ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge in Alaska who resigned after a scathing investigation found he had engaged in inappropriate conduct with staff and attorneys did not disclose conflicts of interest with attorneys in 23 criminal cases he heard, prosecutors said.
The top federal defender in Alaska, Jamie McGrady, said her office will conduct its own investigation after the resignation this month of U.S. District Court Judge Joshua Kindred, which left only one full-time federal judge in Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday.
Kindred's resignation came at the request of the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit Court, which has also sent the matter to the Judicial Conference of the United States to consider impeachment proceedings against Kindred.
Kindred, 46, had an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of his clerks, who later became an assistant U.S. Attorney in Alaska, the report found. He received nude photos from a different assistant U.S. Attorney and exchanged suggestive texts from a private attorney, both of whom who had cases before Kindred, investigators said.
The report also found that the judge created a hostile workplace for his clerks, often discussing his sex life in front of them.
Kindred, who took the bench in early 2020 after being appointed by former President Donald Trump, repeatedly lied to investigators and only admitted to the truth when presented with evidence during an interview with Judicial Council members, the report found.
Executive U.S. attorney Bryan Wilson told McGrady in a Friday email obtained by the Anchorage newspaper that his office reviewed cases to identify potential conflicts of interest that arose from the findings of the Judicial Council report.
The Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges requires them to recuse themselves from a case if their impartiality could be reasonably questioned.
