Ex-Clerks Accuse Prominent Judge of Sexual Misconduct

Six women who served as clerks or junior staffers at the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allege to the Washington Post that Judge Alex Kozinski subjected them to inappropriate sexual comments or conduct, including asking them to watch pornography in his chambers, the newspaper reported Friday. Heidi Bond, who clerked for the Pasadena-based judge from 2006 to 2007, told the newspaper she recalled three instances in which he asked her to look at images of naked people, per the AP. She said one set of images was of college-age students where some were "inexplicably naked while everyone else was clothed." Another set was a type of digital flip book that allowed users to mix and match heads, torsos, and legs to create an image of a naked woman. Bond said the judge asked if she thought the pornography was photo-shopped or if it aroused her sexually.

"I was in a state of emotional shock," said Bond, now 41. Kozinski, who is 67 and still serving as a judge on the court, told the newspaper that he has had more than 500 employees in his chambers over a 35-year career as judge. "I would never intentionally do anything to offend anyone and it is regrettable that a handful have been offended by something I may have said or done." The Post interviewed Bond and Emily Murphy, a law professor who worked for a different judge on the 9th Circuit, in on-the-record interviews. The four other women were not named. Murphy said she was discussing training regimens with other clerks at a San Francisco hotel in 2012 when Kozinski approached her and said the gym in the 9th Circuit courthouse was seldom crowded. He then suggested she should work out naked, she said. (This isn't the first time Kozinski has made headlines over obscenity allegations.)