Special Report: The quest to stop a 'Sugar Daddy' judge accused of
preying on women
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[July 14, 2020]
By John Shiffman and Michael Berens
EUREKA SPRINGS, Arkansas (Reuters) - She
was 30 years old, jobless and facing a custody fight for two young
children. To keep her kids, she needed a lawyer – someone cheap and
willing to see her quickly.
Tim Parker seemed ideal. He was available, and his fee was about half
what another lawyer quoted. According to confidential testimony reviewed
by Reuters, the woman told state authorities that Parker agreed to
represent her in late 2013, then offered her some unexpected advice.
“‘You need yourself a Sugar Daddy,’ is exactly what he said,” the woman
said in the confidential testimony. “He was very persistent on it and
knew that I was pretty much broke.”
The woman told authorities that she covered part of her legal fees by
having sex with Parker, and that Parker paid her at least $3,000 for
more sex over the next two years. Typically, allegations that a lawyer
had sex with a client or exchanged services for sex would be handled by
local police or state ethics officials.
But Parker’s case was complicated: He wasn't just a lawyer. He was also
a part-time judge for the Carroll County District Court.
That gave Arkansas' judicial oversight agency the jurisdiction to
investigate Parker. Although the woman declined to talk with Reuters,
she alleged in secret testimony to the agency that Parker had also used
his authority as a judge to help her friends bond out of jail, again in
return for sex. The alleged conduct was not isolated, according to the
confidential records reviewed by Reuters and interviews with eight law
enforcement officials in Arkansas.
City police, the sheriff’s office, the state police, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation and a federal grand jury investigated Parker for about
four years. Witnesses gave evidence that the judge disclosed the
identity of a confidential informant; traded money and opioids for sex;
and gave favorable treatment to young women in his courtroom, Reuters
found.
Despite the intense scrutiny, Parker, 58, was never charged with any
crime. In brief interviews with Reuters, Parker said he did nothing
wrong, as a judge or as a lawyer. In a statement, Parker’s lawyer said
the allegations of illegal drug use and sexual misconduct are
“absolutely untrue.”
Still, Parker’s term on the bench ended in disgrace, when the state
judicial commission forced his removal and resignation on what was
already scheduled to be his final day in office.
The story of Tim Parker shows how hard it can be to remove an American
judge suspected of corruption. It also illustrates how, even after
misconduct on the bench becomes an open secret, a judge can remain in
power for years when his victims are people who typically make for poor
witnesses – in this case, petty criminals and drug addicts.
In its investigation into judicial misconduct across America, Reuters
sought to identify people harmed as a result of judges who break the law
or violate their sworn oaths. Over a dozen years, the news agency found
at least 5,206 people who were directly affected by a judge’s
misconduct. The victims ranged from individuals who were illegally
jailed to those subjected to racist, sexist and other abusive comments
or actions.
Parker’s case also provides a different, more hopeful lesson about
ensuring accountability in America's state and local courts, however. It
demonstrates how a well-staffed and persistent state judicial oversight
agency – the exception, not the rule, in the United States – can hold
judges to account when other authorities can’t.
“A lot of times, the public and even law enforcement didn’t know we were
there, or what we could do,” said Lance Womack, chief investigator for
the Arkansas Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission from 2000 to
2017. “They didn’t realize that we could get a judge off the bench or
disciplined for ethics, even when there might not be enough to get a
criminal conviction.”
As part of its national investigation into judicial misconduct, Reuters
analyzed staffing and disciplinary actions by state oversight
commissions for a dozen years – from January 2008 through December 2019.
The news agency found Arkansas has one of the better-staffed oversight
agencies in the United States. Nationally, commissions have on average
one full-time employee for every 155 judges. Arkansas has roughly one
staffer for every 53 state judges.
Arkansas took disciplinary action against a judge 40 times from 2008
through 2019, a greater frequency than in all but five states, Reuters
determined. Nationally, commissions on average publicly disciplined 6 in
every 100 judges. In Arkansas, the ratio was 13 per 100.
A trained, experienced staff is fundamental, said Robert Tembeckjian,
who has supervised more than 2,500 judicial investigations and leads New
York's commission.
“It’s not enough to adopt an ethics code,” he said. “Without vigorous
oversight, judges may act with impunity, and litigants and the public
will lose faith in the courts.”
The Arkansas commission is among the few that investigate anonymous
complaints and make every disciplinary decision public. It has filed
formal charges against state supreme court justices and has cracked
cases that have sent trial judges to prison.
Arkansas commission director David Sachar, the son of a preacher, is the
past president of the national Association of Judicial Disciplinary
Counsel and speaks frequently at international conferences on misconduct
by judges. He and his former deputy, Emily White, said they pursued
Parker and others with the same mindset they applied earlier in their
careers as sex crimes prosecutors in Little Rock.
