Mass. Probate and Family Court judge faces hearing in sexual harassment case

By Jeremy C. Fox

A Massachusetts Probate and Family Court judge is facing formal charges in the state’s highest court over an allegation he sexually harassed a court employee at a work-related event last year, state officials said Friday.

Associate Justice Paul M. Sushchyk denies the allegation that he grabbed the buttock of a female court employee without her consent during a conference for Probate and Family Court judges in April 2019, court documents show. 

After allegedly touching the woman, who was seated at a bar stool inside a pub alongside coworkers, Sushchyk allegedly pulled a silver flask out of his coat pocket and said it contained whiskey, according to the charging documents from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. 

Sushchyk is scheduled to appear Monday morning in a videoconference hearing of the commission before retired judge Bertha Josephson, appointed as a hearing officer by the state Supreme Judicial Court, the commission said.

The commission alleges that Sushchyk’s actions violated the Massachusetts Code of Judicial Conduct, breaking regulations against harassment and undignified behavior, among other rules, and undermining public confidence in the courts, documents show.

Sushchyk’s alleged behavior “constitutes willful judicial misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and unbecoming a judicial officer, and brings the judicial office into disrepute,” according to the documents.

When presented with the allegations by investigators, Sushchyk allegedly said, “I would never do anything like that,” and, “I would never intentionally hurt anyone, but especially a woman,” according to court documents.

In a statement filed in the case, Sushchyk said he had merely “placed my hand in the direction of” the woman’s bar stool to steady himself as he returned from the men’s room.

He was unsteady on his feet, he said in the statement, because of the combined effects of a past hip replacement, a long day at the conference that had begun with a drive from Central Massachusetts to Cape Cod, eating dinner, and the two whiskey drinks he consumed that evening. 

A filing from his attorney states, “Judge Sushchyk denies that he had any physical contact whatsoever with any part of [the court employee’s] body that evening.”

Sushchyk, of Sterling, was nominated by Governor Charlie Baker to the bench in January 2018. At the time, he was a lawyer in private practice in Worcester County, according to a statement announcing his nomination.

He is a former Sterling police officer, a state trooper in New Hampshire, and he served on the Sterling Select Board from 2000 to 2013, the statement said.

He is a past president of the Worcester County Bar Association and served from 1979 to 2003 in the Army Reserve as a non-commissioned officer and as a commissioned officer with the Judge Advocate Corps, retiring as a judge advocate major, according to the statement.

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Mass. Probate and Family Court judge faces hearing in sexual harassment case