Judge of the Day: Edward Nottingham
As many of you know, we’re guilty of federal judicial snobbery here at ATL. We frequently mock state court judges, whom we regard as “icky,” and contrast their regular misadventures — ethical lapses, brushes with the law, messy personal lives — with the generally upright lives of their counterparts on the federal bench.
But federal judges are people too — people who get themselves into highly embarrassing situations. From Colorado’s 9News.com:
Court documents obtained by 9Wants to Know 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.
Umm, yeah, this story is all kinds of awesome. Some of Judge Nottingham’s conduct would make a drunken summer associate blush.
More after the jump.
The story continues:
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.
Well, at least Judge Nottingham didn’t have 1-800-Flowers send roses to his girlfriend.
Also: If federal district court judges are earning under $200K, can they really afford to drop three grand on two evenings at a strip club? Chief Justice Roberts is right: these judges deserve a pay raise!
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.”
We hear that Aquagirl, who also enjoys the drink, is clerking for a federal judge in Denver. It sounds like she and Judge Nottingham would get along famously!
“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,” [legal analyst Scott] Robinson said, “contrary to the code of conduct for federal judges.”
Oh come now, Scott. We love this story too, but that claim is a bit silly. These activities, while unsavory to some, are perfectly legal. A weakness for lap dances doesn’t compromise judicial impartiality; otherwise, three-quarters of all judges would have to step down. As long as Judge Nottingham recuses himself in all cases involving the Diamond Cabaret — say, a First Amendment challenge brought by the club to a restrictive zoning ordinance — he’ll be fine.
Nottingham also testified about credit card charges for a Web site called IPayFriendFinder.com. [The judge’s wife Marcie] 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.”
Your Honor, here’s some friendly advice. Do NOT put porn on your work computer. Another Colorado judge tried that, and it ended badly.
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.”
Judge Nottingham, if you’re looking to “find” a “friend,” just try Friendster or Facebook. They’re free! And if you “poke” or “friend” us, we will gladly add you to our network. You can join the Facebook group for Above the Law, too.
See you online!
Update (11:15 AM): The WSJ Law Blog just put up a post, available here.
Chief federal judge too drunk to remember night at strip club [9News.com]
Edward Willis Nottingham, Jr. [FJC]
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nope
Pauly Walnuts is a federal judge?
Why is it not ok for people in his situation to simply say "this is none of anybody's goddamn business. good DAY to you!" and stomp out in a huff?
11:14 - Since he's being questioned under oath in a divorce case, that might not go over well.
PS. I can totally understand how this guy blew $3K in a strip club. Don't diss it till you've tried it.
agreed 11:14. all of these activities are legal, so why is this even an issue? this country is so puritanical sometimes i can't believe i live here.
"doesn't compromise judicial impropriety?"
Huh?
"We frequently mock state court judges, whom we regard as "icky,"*
* But see Del. Ch.
Good call, 11.05, but I'm loyal to the Bada Bing.
Strippers to $3,000 (in singles)!
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20051129/COLUMS/111290020
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20051129/COLUMS/111290020
11:16,
It's also legal to rack up $80,000 in gambling debts and hang out with Mob guys. But I wouldn't want federal judges doing those sorts of things.
I don't think it's too puritanical to expect judges to have the sense not to put themselves in certain positions. Ringing up $3,000 tabs while on a bender at a strip club seems pretty stupid.
Scott Robinson's "appearance of impropriety" argument is puritanical BS. But there's nothing improper about questioning the judge about this stuff in the context of a divorce proceeding, where its relevance can hardly be doubted.
Pervo boozebag judge. Very funny.
This is yet another shameless plea for a Patton Boogs website thread. The links are buried in the latest wedding watch thread. GO LOOK AT THEM NOW!!! Then join me in begging Lat to create a dedicated thread.
is it just me, or does that Channel 9 story really state that federal judges are impeachable for ordinary misdemeanors?
Hey Moose, Rocco, help the Judge find his checkbook.
Why would the Judge need to recuse himself if "Diamond Cabaret" came before him?
