Arkansas judge resigns after thousands of nude photos of defendants found.
Once, the judge allegedly asked a man to pose like Michelangelo’s Statue of David in exchange for $300.
He allegedly instructed another man to strip naked and bend over, handcuffed, inside an Arkansas courtroom while he snapped photographs, up close.
And on multiple occasions, he allegedly sentenced men — often young and poor to illegitimate “community service” that ultimately led defendants to the judge’s home or office, posing for more suggestive photographs as “proof” they’d completed their work.
“You’re free to go,” the judge allegedly said after the handcuff incident. “Case dismissed.”
These allegations are among dozens of disturbing claims outlined in state documents regarding the year-long investigation into a part-time Arkansas district judge accused of using his authority for the last 30 years to sexually prey on men charged with minor crimes.
The judge, Joseph Boeckmann, Jr., resigned Monday in the face of mounting evidence discovered by the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, which was tasked with determining if the man should be sanctioned or removed from the bench after an initial complaint filed last November. While Boeckmann had previously denied the allegations, his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, refused to comment further on the judge’s resignation, reported the AP. Boeckmann’s letter of resignation did not include either a denial or confirmation of the charges.
“He’s a criminal predator who used his judicial power to feed his corrupt desires,” David Sachar, executive director of the commission, told the Associated Press. “Every minute he served as a judge was an insult to the Arkansas Judiciary.”
Ongoing local coverage of the incident and publicity on social media motivated victims and witnesses to step forward, according to investigation documents, and share uncomfortable experiences they had with the judge, who presided over Cross County. Sachar told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that at least 12 alleged victims have been named in the commission’s complaint so far, and estimated there were “several dozen more, if not 100 or more.”
In a letter sent to Boeckmann’s lawyer last week, the commission claimed it had already obtained about 1,050 photos from the judge’s computer that “depict young men, many naked who are in various poses inside the judge’s home and outside in his yard.”
If the judge, who had previously denied the allegations, didn’t agree to resign by Monday at noon, the commission said it planned to expand its case to include additional allegations ahead of Boeckmann’s formal disciplinary hearing, according to the letter.
“I anticipate receiving in excess of 3,400 more photographs very soon, also taken from the judge’s home computers,” Sachar wrote. “. . . We identified many of the young men as those that your client had in front of him as defendants in Cross County District Court. Many of them are also recipients of checks from the judge during their time as defendants or probationers.”
Boeckmann’s resignation, which also required him to promise he would never again seek public office in Arkansas, signaled the close of the commission’s investigation.
The commission’s findings have been turned over to Arkansas State Police, a special state prosecutor and federal authorities, Sachar told the AP, but the judge has yet to be charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
An investigation into possible misconduct by the judge was launched more than a year ago, when an Arkansas Department of Human Services investigator lodged a complaint that Boeckmann had refused to recuse himself from a case involving the relative of a man with whom he had a long-term intimate relationship.
The commission filed its first complaint in November 2015, alleging that Boeckmann had violated more than a dozen ethical codes, including offering reduced punishments to young, male defendants in exchange for sexual favors. The complaint was amended in January 2016 to include additional accusations.
In a response to the allegations, the judge denied that the photographs were sexual in nature and insisted they were “solely for the purpose of recording proof of community service.”
Amazing 
Guys there is something I want to get off my chest. It's about that summer, when you went away to community college. I got arrested for jaywalking. When I got to court the judge said he'd let me off if I spread it for some "pictures". I mean spread man, I pulled my butt apart and stuff. I was totally nude. it was weird, I... I mean you probably didn't hear about it because I went under the alias of Mike Honcho. But I just wanted you to know that. If you can hear me, if it got into your brain somehow. That I spread my buttcheeks as Mike Honcho to get out of jaywalking.