Alaska Judge Scandal Whistleblower Settles Retaliation Claim (1)

The Justice Department has reached a settlement with a former federal prosecutor who filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that she was retaliated against by leaders of the US attorney’s office in Alaska after she reported sexual misconduct by a federal judge.

The whistleblower, who clerked for US District Judge Joshua Kindred in Alaska before joining the US attorney’s office in Anchorage, had alleged in a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel that she was denied a permanent job as a federal prosecutor because she informed supervisors in the fall of 2022 of sexual misconduct by Kindred.

Details of the settlement weren’t made public in an OSC release posted Wednesday. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, who leads the agency, in a statement thanked the whistleblower “for her incredible courage in speaking up about sexual misconduct by her former boss.”

Dellinger also said he appreciated the work of the Justice Department to reach a settlement, which was over a separate Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint from the former prosecutor. That agreement led to OSC closing its investigation, according to the release.

“No attorney, indeed no one, should have to deal with sexual misconduct in the workplace,” Dellinger said.

Kevin Owen, an attorney with Gilbert Employment Law representing the whistleblower, said in a statement that his client’s treatment at the US attorney’s office “underscores why survivors of workplace harassment and assault do not come forward.”

“Yet she continued to fight, at great personal risk, and it is thanks to her courage that the federal judiciary is a fairer and safer workplace today,” Owen said. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the Office of Special Counsel, and it is our hope that this can be a signal to all survivors that justice and accountability are possible.”

The whistleblower had also alleged that she was initially denied a detail to another office within the Justice Department, despite telling a supervisor she was afraid of Kindred and didn’t want to work in the same building as the judge.

The complaint didn’t seek specific relief, but asked that OSC — an independent federal agency that investigates federal sector whistleblower claims — open an inquiry into the alleged retaliation.

The US attorney’s office in Anchorage has been under scrutiny as part of the fallout from the findings against Kindred. US Attorney S. Lane Tucker, appointed by President Joe Biden, is likely part of Justice Department reviews of that office, according to former DOJ officials.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) said in September that DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which examines potential misconduct by government attorneys, has opened an investigation stemming from the Anchorage office’s conduct.

Dozens of cases have been flagged by prosecutors for potential conflicts with Kindred, spurring motions from defense lawyers to revisit some prosecutions. Alaska federal prosecutors last month asked to throw out a criminal conviction in a case where Kindred didn’t recuse himself, as the judge had received nude photographs from a senior prosecutor on the case.

Kindred resigned from the federal court in Alaska in July, days before a federal judiciary order said that he had subjected the former clerk-turned-prosecutor and others in his chambers to an abusive, sexualized, and hostile work environment. Bloomberg Law hasn’t been able to reach him for comment.

According to that order, Kindred defended his actions to the judiciary panel investigating his conduct, and contended that the sexual encounters with his former law clerk — which he initially denied entirely before admitting to them — were consensual. He hasn’t publicly commented on those findings.

The federal judiciary has certified a referral to the House for Kindred’s potential impeachment, citing the former judge’s “reprehensible conduct, which has no doubt brought disrepute to the judiciary.”

The settlement was announced the same day as the federal judiciary published its first annual report into workplace misconduct issues. US District Judge Robert Conrad, director of the Administrative Office of the US Courts, said at a press briefing Wednesday that the handling of the internal judicial complaint against Kindred “is a pretty robust example” of how the judiciary’s procedures for handling such cases works.

—With assistance from Ben Penn and Suzanne Monyak