“The average citizen cannot be expected to brush off improper or
undignified behavior by a judge,” Sachar said in a 2018 speech to a
United Nations conference. “The power imbalance is such that an
employee, party or professional in that court have no way to respond
without fear of a harsh or vindictive counter-response from a powerful
public official.”
"WE DIDN'T SEE WHAT WAS COMING"
Perched on a remote ridge in the Ozark Mountains of northwestern
Arkansas, Eureka Springs is a city of 2,000 people, about a four-hour
drive from the state capital of Little Rock.
Its Victorian-era shops, bars, spas and hotels draw a million tourists
annually, said Mayor Butch Berry. Those visitors fuel the local economy.
They also account for many arrests for crimes related to partying, such
as speeding, drunken driving and petty drug use.
Like much of Eureka Springs, the limestone courthouse on Main Street has
been preserved and looks much as it did when it opened in 1908. Parker
had served there from 1999 to 2004 as district court judge. And so, in
2013, after the incumbent resigned to focus on a corporate legal job,
the governor appointed Parker to fill the vacancy.
The part-time gig was not unusual. In hundreds of small U.S. towns and
rural counties, where the caseloads are light and the court meets just a
few times a month, a local lawyer is appointed or elected as a part-time
judge. The lawyers can continue their private practices, typically their
primary source of income, but they are bound by ethics codes for both
attorneys and judges.
When Parker was tapped for the bench, he promised to treat everyone
fairly. “I plan to be a humble judge that follows the law,” he told the
local newspaper.
At the outset, Parker enjoyed the community’s backing because of his
previous stint as judge, recalled Earl Hyatt, the police chief from 1996
to 2014.
“I actually wrote a letter to the governor supporting his appointment,”
Hyatt told Reuters. “We didn’t see what was coming: drugs, sex and using
his position on the bench to further his personal interests.”
"RUMOR IS I HAVE CANDY"
Among the landmarks in Eureka Springs is a six-story statue of Jesus.
Another is the Cathouse Lounge and Pied Piper Pub & Inn, a
self-described biker bar and restaurant steps from the courthouse.
Parker was a frequent patron.
From the Pied Piper on April 19, 2013, phone records show, the judge
texted a woman half his age. Police say the exchanges were filled with
coded drug references.
“Rumor is I have candy,” Parker texted.
“Omg,” the young woman replied.
When Parker texted that he couldn’t meet right away, she said,“What if I
make it worth your while?”
“Sure, that’ll work,” the judge wrote back.
On April 22, 2013, Parker texted the same woman again from his office:
“I am all alone.”
Her response: “LOL ooooh !! So am i :) were u able to find me anything
good? If so it could b fuuuun ;)”
Yes, Parker texted back. Seven opioid hydrocodone pills, “plus a bunch
of blue and yellow capsules.”
The judge asked if he should swing by her place.
“Ok that cool,” she replied.
“On my way,” he texted back.
The text messages are among the confidential records Reuters reviewed,
compiled over four years by federal, state and local law enforcement
authorities. The records identify by name six women who told
investigators about interactions with Parker that related to drugs, sex
or both. He denies the accusations. Reuters is not naming the women,
whom police consider victims.
“You bet I’m still in fear of retaliation,” one of the women told
Reuters. “He was a judge and I’m a peon. Yes, I’m a felon, but I’m also
a human and don’t have less rights.”
The woman spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity, as did the woman
Parker texted from the bar. Both said they were opioid addicts at the
time and are now in recovery.
“Back then I would do anything to get my fix,” said the woman Parker
texted. “I was struggling to make ends meet. He definitely took
advantage of that.”
Parker’s lawyer denied that his client ever offered drugs for sex or
possessed pills without a prescription.
In summer 2013, a few months after the text exchanges, the woman’s
ex-boyfriend took her phone to city police. They sent it to the FBI to
extract the texts and call logs.
"I KNOW YOU'RE A SNITCH"
One of a judge’s most sensitive duties is approving search warrants.
Typically, warrants are sealed to permit police to surprise suspects and
to protect the identities of informants.
In sworn statements, city police say they became alarmed early in
Parker’s tenure when the names of informants in methamphetamine cases
began to leak. One informant showed police a text she received from a
Parker acquaintance, the records show.
According to a sworn testimony from former police chief Hyatt, the text
read in part: “I know you’re a snitch. Parker told me what you’ve been
doing… You could die for this.”
Hyatt said he alerted the FBI about the text message.
“We took it extremely seriously,” Hyatt told Reuters. “That could end up
in grievous bodily injury or death to an informant.”
Parker’s lawyer, John Everett, called the allegation “simply not true.”
