Former Bangor judge accused of harassment violated rules of conduct for attorneys, panel finds
Feb. 17—The Maine bar has agreed to publicly admonish a former Bangor judge, but not to impose any discipline against him, for unwelcome comments he made to women at a professional conference.
Charles Budd was in charge of Bangor's drug treatment court in 2022 when he and several others in the program attended a multiday conference in Nashville. There, drug treatment counselor Samantha Pike said, Budd sexually harassed her several times.
Pike has previously said Budd appeared to drink more than what was appropriate while in Nashville, where he was surrounded by attorneys, counselors and probation officers he regularly oversaw in court. His sexual propositions and comments about Pike's appearance and that of other women made her uncomfortable when they returned to Maine, she has said
Budd was placed on administrative leave that fall, according to the state judicial branch. When his term expired in early 2023, he chose not to reapply.
Budd did not respond to an email Monday afternoon seeking his reaction to the panel's decision.
On Friday, members from a disciplinary panel for the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar determined Budd had violated Maine's rules for professional conduct, specifically those barring any activity "prejudicial to the administration of justice."
Budd should have known his comments to Pike and others "would be construed as sexual advances or unwelcome," they said. The admonition is supposed to "send a message that comments and behavior of the type described here will not be tolerated."
"As a sitting judge, Budd was bound by the Maine Code of Judicial Conduct which requires judges to 'act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the ... integrity ... of the judiciary; to avoid impropriety; and to avoid the appearance of impropriety," two of the three panel members wrote.
But the board did not find that Budd had violated their rules against harassment, because his conduct occurred at a conference in Nashville and not in a more professional setting, like a courtroom or a law office.
Unlike the American Bar Association, Maine's standards don't address alleged harassment that might occur in "business or social activities in connection with the practice of law," the panel wrote. The members decided this is a "seemingly intentional omission."
Pike previously sued Budd for his conduct on the Nashville trip. That complaint was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Lance Walker in 2023.
Pike was still waiting Monday to see if the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston upholds that dismissal.
The Maine bar panel's decision Friday does not make any findings on allegations that Budd treated women differently in his court, despite testimony about this from a Penobscot County prosecutor.
During a three-day hearing in October, the panel heard extensively from Budd, Pike and other witnesses from the Nashville trip.
Natasha Irving, a district attorney on the Midcoast, told the panel Budd had propositioned her during a brief encounter in Tennessee.
The panel agreed Budd was wrong to also make her feel uncomfortable.
The panel noted that Budd admitted to some of the alleged statements and disputed others. But he "never acknowledged that any of the conduct alleged ... was inappropriate and could reasonably be construed as making others uncomfortable."
Budd repeatedly cast his actions as getting to know other drug court participants "on a personal level," the panel members wrote, and "never acknowledged that his status as a judge created an imbalance of power."
Copy the Story Link
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
13 hours ago
- Newsweek
Exclusive: Israel's Herzog Reacts to US Strikes—'Have to Defend Ourselves'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The international community ignored Iran's major underground nuclear facility of Fordow for years, Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Newsweek in an exclusive interview following U.S. strikes against three nuclear sites in central Iran overnight. The Fordow nuclear facility, roughly 60 miles south of Tehran, was secret until 2009. Then-U.S. President Barack Obama said at the time it had jointly told the United Nations' (U.N.) nuclear watchdog that Iran had for years secretly built up a nuclear site near the city of Qom. Referencing the former president's words more than a decade-and-a-half ago, Herzog said Obama "exposed" the existence of Fordow, "but then the world let it happen." "It's ridiculous," Herzog said. "The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] declared that they're non-compliant, and they're lying," the Israeli president added. "And the world says, 'Okay, what? What do we do about it?'" Referring to Israel, he continued: "Well, we have to defend ourselves, and we remove it." The U.S. launched strikes on Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz—three of Iran's most significant nuclear sites—early Sunday local time, dubbed "Operation Midnight Hammer." Major U.S. allies expressed support for the American strikes on Sunday while urging Iran not to respond. Tehran had promised retaliation and "irreparable damage" if the U.S. attacked its nuclear facilities prior to the strikes. Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, on Sunday warned of "everlasting consequences" for what he termed "outrageous" U.S. attacks. The U.S. entry into the war came after Israel carried out what it called a "pre-emptive" campaign against Tehran's nuclear sites and personnel, as well as its ballistic missile and other military sites. Israel said Iran was getting close to having a nuclear weapon, which the U.S., and many of America's allies, have said is unacceptable. However, Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes—not for weapons. Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits a residential building struck by a missile launched from Iran, in Petah Tikva, Israel, on June 16. Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits a residential building struck by a missile launched from Iran, in Petah Tikva, Israel, on June 16. Associated Press Iran launched waves of drone and missiles at Israel shortly after. Both Israel and Iran continued their attacks following U.S. strikes. President Donald Trump hailed the strikes on Fordow, as well as the facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, as a "spectacular military success." "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," he added. Israel, while not pursuing Fordow, has for over a week carried out extensive airstrikes on Iran's nuclear sites, including Isfahan and Natanz, and killed a litany of senior nuclear scientists and generals. The U.S. military's B-2 Spirit bombers, equipped with "bunker busting" GBU-57/B bombs weighing in at 30,000 pounds, were widely considered the only pairing able to take Fordow, buried deep under a mountain, out of the equation. A U.S. submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles against the aboveground facilities at Isfahan around 5 p.m. ET on Saturday, just before U.S. aircraft entered Iranian airspace, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, said on Sunday. Washington used deception tactics and a host of fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft traveling ahead of B-2 heavy bombers to sweep for Iranian fighter jets and air defenses, Caine added. At 6:40 p.m. ET, the first B-2 dropped two GBU-57/B bombs at Fordow, followed by another site, the top general said. The rest of the munitions were dropped in the following 25 minutes, and Iran did not fire at U.S. aircraft traveling in or out of Iran, Caine added. Experts and officials said on Sunday it was too early to tell exactly how much damage has been done to Iran's network of nuclear sites. Preliminary assessments indicate all three facilities sustained "extremely severe damage," Caine said. In a Sunday afternoon Truth Social post, Trump pushed back against criticism from Republican lawmaker Thomas Massie of Kentucky, asserting that the U.S. had effectively "taken the 'bomb'" away from Iran by targeting the three nuclear sites. Massie has said that Trump needed congressional approval to launch the aerial attack. During an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting requested by Iran, Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for urgent action to halt the violence and revive negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. "We cannot—and must not—give up on peace," Guterres said, calling for a verifiable agreement with full access for U.N. nuclear inspectors to rebuild trust. Stressing the stakes, he warned that the world faces a clear choice between the path of escalation and that of diplomacy. "We know which path is right," he declared.
New York Times
a day ago
- New York Times
Here's What to Know About Fordo, Iran's Best-Protected Nuclear Site
Iran's most heavily fortified nuclear site is at Fordo, a hilly area south of Tehran and about 15 miles away from Qum, a city where more than a million people live. Iran built the heart of the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant deep inside a mountain in order to withstand an attack. Estimates put the enrichment facilities at half a mile below ground, and experts had said they were impervious to all but a repeated assault from American 'bunker buster' bombs. A U.S. official said that six B-2 bombers dropped a dozen 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs on the Fordo site on Sunday. President Trump said the U.S. strikes on Fordo and two other Iranian nuclear sites, Natanz and Isfahan, had been successful, and that the facilities had been 'completely and totally obliterated.' Iran confirmed that the sites had been hit, calling the attack 'a violent act against international laws,' but did not comment on the extent of any damage. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said it had not detected any increase in off-site radiation levels at the three Iranian nuclear sites following the U.S. attack, and that it was continuing to assess the situation and would provide further updates. 15 miles Saveh Hoz-e Soltan Fordo nuclear site Jafariyeh Qom Qanavat IRAN Namak Lake 15 miles Saveh Hoz-e Soltan Fordo nuclear site Jafariyeh Qom Qanavat IRAN Sources: Mapbox; OpenStreetMap The New York Times The Fordo site contains thousands of Iran's most advanced centrifuges and is considered crucial for Iran to enrich uranium to 60 percent, a level from which enrichment to bomb grade — 90 percent or higher — can be relatively rapid. The government in Tehran kept the facility secret for years, but its existence emerged in Western intelligence and Iran formally disclosed the site in 2009. In March 2023, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported that it had discovered uranium that had been enriched to 83.7 percent purity at Fordo. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program, which is spread over several sites and facilities, is solely for peaceful use. For years, however, Israel has viewed an assault on Fordo as central to its goal of destroying Iran's ability to acquire nuclear weapons, something that Mr. Netanyahu has called an existential threat to his country. Just before the Israeli government began its military campaign on June 13, the I.A.E.A. said that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, the first time the agency had passed a resolution against the country in 20 years. Yan Zhuang contributed reporting.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
The U.S. Used Its Biggest Bunker Busters in Warfare for the First Time
The U.S. bombers that attacked Iran's nuclear sites dropped GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, bunker-busting bombs designed to destroy hardened underground targets, for the first time in warfare. A dozen of the bombs were dropped on the Fordow enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain, and another two were used against the enrichment site at Natanz, a defense official said. Tomahawk cruise missiles also were fired from submarines at Natanz and Isfahan, the official said.
