DENVER (KDVR) — A former choose has been publicly censured for actions and communications he had throughout his tenure as a district courtroom choose in Arapahoe County.
John E. Scipione, previously an 18th Judicial District Court docket choose, was suspended with out pay from his place on Aug. 9, 2022, rendering his standing to “lawyer and choose incapacity inactive standing.” On Jan. 20, the Colorado Supreme Court docket accepted his resignation, in keeping with Jessica Yates, lawyer regulation counsel for the Colorado Supreme Court docket.
On Nov. 13, Scipione was publicly censured, with the order bearing in mind “vital mitigating components.”
Per courtroom paperwork, Scipione was serving as a district courtroom choose through the summer season of 2021 and had a authorized assistant and regulation pupil interning as a summer season regulation clerk.
Throughout the summer season internship, Scipione referred to his authorized assistant with a derogatory gendered time period, which was not named within the courtroom order. Scipione additionally “made feedback that made the regulation clerk really feel uncomfortable.”
Based on the courtroom order, Scipione referred to the regulation clerk’s arms and coiffure and joked he was “jealous” of the clerk’s relationship with one other courtroom worker.
The courtroom order additionally data that on one event Scipione advised the regulation clerk he was consensually non-monogamous after the clerk inquired a few ring he was carrying. Scipione allegedly went on to debate particulars a few “ranch” that “catered to that ‘way of life.’” He additionally requested the regulation clerk to assist him with a Tinder profile.
Throughout the identical summer season, Scipione additionally used his judicial electronic mail deal with to talk with a choose presiding over a probate motion for his father’s property, in keeping with the courtroom order. He requested the choose expedite an order of appointment and letters testamentary within the case.
Finally, Scipione filed a movement searching for those self same actions.
Due to these actions, Scipione violated two Colorado Guidelines of Skilled Conduct, which all barred attorneys are topic to behave underneath, in keeping with the courtroom order:
- RPC 3.5b: A lawyer should not talk ex parte with a choose (…) except a choose initiates the communication and the lawyer moderately believes that the subject material of the communication is throughout the scope of the choose’s authority
- RPC 8.4i: A lawyer should not interact in conduct, in reference to the lawyer’s skilled actions, that the lawyer is aware of or moderately ought to know constitutes sexual harassment.
Scipione stays on judicial incapacity inactive standing, in keeping with the Colorado Supreme Court docket’s lawyer database.
John Scipione was appointed to an Arapahoe County judgeship in 2017 and to the 18th Judicial District Court docket in 2018, in keeping with the Colorado Workplace of Judicial Efficiency Analysis.