As a part-time judge, Parker maintained his law practice when he wasn’t
on the bench, Everett said in a written statement. Parker learned the
identities of confidential informants through his work as an attorney,
not as a judge, Everett said, and never disclosed their identities to
anyone “while serving as judge.”
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![](../images/071420PICS/news_z67.jpg)
Arkansas Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission's current
Director David Sachar (L), former Deputy Director Emily White, and
former Chief Investigator Lance Womack pose for a photo in Little
Rock, Arkansas, U.S. November 12, 2019. Picture taken November 11,
2019. REUTERS/Chris Aluka Berry
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
For police, a tipping point came on a Saturday morning in September
2013, when one of Parker’s female clients was arrested at the Pied
Piper for meth possession. Parker came to the jail that Saturday and
ordered her release. Parker’s lawyer said the judge’s action was not
uncommon or unethical.
Local police viewed it differently. Most people arrested on a
Saturday would not go before a judge until Monday, they said. To
them, Parker’s intervention was outrageous. Thomas Achord, then a
city detective, said he had been searching for the arrested woman as
part of a local and federal drug investigation.
“When she was booked, I got an automated email alert,” he told
Reuters. “I called the jail, but they said Judge Parker had already
come and had her released. I couldn’t believe it.”
Other police officers also complained that the judge routinely
refused to enforce the state’s impaired-driving law in court and
seemed to favor young female defendants.
In response, Hyatt tasked a detective to compile court records and
mugshots of everyone arrested for drunken or impaired driving since
Parker had taken the bench. The detective concluded that the judge
was more likely to dismiss cases against women aged 20 to 4o – so
long as they weren’t obese – than others arrested for the same
offenses. Police delivered a binder containing the mug shots and
records to the FBI, hoping agents there would pursue a public
corruption case.
Parker’s lawyer Everett said the judge always followed proper bond
procedure and that the police analysis of Parker’s record “borders
on being laughable.”
“Surely the investigating officers have something better do with
their time than to review these kinds of records,” he said.
An FBI spokesman referred queries to the Justice Department, which
declined to comment.
Hyatt, the former police chief, said he assumed federal authorities
would pursue the judge. “I wanted a criminal prosecution,” he told
Reuters. “I wanted him to face the same thing anyone else would,
given the circumstances.”
In August 2015, Parker drew the attention of another law enforcement
agency, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, which was unaware of
the other investigations.
A woman was arrested for beating her adult son, sticking a gun in
his face and threatening to kill him, the arrest report shows. From
jail, she called Parker at his law firm. Reuters reviewed a
recording of the conversation.
“Oh my God, please, Tim, get me out of here,” the woman told Parker.
“It’s horrible.”
As the woman began to blurt out details of her arrest, Parker
interrupted.
“Just settle down,” Parker said, warning that calls from the jail
are recorded. “Don’t be saying anything over the telephone.”
When Parker asked about the status of her case, the woman said she
was waiting for a judge “to set bond or something this afternoon –”
Parker cut her off. “I can come in and do that,” he said.
A few hours later, the judge headed to the jail, ordered the woman
released without bail and drove her away, according to sworn
statements by police officers. A year later, prosecutors dropped the
charges against the woman.
Parker, who said he once represented the woman’s husband, told
Reuters he doesn’t remember the jailhouse call. But he said it was
proper for him to respond to a request from a defendant for a bond
hearing. He denied that he drove the woman from the jail.
J.J. Reddick, a sheriff’s lieutenant, said that when he heard about
the call, he began to investigate the judge.
“He came over, did a bond hearing and took her home,” Reddick said.
“Who gets personally involved like that, as a judge? That was
amazing to me.”
Reddick started digging, carefully, so as not to tip off Parker. In
fall 2015, he began interviewing young women already in jail for
petty crimes. One told him that she knew seven women – herself
included – who had had sex with Parker for cash or reduced bond.
Reuters reviewed a video of that woman’s interview with Reddick.
During the interview, she joked that she could name even more women
if she had access to her list of Facebook friends.
“That’s how bad it is,” the woman said.
She then began to describe her own encounter with Parker, but
stopped suddenly. Reddick assured her that she should not be
ashamed.
The woman nodded. “The prostitution is bad,” she said, “but where
he’s telling me he’ll set my bond low where I could get out, I think
is different, because that is using his power against other people.”
“If I didn’t sleep with you, you would set it high?” the woman said.
“That’s more fucked up.”
At one point, the woman became exasperated, noting she had already
discussed Parker’s conduct with federal authorities. “The messed-up
thing is that I told them this a year ago!”
Reddick, who was unaware of the FBI investigation, said calmly, “I
promise you I’m not going to just let this go away. If I don’t get
somebody to listen to me, I’m going to go to somebody else and keep
going. I don’t care if I have to go to Little Rock.”
