IN HER OWN WORDS: Harrowing Account of Woman Who Clerked for Sex Creep Judge — How He Pressured Her Into Oral Sex, Molested Her… Then Told Her to 'Keep Your Head Down and Shut Up'
A woman who served as a law clerk for a federal judge in Alaska forced to resign over sexual misconduct has spoken out about her experience, giving a harrowing account of how she was pressured into oral sex.
July 9 2024, Published 2:30 p.m. ET
A woman who served as a law clerk for a federal judge in Alaska that was forced to resign over sexual misconduct has spoken out about her experience, giving a harrowing account of how she was pressured into oral sex, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to the results of an internal investigation made public on Monday, U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Kindred created a hostile work environment by frequently making graphic sexual comments to his clerks and formed "an unusually close relationship" with one woman.
Kindred allegedly made "regular demands on that law clerk's personal time and attention," exchanging 278 pages of text messages with her over an 11-month period and repeatedly telling her that he missed her and that she was "one of my best friends."
U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Kindred was forced to resign from his lifetime appointment after an internal probe concluded that he created a hostile work environment, engaged in an "inappropriately sexualized relationship" with one of his law clerks, and then lied about it to federal investigators.
After the woman left her clerkship and began a new job as an assistant U.S. attorney in October 2022, she said he invited her out for drinks and told her, "There's always been something between us, right?"
By the end of the night, she had become intoxicated. Kindred offered to drive her home, but said that he needed to stop by the courthouse. He asked her to come upstairs to his chambers and sit on the couch with him. She instead sat across from him.
Per the judicial report, "at some point, Judge Kindred kissed her and grabbed her buttocks. She reported that she did not instigate the kiss. She indicated that it was brief, 'just like smooch,' and almost immediately afterwards, Judge Kindred dropped her home."
Less than a week later, they both attended a pizza party thrown by another clerk still working for Kindred. He allegedly repeatedly ask her to sit on the couch with him and she refused, thinking, "Are you hitting on me openly in front of the clerks now?"
Kindred texted her after she left the party; she said they needed to talk in person and asked him to pick her up. Although they began talking in his truck outside her house, it was cold and Kindred suggested they go to the apartment where he was staying.
Upon arriving, he went to the bedroom and kept shouting "come to the bedroom, come to the bedroom." He laid down on the bed and allegedly asked her to lie down with him. She first sat on the corner of the bed and eventually agreed to lie down.
"[H]e started putting his hands on me. And so I remember the first time he like grabbed my boob, and I like grabbed his like forearm, and I remember thinking like he felt really strong and I tried to like pull his arm off of me," she told investigators.
"I just remember thinking like there's nothing I can do about this, like this is about to happen," she added. "I remember him saying something about like 'Finally,'' like – because I remember just feeling like, yeah, finally, like you win like the game."
"Like I always felt like this – like this thing that he couldn’t touch and finally he felt like he could touch ... He took my pants off. I’m pretty sure I was still wearing a shirt ... And then he performed oral sex on me."
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Later that month, following the two sexual encounters, the clerk said that Kindred told her to "keep your head down and shut the f--- up" and joked that he could make her life miserable if she said anything.
Although Kindred initially denied any sexual contact, he later admitted under oath that he had lied to the special committee investigating his misconduct but continued to dispute her account, maintaining that the sexual encounters were both consensual.
"I was not the aggressor. I was not overbearing. I was honest with [the law clerk] as to the difficult place I was in," he said. "This brief romantic interlude, while it should have been avoided, was not at all as [the law clerk] described."
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Kindred, who was nominated by former president Donald Trump in 2019, was asked by the Judicial Council of the 9th Circuit to resign voluntarily over the allegations and submitted his official letter of resignation to President Joe Biden on July 3 without explanation.
"We conclude that Judge Kindred's misconduct was pervasive and abusive, constituted sexual harassment, and fostered a hostile work environment that took a personal and professional toll on multiple clerks," the council wrote.
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who approved his nomination, wrote on X that Kindred's resignation was "more than appropriate ... Judges need to be held to the highest of standards."
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