Would federal judges recuse themselves if they shop at Albertson's and they come before them? Hardly. And I can almost guarantee you that those judges drop more than 3k at those groccery establishments. This is no different.
I suppose the judge would just have to stop frequenting the "topless establishment" or "groccery store" during the duration of the case if that entity came before the judge.
11:44, I read Lat's comment as tongue in cheek.
(But when you're dealing an establishment like a strip club, where the connection between patrons and staff is, um, "closer" than at an Albertson's or WalMart, the argument for recusal is stronger.)
Now you've changed "compromise judicial impropriety" to "compromise judicial impartiality."
Why didn't you just change it to "compromise judicial propriety?"
11:27 - when you mention $80,000 in gambling debts and mob guys in the same sentence, it seems you are implying something that IS illegal, loansharking, and in most states, bookmaking.
It would be an entirely different story if a federal judge lost $80,000 of his or her own, hard-earned cash, at a legal, regulated, and taxed casino, would it not? And much more like Nottingham's "improprieties."
Messrs. Lat and Lattman really need to get together so they don't duplicate each other's blog posts :)
When did Paulie Walnuts become a judge?
12:11, this is definitely more fodder for ATL than the Law Blog (and ATL had its post up first).
Then again, now that the Law Blog is going to be part of the Rupert Murdoch empire, maybe not.
Sounds like one of my appointees, but in fact it was GWHB. I'll have to razz him about that the next time we share funeral duty.
Who is GWHB? GHWB?
12:09,
And strip clubs are *never* loosely associated with illegal activities, whether it be prostitution, drug trafficking, racketeering, or tax evasion.
Obviously, there's a spectrum here. It's one thing to lose 3K at the Bellagio, and it's one thing to lose 3K to shadier figures. I don't know what the club this judge frequented is like... but, in the end, it just doesn't seem too puritanical to question his judgment, not only as it relates to his wife but to his job as well.
i strongly disagree with your assertions 11:27. just because a guy goes to a strip club and blows too much dough doesn't mean he is a freaking mob pawn.
just because it was that way on the sopranos doesn't mean that it is that way in real life. it is a strip club. yes, it is relevant to his divorce proceedings but has no bearing on his fitness as a judge.
Yeah, it's GHWB for the 1st Pres. Bush. I was trying to type while "interviewing interns" and transposed a few of the initials.
The Diamond cabaret is, I think, considered the nicest place in Denver as far as strip clubs go. Still, Denver is not Las Vegas. I would think you would have to work pretty hard to blow (no pun intended) $3k at a strip club in Denver. At $20 a pop, that's 150 lap dances in two nights. Hmmmm...
Maybe I'm going to have to start saying "party like a Chief Federal Judge."
I'd just like to observe that this judge looks a lot like Paulie Walnuts, who was a character on the HBO television program The Sopranos.
Did anyone else notice this?
A good drinking outing together with a threesome or moresome with a couple of hot strippers can easily run you 3K...
I think its great that the Chief Fed. Judge in Colorado appears to be regular guy- Go Judge!
What a creepazoid.
As a young, attractive female attorney, I can honestly say I would be uncomfortable in his courtroom. That ain't puritanical, boys, that's my creepazoid radar. And if a judge creeps out attorneys, doesn't that say, well, SOMETHING about his fitness to be a federal judge?
Then again, it's not like that would make him unique or anything. I'd love to see Lat write up a post about a certain federal judge who regularly makes inappropriate comments to his female clerks (e.g., asking for blow jobs. And not even bothering to pretend he's trying to be hip and ironic (which really wouldn't fly anyway, since people who try that shit are rarely as funny as they think they are))
Why all this talk about "losing" 3K at a strip club? It's not like he was buying lapdances on credit. He SPENT 3K there for what I'm sure he considered good and valuable consideration.
12:57: what does his personal life have to do with his courtroom comportment? Regardless about how you feel about his creepazoidness, it's unfair for you to assume he's misbehaving in court. Congrats on being young and attractive though.
12:57 is an eggshell.
12:47,
$600 per hour in the champagne room adds up fast.