"EVERYBODY KNOWS IT'S CROOKED"
About six months later, Reddick approached an official from the
judicial commission, based in the capital of Little Rock. At the
time – spring 2016 – the commission was busy with a high-profile
investigation, one starkly similar to the Parker case.
A judge on the other side of the state, Joseph Boeckmann, was
suspected of sexual misconduct with young men facing petty criminal
and traffic offenses. The judicial commission’s handling of the
Boeckmann case offers an example of how an aggressive oversight
agency can have a decisive impact: It led to a federal indictment
charging the judge with abuse of power. Boeckmann pleaded guilty to
dismissing cases in return for “sexually related conduct.” He was
sentenced to five years in prison, two more than prosecutors sought.
“He’s the traffic judge in a small town,” U.S. District Judge
Kristine Baker said as she sentenced Boeckmann. “He is the System.
He acted corruptly while performing his core duty as a judge.”
With Boeckmann in handcuffs, commission director Sachar turned to
Parker.
By then, Sachar had to hurry. It was mid-October 2016, and Parker
had just 75 days left in his term. Most judicial investigations
can’t be completed that quickly. Gathering evidence against a judge
can take months, sometimes years. And if a judge contests the
allegations – as records show Parker did – the process can stretch
even longer.
Sachar pressed on. He concluded that if any case could be made
against Parker, a finding by the commission would send needed
messages – to Parker, his victims, other judges and the public.
After all, in Sachar’s view, a small town had essentially
surrendered to the authority of a corrupt judge. This couldn’t
continue or be allowed to happen again, he reasoned.
“Everybody knows it’s crooked,” Sachar said. “Everybody. The judge
is doing personal favors, quid pro quo, and people know it. What
does that say to people who were locked up and didn’t get out?”
Adding to Sachar’s outrage and urgency: alarming testimony from a
woman who alleged she’d had sex with Parker for cash and judicial
favors. The woman alleged that, after receiving a commission
subpoena to testify about Parker, he paid her $100 for a copy of the
subpoena and offered advice on what to tell investigators.
The woman couldn’t recall the judge’s precise words but told
commission investigators that Parker said, in effect, “I’m not
telling you to lie, but if you do, I won’t say anything.”
Parker’s lawyer denied that the judge paid anyone for a copy of a
subpoena or advised anyone to lie to authorities.
Sachar struck a deal with Parker on his last day in office, December
31, 2016. The judge disputed the sex and drug allegations but
admitted that he improperly got friends and former clients out of
jail. Under the agreement, he “resigned” but was also “removed.” As
important: Parker was banned for life from returning to the bench.
The outcome, Sachar believes, put other judges on notice.
“I felt like we just couldn’t let him walk away,” Sachar said.
“Symbolically, I wanted him removed to make a statement.”
The case against Parker did not end on the last day of 2016. There
would be at least two more investigations.
A special state prosecutor requested Sachar’s case file to comb
through the evidence of drug use, prostitution and corruption. The
FBI also received the evidence and a federal grand jury heard
testimony, records show, but no charges were filed. A federal
spokesman declined to comment.
In January 2018, more than two years after Parker resigned, Arkansas
special prosecutor Jason Barrett completed his probe without filing
charges. He cited the difficulty in locating witnesses and victims.
Five other law enforcement officials also told Reuters that they
struggled to build cases against Parker because the former judge’s
alleged victims made for poor witnesses.
The women proved hard to locate and reluctant to cooperate, the
authorities said. In cop slang, most were “frequent flyers” – people
caught in a cycle of petty crime, addiction, escalating court fines
and probation violations that led to repeat jail stays. Most were
young mothers. They rotated jobs, addresses and phone numbers every
few months, as money, drugs and relationships came and went. Several
had outstanding warrants, and feared going public might trigger
their arrests.
“They just wanted it to go away,” said deputy Reddick. “They didn’t
want to have to go on the stand and face people and let them know
what they’d done.”
As a single mother who exchanged sex with the judge for pills and
cash told Reuters, “I hate that this happened.” Said another: “I
feel shame.”
The special prosecutor told Reuters that he forwarded a file to the
state attorney discipline agency to review whether Parker violated
rules of conduct for lawyers. That agency’s director, Stark Ligon,
said that he could not comment on the case, except to say that the
“file remains open and under investigation.”
Meantime, Parker has continued to practice law. In February, the
former judge appeared at the Eureka Springs courthouse, this time as
a defense attorney. Among the charges against his client: illegally
possessing opioids and assaulting a woman.
(Reporting By John Shiffman and Michael Berens. Additional reporting
by Andrea Januta, Caroline Monahan and Isabella Jibilian. Edited by
Blake Morrison)
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