Guilty.
Posted on 08/11/2007 8:22:23 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Denver -- Court documents show Colorado's top federal judge was too drunk to remember how he spent more than $3,000 at a strip club in two consecutive days.
He also used an Internet dating service while he was married.
Judge Edward Nottingham is the chief federal judge in Colorado and he is held to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct. Nottingham recently presided over the insider trading trial of ex-Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio.
Nottingham married his wife, Marcie Jaeger, on one of the most romantic days of the year – Valentine's Day 2004. The marriage ended after Jaeger found credit card charges from a strip club in downtown Denver totaling more than $3,000 in two consecutive days.
In the couple's divorce case in Eagle County district court last month, Nottingham was questioned about the credit card charges.
Nottingham testified, "I'm ashamed and mortified just telling you that is the Diamond Cabaret ... a topless establishment."
Asked how he could have spent so much money, Nottingham testified he could not recall, explaining, "I had had a lot to drink … and I don't remember."
Our partners at KUSA 9NEWS showed the transcripts to 9NEWS Legal Analyst Scott Robinson.
"Judge Nottingham had at least one lost night at the Diamond Cabaret and of course that goes to the question of whether that is acting with at least the appearance of impropriety," Robinson said, "contrary to the code of conduct for federal judges."
Nottingham also testified about credit card charges for a Web site called IPayFriendFinder.com.
Jaeger testified that she originally thought it was a dating service.
"When I asked about the dating service he turned around in his chambers and he hit his computer and he told me all about the dating service," Jaeger said in court. "It was a porn site."
During his testimony, Nottingham called Friend Finder, "A dating site – an Internet dating site."
When asked in court about a $150 charge to IPayFriendFinder.com, Nottingham said, "I'm embarrassed to be even talking about this. I think you pay extra to get certain features, such as if you upload a picture or – I don't even recall."
Under the U.S. Constitution, federal judges are appointed for life by the president of the United States. They are supposed to follow an official code of conduct, which contains this explanation:
"Public confidence in the judiciary is eroded by irresponsible or improper conduct by judges. A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety. A judge must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny. A judge must therefore accept restrictions that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen and should do so freely and willingly. The prohibition against behaving with impropriety or the appearance of impropriety applies to both the professional and personal conduct of a judge."
According to Robinson, as a federal judge Nottingham can be removed from the bench only for high crimes, misdemeanors, treason or bribery.
The most average man on the street is better than the men at the top.
The good judge was an appointee of GHW Bush.
Here’s the URL for further info on his “off the bench” activities.
(WARNING: Adult topics)
http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_6598184
While the judge could be more discrete, it sounds like some of the press
he’s getting slammed after some high-profile cases.
Particularly in government, where rising to the top often has little to do with merit.
I’ve known of several federal judges who had serious drinking problems. One, in Houston, was a familiar figure on the street trying to get back to the courthouse after drinking lunch. He couldn’t hold court in the afternoon. Another, quite a few years ago was drunk out of his mind when he drove the wrong way on a street and killed someone. After a little press coverage it disappeared and nothing happened to him. There should be a judicial standards board made up of people with no connection to the legal profession or government office.
[E]lections amount to no more than choosing between the scum that floats to the top of the barrel and the dregs that settle to the bottom.
- L. Neil Smith
He was just making a donation to the local single mothers group, very charitable of him I would say.
We’ve all heard the old and somewhat puzzling expression, “sober as a judge.”
Potential AIDS candidate.
FR should have a separate category for drunken govt. officials.
This guy is headed for complete and total disaster.
How much does 3000 buy at a stripjoint anyway?
Hope somebody was taking pictures for his scrap book.
Is this th4e saem place? http://www.diamondscabaret.com/
“Not guilty” didn’t sink in right away, though it certainly should have. I blame this.
It's likely that the skank whores and bartenders just kept hitting his credit card knowing that he was too drunk to care.
Guilty.
BINGO!
Bet you’re right. If he was that loaded, how would he go after them later? There’s no way. All the club manager has to do is say that he got the private super-duper $500 personalized lap dance treatment a few times and was buying a lot of drinks for himself and others. And when a guy starts throwing $5 and $10 bills at the dancers, the money goes fast.
Looks like a real class establishment, the kind of place where NFL and NBA players get shot in the parking lot at 2 AM.
There is a serious management problem at this club. Everyone should know that a charge to a place like the “Diamond Cabaret” should show-up as “Luigi’s Bistro.” People have expense accounts.
Only three grand? Piker.
;^)
Yes it is. I've been there once or twice for bachelor parties.
This place and Shotgun Willy's are where the creme of the crop of Denver's strippers go to work. It would be very easy to spend $1500 a night there. The girls who work there usually leave with that much in earnings per evening. Not uncommon to find Denver's professional athletes drinking $10 bottles of Coors Light while dropping $20 bills on the tables.
It is also a topless-only bar and the dancers have to wear 2 G-strings (in case one slips). Any touching or "friction" during a lap dance will have your ass thrown outside on the sidewalk in seconds flat.
It has been more than a decade before I walked through those doors. At the time, admission was $20 and you had to wear a collared shirt. Back then, they wouldn't hire girls with tattoos. From their web page, it looks like that policy has been rescinded.
Actually my confidence in the judiciary has nothing to do with how they choose to spend their off duty hours. It is their inability to dispense justice, at all, much less expeditiously, during their on duty hours.
At the lower-class joints, $3000 will get you ten strippers coming back to your hotel room at the end of their shifts.
At the Diamond Cabaret, $3000 might get you a kiss on the cheek.
You're not kidding!
ahhh, what a great 2 nights it must have been though. too bad its not on video.
The increasing number of vice addicts among the ‘leadership’ is not a good sign.
Must have taken the same drinking course teddy the swimmer took years ago.
Doubtful, as the link is to a club in OH, not Denver.
Seems a mite hypocritical.
Once that first Ben Franklin slips through my fingers, I remember EVERYTHING!
My kind of party, especially if it’s somebody else’s money I’m burning.
The Dept. of Revenue should investigate.
.
No doubt. At least give it a name like “XYZ Office Supplies” or “Superior Electronics” so that an auditor would be more likely to think that the charge was for new cell phones and palm pilots for the office.
Yup. People wonder how NFL players can drop $10,000 a month at strip clubs. At places like this, the cash grows wings and flies out of their pockets after a few drinks (and whatever other adult consumables that are available to ballplayers, judges, and other VIPs).
Did they ask him if he drove home? Of course the Federal judge probably wouldn't recall that either.
Too drunk to remember?? I know from experience that that excuse does not work.
Alcoholism is a hell of a thing. One usually needs to hit bottom to start recovery. Hope this judge is there.
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