A federal judge has written an apology letter to a former law clerk following disciplinary measures taken against her for engaging in sexual conduct with a police officer inside her courthouse chambers and subsequently providing false statements about the incidents.
The disciplinary action against U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross stemmed from an investigation launched by the chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit, which determined that Ross engaged in sexual activity in the courthouse with a high-ranking uniformed police officer within hearing distance of courthouse staff, participated in a partisan political event, and initially provided false information when questioned about these matters. In her letter dated Thursday and acquired by The Associated Press, Ross acknowledged that her “actions were patently wrong, and there is no excuse.”
“You deserved better than to have your experience marred by my own offensive conflict,” Ross stated in the correspondence, which The New York Times initially reported.
Ross received her appointment to the bench in the Northern District of Georgia in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
The inquiry into Ross’s conduct commenced after one of her law clerks filed a complaint alleging that the judge had repeatedly engaged in sexual conduct with a high-ranking uniformed police officer in her chambers during business hours. Additional allegations included claims that the judge failed to provide adequate supervision to clerks and had verbally berated staff members using profanity.
Following the investigation’s confirmation of the allegations, Ross received a “private reprimand” that initially kept her identity confidential. She also committed to refraining from pursuing the chief judge position for the district when she becomes eligible and agreed to send apology letters to six former law clerks.
William Pryor, serving as chief judge of the 11th Circuit, initiated the investigation of Ross last fall. When he requested her response to the clerk’s allegations regarding sexual activity in her office and attendance at partisan events, she responded immediately and “specifically denied” all claims. The following day, the judge sent another email to Pryor suggesting that the law clerk might have fabricated the allegations as revenge for being required to work in the office.
Ross’s letter states, “I also want to convey my deepest apologies to you for my false accusation against you. Again, I have no excuse and immensely regret my behavior.”
The correspondence also mentions an earlier letter that Ross had written to the clerk, describing it as “entirely deficient, as I did not take full accountability for my actions, and I failed to give you the apology that you deserve.”
Federal judges receive lifetime appointments and can only be removed through congressional impeachment proceedings. This week, two Georgia congressmen submitted separate impeachment resolutions targeting Ross. The House Judiciary Committee holds the authority to determine whether to initiate impeachment proceedings.
Pryor established a special committee to conduct the investigation. The committee’s findings were documented in a report accompanying the disciplinary order.
The committee’s examination of access logs and security recordings revealed that an officer had regularly visited the judge’s chambers while in uniform during lunch hours. Six clerks recalled observing someone matching the officer’s description, with three recalling overhearing what appeared to be sexual activity coming from the judge’s office.
Three clerks remembered bringing summer interns on their first day to observe the judge conducting a hearing in a criminal matter. Immediately afterward, they reported to the committee, the judge declined to have lunch with the interns, admitting to consuming too many martinis the previous evening at a primary election celebration for a district attorney friend.
The clerks indicated that the judge provided inadequate guidance and “rarely, if ever, substantively edited civil orders the clerks drafted.” Although clerks described an “eggshell culture,” the committee found no evidence of abusive conduct.
The judge eventually confessed to maintaining an extramarital sexual relationship with the officer while denying the staff mistreatment allegations, according to the committee. The judge acknowledged attending a “mixer” for former employees of a district attorney’s office where she previously worked, but claimed it occurred in a separate room from the victory celebration.
“Though I can never fully undo the harm that I have caused you, I hope that my acknowledgment of these failures is a small first step,” Ross wrote to her former clerk. “I will be taking further steps to ensure that this never happens again.”
