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NEWS JULY 20, 2020 ¦ 5

Massachusetts Courts Mum About Policy
After Judge’s Alleged Sexual Misconduct

By Robert Storace

I Trial Court of the Commonwealth, Cambridge, Massachusetts
t should have been good news, but Massachusetts of Workplace Rights & Compliance, which helped
court officials are silent about a policy aimed at develop a detailed training program for all court
preventing retaliation and discrimination. judges and staff.
The policy followed a case that made statewide Daniel Sullivan, general counsel for the Trial
news in Massachusetts, when a former drug court Court, declined numerous requests for interviews
clinician filed a 2018 lawsuit against a state judge for to discuss the policy, and the Trial Court denied a
allegedly forcing her to perform sex acts on him in request to provide data on sex harassment and dis-
chambers. crimination cases in that state’s court system going
That judge—Thomas Estes—resigned in June back seven years. The Trial Court said that, as part
2018, a day after being suspended indefinitely, ac- of the judicial branch of government, it is not sub-
cording to news reports. He denied the allegations, ject to either the Freedom of Information Act or the
claiming the sexual encounters were consensual. Massachusetts Public Records Law.
And then in 2019—soon after the Estes episode— The timing of the court’s addressing discrimina-
the Massachusetts Trial Court implemented policies tion within its ranks didn’t come as a surprise to
prohibiting discrimination, harassment and retalia- some in the legal arena in the Bay State.
tion in the court system and created a new Office
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