases.”
Here’s how Boeckmann went about his “business”:
First he’d wait for court to conclude and, you know, finish the workday or whatever. Then he’d get ahold of the defendants and request a one-on-one meeting. Once in private, he’d give the defendants his personal phone number as a means of contacting them to go over the details of their… “community service.”
Sometimes Boeckmann would have the defendants pick up litter. This would be super normal if Boeckmann didn’t follow them around while they did it, taking photos of them as they bent over to pick up trash.
Or he might give defendants the option of modeling. They’d take off their clothes and he’d take photos of them in the buff. Sometimes he might ask them to masturbate. Other times he might be in the mood for a spanking, after which he’d take photos of their reddened skin.
After he got his rocks off, Boeckmann would get the defendants off the hook, whether by writing checks or altering court documents to say that defendants had completed community service. According to sources, Boeckmann had more than 4,600 photographs of naked or almost naked young men stored on his computer. That’s a lot of community service.
So, about those charges…
The federal bribery charge is pretty straightforward. Boeckmann bribed defendants into performing sexual services using the government’s money. Since Arkansas’s justice system receives federal funding, the greasy truth is that Boeckmann paid for his sexual favors using federal money.
Boeckmann’s acceptance of sexual favors instead of fines explain the eight wire fraud charges. He used a phone to call or text defendants about all that “community service.” Since no real community service ever occurred and no fines or fees were paid by those from whom he sought favors, taxpayers were thusly screwed out of however much money.
The witness tampering charges come due to Boeckmann’s tampering with a witness last autumn. Evidently, he knew the witness might come forward with a damning testimony and tried to coerce that person into shutting up (threats, probably some bribes, all that good stuff).
Finally, he’s also looking at ten violations of the federal travel act, which he earned by trying to get sexual favors from defendants outside the state of Arkansas.
Let’s all breathe a collective sigh of sweet relief that this guy isn’t a judge anymore. Now let’s shiver together at the thought of other people like him who hold positions of power in our nation’s justice system. Sigh, shiver, and hope for the day that each of them faces their respective music. As for Joseph Boeckmann, his music is sounding more and more like “20 years in prison, $250 grand in fines.”