It's been reported that at least some clubs of this nature run up huge tabs for customers by such practices as having strippers encourage customers to buy over-priced champagne ($400 bottle for something costing $20) in exchange for attentive "service". Some of these guys are too drunk to notice that the clubs pour most of the stuff into an ice bucket thereby requiring frequent refills to keep the good times flowing.
1:06 - No one is talking about him "losing" $3k at a strip club, more like "blowing" $3k.
And it is exactly like he was buying lapdances on credit ... he did, after all, use his CREDIT card.
Also, 12:57, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that straight men are attracted to females. If he's not inappropriately staring in his courtroom, or making inappropriate comments, what does it matter what he does in his personal time? Would it creep you out less if he was single?
He's a judge, but he's human. In the courtroom, and when dealing with attorneys anywhere else on a professional basis, he has every duty to be professional. But outside of the professional context, so long as he is not breaking the law, I don't see how he is hurting anybody.
I think a lot of people are focusing too much on the fact that he was at a strip club.
The problem, I think, was that he was drunk for a span of TWO DAYS and doesn't remember it.
Too many drinks in the span of a few hours, then running up a huge tab, that is one thing.
But this guy was there for two consecutive days??? And at no time was sober enough to realize what he was doing??
If he had spent the $3k at the Pasadena Ritz.....
It's the combination of being too drunk *and* being at a strip club. It seems like being that drunk in that sketchy of a place puts you in a precarious place if you are a federal judge.
I just don't buy the whole argument that "as long he didn't break the law" he's a-ok.
Any relation to Sheriff Nottingham?
1:28 - I agree the combination does make it worse, but again it's all a matter of degree. Going to a strip club known for prostitution/other vice and sipping chocolate milks isn't a-ok, nor is as 1:25 suggested, blacking out even at the Pasadena Ritz.
However, should we fault even a federal judge for having a few drinks at a strip club? What if he's having problems with his wife? I'd think far less of him if he went to a strip club than if he went to, say, the pasadena ritz, and cheated on his wife with a non-stripper fellow bar patron. However neither is any of our business, I would submit.
The blacking out in public thing ... that shows poor judgment no matter where it is.
Dudes, there's a total difference between finding people attractive (which EVERYONE does, at one point or another, in their lives) and blowing THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS to *purchase* the company of a female. It's demeaning and it says something about the judge's attitude toward women. For what it's worth, I *have* been inappropriately stared at by a federal judge at a professional function, and it still creeps me out and infuriates me.
If I knew that any random guy had spent that much money at a strip club, unless it was MAYBE for a bachelor party or some other such stupid but *potentially* excusable rite of passage that his idiot friends forced him into, I would think less of him, and would not want to spend a lot of time around him. This is really hard for guys to understand, because the people you are liable to run into over the course of an average day are unlikely to be interested in *purchasing* your bodies, or bodies like yours, thereby reducing your value to how attractive you are found to these people. I guess the closest comparison is, imagine you spent years of your life being surrounded by gay men who were constantly staring at your ass and making inappropriate comments, such that your (usually justified) opinion of random gay men is that in general, they're a little shady and creepy until they've proven otherwise. Then imagine that a gay guy you knew told you he had just spent three thousand bucks at a gay male strip club. You're telling me you wouldn't be creeped out even a little?
Hopefully y'all can step out of your own reality for a second and try to understand how much it SUCKS to be subjected to this kind of objectification. Cheers.
12:57:
I couldn't agree with you more re: Lat doing a post on that "certain federal judge."
I too recently clerked in the Dist. Ct. of NJ, Newark Vicinage
12:57- CAN YOU PLEASE DESCRIBE THE SHAPE OF YOUR ASS?
Yikes, 1:54. In fact, I was thinking of a judge in Texas...
But, I am sadly unsurprised that there are others. If they get a raise, I hope it's accompanied with at least 100 hours of mandatory sexual harassment seminars.
12:57 reminds me of a girlfriend I once had who evidently was gawked at quite a bit. She once told me that she "just wanted to be able to go get a gallon of milk without it being about sex." LMFAO.
