Federal prosecutors in Alaska have identified 23 criminal cases where attorneys appearing before a federal judge, who resigned last week amid sexual misconduct accusations, may have had undisclosed conflicts of interest. A top federal prosecutor sent the list in an email on Friday, which Reuters reviewed. This occurred four days after the 9th Circuit Judicial Council publicly reprimanded and admonished now-former U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred.
The council found that Kindred, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, created a hostile work environment for his law clerks and engaged in an inappropriate sexualized relationship with one of them. Investigators discovered that he had two sexual encounters with this particular clerk in October 2022 after she took a new job in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.
In the Friday email to the state’s top federal public defender, Bryan Wilson, the head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s criminal division, stated that the former clerk had no cases before Kindred during her time as an assistant U.S. attorney. However, he identified 23 cases with potential conflicts of interest or appearances of impropriety between lawyers and Kindred.
Such conflicts, if unknown to the parties, could provide grounds for defense lawyers to challenge convictions or sentences imposed while cases were before Kindred. The 9th Circuit’s order identified three prosecutors and one defense lawyer with potential conflicts, according to Wilson. Among those cited were a senior prosecutor who had a “flirtatious rapport” with Kindred and had sent him nude photographs, and another local attorney who “exchanged flirtatious text messages” with the judge.
In his email to Jamie McGrady, the federal public defender, Wilson explained that his office became aware of potential conflicts in late October and early November 2022, long before the allegations involving Kindred became public. He said the office took “proactive steps to mitigate any conflicts,” including notifying the district’s chief judge and requesting cases be reassigned away from Kindred. He assured McGrady that prosecutors would notify her if they identified more cases with potential conflicts.
Reagan Zimmerman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said on Tuesday, “The office has obligations with respect to disclosing or avoiding potential conflicts of interest, and we are continuing our review to ensure those obligations are met.” However, McGrady stated that prosecutors had failed to disclose the nature and extent of those conflicts timely and argued that Kindred’s recusal from cases “did not cure the prejudice to untold numbers of criminal defendants.” She announced that her office would conduct its own investigation, as “the defense bar must now reexamine every case that those attorneys consulted on or litigated in front of Judge Kindred.”
Bloomberg Law first reported the email. Reporters could not reach Kindred for comment.
