The Case of the Masturbating Judge - Page 2
The Lurid Details:
Donald D. Thompson, who received his law degree from the University of Oklahoma Law School, was appointed as a judge in 1982 by then Governor George Nigh. Prior to his appointment to the judiciary, Thompson was a state representative from District 30, serving in the Oklahoma Legislature from 1974 to 1980.
The first hint of an alleged scandal involving Judge Thompson surfaced in October of 2003. News media reports indicated that he as under investigation by the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints. The nature of the complaint and the identity of the complaining party were not immediately revealed.
Within days of the initial news media reports of the investigation the nature of the allegations became common knowledge in both Creek County and the surrounding area. It wasn't until June of 2004 that the "reality" of the allegations became widely known. Between October, 2003 and June, 2004 the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints conducted its investigation which included taking testimony from numerous witness in the law enforcement and legal community of Creek County. Once the investigation was completed the council forwarded the results to Oklahoma Attorney Drew Edmondson for action.
On June 23, 2004 Attorney General Edmondson filed a petition with the Court of the Judiciary of the State of Oklahoma seeking the removal of Judge Donald D. Thompson from the bench on the basis of violation of multiple Canons of the Code of Judicial Ethics. Within the petition were spelled out for the entire world to see the exact nature of the violations alleged to have been committed by Judge Thompson.
The Attorney General's filing of the petition for the removal of Judge Thompson was the equivalent of "The Shot Heard Around the World". Within a few short hours of the filing the Associated Press published a report detailing the allegations. The following day news media outlets world-wide were carrying reports of the "Masturbating Judge" with some including a copy of the entire petition detailing the actual allegations.
The petition for removal of Judge Thompson included several allegations of violation of the Code of Judicial Ethics, including the following, paraphrased from the petition itself:
(1)Beginning in the year 2000 and continuing periodically there after Lisa K. Foster, for 15 years Judge Thompson's court reporter, while in court saw Judge Thompson's penis, saw him masturbating using a penis pump and heard sounds which she associated with his use of the penis pump, once saw Judge Thompson holding his penis and shaving underneath it with a disposable razor and saw the judge applying lotion to his penis on multiple occasions. Foster told investigators that these events occurred during both jury and non-jury trials. Lisa K. Foster was fired by Judge Thompson during the course of the investigation.(2)Dianna Lynn Strickland was Judge Thompson's minutes clerk for 23 years before leaving to become a deputy court clerk. Strickland held a second job, that of helping her husband perform janitorial work in Judge Thompson's courtroom. Strickland told investigators that on occasion while working as Thompson's minutes clerk that she had heard a sound which she described as "like a blood pressure cuff sounds where you're pumping it up". Strickland also indicated that her husband while performing his janitorial duties had on multiple occasions found what he believed to be urine in the trash can under Judge Thompson's bench. Strickland also told investigators that her husband found a penis pump under Judge Thompson's bench.
(3)Zelma Hindman, Judge Thompson's secretary eventually took over the janitorial responsibilities for his courtroom. She told investigators that while performing those duties she found semen in the judge's trash can on more than one occasion. She also indicated that she first saw the penis pump several months prior to November, 2003. She indicated that sometimes the pump was kept in the judge's office but most of the time it was under the bench. There were times she heard the pump in use both in the judge's office and the courtroom. Hindman indicated that once upon returning from running an errand for the judge that she saw the pump in the judges lap and thought she saw his penis. Judge Thompson terminated Ms. Hindman on the same day her terminated Lisa Foster.
(4)Sapulpa, OK Police Chief James I. Wall indicated that during a first-degree murder trial in Judge Thompson's court on August 22, 2003 he was seated in a front row seat in the courtroom and heard a sound he likened to "air being pumped and released similar to a blood pressure cuff".
(5)Sapulpa, OK police sergeant Michael Reed indicated that while testifying as a witness in the August 22,2003 trial that he heard a sound like air coming from an air pump. Reed stated that he turned in the chair and saw Judge Thompson with his elbows on his knees and that there was a white plastic-looking device in the judge's right hand and that the judge's hand was moving up and down. Reed also stated that a section of the device disappeared between the judge's legs beneath his robe and that when the judge's hand would move Reed would hear the "ch-ch" sound. During a break in the trial Reed saw the device was a penis pump and assisted in taking pictures of it.
(6)A juror at the August 22, 2003 trial commented to Ms. Foster that she heard a "popping" sound and asked Foster if she knew what it was. Foster told investigators that she confronted the judge and he replied "I don't know what they are talking about. Do You?" Foster indicated that Thompson asked her to let him know if the jurors or she heard the sound again.
