Judge was caught masturbating '15 times' in court during trials
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: James Hoathly / Alamy Stock Photo/Gregg Vignal / Alamy Stock Photo
A former judge who masturbated with a penis pump during trials was sentenced to four years in prison.
The Oklahoma Judge spent 23 years on the bench and was allegedly caught using the device under his robe.
Donald Thompson was forced to retire in 2004 and was later sentenced in 2006.
Advert
Aged 59 at the time, Thompson was convicted of four felony counts of indecent exposure in his Creek County courtroom and was also ordered to pay a $40,000 fine.
His former court reporter, Lisa Foster, told authorities that she apparently saw Thompson use the device on an almost daily basis during an August 2003 murder trial, which saw a man accused of shaking a toddler to death.
She recalled the murdered toddler’s grandfather giving an emotional testimony while 'getting real teary-eyed, and the judge was up there pumping on that pump'.
“It was sickening,” the court reporter said.
Foster also claimed that she saw the Judge expose himself at least 15 times from 2001 to 2003.
He was eventually caught as people in the court room would hear the 'sh-sh' sound of air rushing through the penis pump, after which police decided to take a picture of the sex device under his desk.
“I was really shocked and I was kind of scared because it was so bizarre,” Foster said.
Judge Thompson said that the penis pump was given to him as a 50th birthday gift from a close friend he went fishing with.
The married father of three testified: "It wasn’t something I was hiding.
"In 20–20 hindsight, I should have thrown it away."
He also said that he might have 'absentmindedly squeezed the pump's handle' while on the bench but never used it to pleasure himself.
At the time, Carmelia Brossett, a senior probation officer for the state Department of Corrections, also said: "Thompson’s denial of the offense would likely present difficulty, if not inability for treatment providers to provide meaningful and beneficial sex-offender treatment."
“His criminal behaviour is not only socially unacceptable, but is an affront to the judicial branch of government and the legal profession,” the court concluded.
“Such conduct can do nothing other than to undermine public confidence and trust in the dignity and integrity of the judiciary and the legal profession.”
Thompson's pension was also subsequently removed as a result of his conviction, and in 2008, he was released from prison after serving 20 months.
In 2009, Thompson was convicted of physical control of a vehicle while under the influence.
Then in July 2011, the disgraced judge was charged with driving under the influence, possession of a controlled dangerous substance after a former felony conviction, and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription after a former felony conviction.
In that same year, he was faced with charges for stalking an ex-girlfriend, which were later dismissed.