When it's tight, it's tight. They'd complain just as much if no one ever looked.
2:12, falsely dichotomize much?
Even though he's a federal judge, he hasn't quite yet been fully deprived of his humanity. People should have the right to, legally, do what they want with their personal time. If a girl told me she likes to get off at home by herself with a gas-powered pull-start dildo, hey, whatever, you're kind of an idiot for telling me about it, but I'm not going to cauterize your public, professional self to how you want to get your jollies off.
Please????
JP, what if she told you she got off by dominating and humiliating men? Using a dildo hurts no one, and if the judge had gone into a sex shop and bought a dildo, I'd agree with you, no biggie. But going to a strip club and essentially *buying* women is totally different. Women are not sex toys. We're like whole people and everything. With whole personalities and lives and careers. And whole bodies that consist of more than asses, which certain asswads will NEVER get to see.
2:12,
you are so right. women are never satisfied. either they get too much attention or men ignore them. treat them like thr whores they all are and everything will be fine.
12:57 - You just had to find a way to incorporate "dichotomize" didn't you? Oh, and by the way, how you doin?
I don't believe for one second that he was actually so drunk he couldn't remember anything. That seems like a lil' white lie that, while still opening him to ridicule, excuses him from actually recounting his escapades.
And 1257 I wouldn't give two shits if I knew a (male) judge I was in front of was gay and had performed in 37 scheisse films last week as long as he gave me my fair shakes in court. I certainly wouldn't be so neurotic as to let me fears of what he thought of me personally affect my work.
3:42, thanks for illustrating your inability to think beyond your own personal experiences. I bet in your mind institutional racism has been eradicated, too. And that gays have just as much of a right to marry as straights because they can also marry someone of the opposite sex. Do you enjoy using sophism to mask a lack of imagination? Or are you just blind to the fact that you're doing it?
1257: my comment was in response to this quote of yours:
I guess the closest comparison is, imagine you spent years of your life being surrounded by gay men who were constantly staring at your ass and making inappropriate comments, such that your (usually justified) opinion of random gay men is that in general, they're a little shady and creepy until they've proven otherwise. Then imagine that a gay guy you knew told you he had just spent three thousand bucks at a gay male strip club. You're telling me you wouldn't be creeped out even a little?
My answer to you is "no, I wouldn't be," and I gave you a little explanation too. You're welcome.
As for your weird paranoia, I was actually "bleeding heart liberal" and his many iterations on this thread: http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/08/xsummers_more_on_the_omelveny.php
Meh, you're boring.
And whole bodies that consist of more than asses, which certain asswads will NEVER get to see.
Don't get mad just let me see your ass- In lieu of the ass can you just describe yourself? Height, Weight, most recent sexual experience please.
Best words used by 12:57 in the last few posts:
Sophism
Asswads
Lieu
4:35 p.m.
NO, NO, NO!! You DON'T WANT PICTURES. 12:57's whale-sized! The judge stared at her because he was amazed so much fat could move under its own power.
12:57 - A Dichotomizer is one of those products sold by Ronco, right?
-- ET!
The Summit Daily News for Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper and Frisco Colorado reported on 8/12/07:
“Manager Justin Fankell…of the Diamond Cabaret…said the judge (Edward Nottingham) had visited the club on other occasions.”
I have a pdf of that article. His wife only had one bill for Monday 9/5/05 Who paid the other bills? On Friday 9/2/05, did Judge Nottingham go to the strip club after granting the insurance defense counsel to put me in jail if I didn't as he ordered "voluntarily" withdraw a civil matter in other court? How is that not violating the Anti Injunction Act?
I was so curious looked up the web site
http://ipayfriendfinder.com/
that Judge Nottingham used in his chambers. I found
"Meet People who Want Sex Get Laid Tonight"
"Looking for Sex Tonight? Find Hot Singles in Your Town! Hook Up Now"
"Discover which Sites Get You Laid"
"Discreet Dating for Married People"
"send emails to local singles"
etc. so it isn't just a view site
Web Page Tribute to Eddie Nottingham:
http://www.knowyourcourts.com/Nottingham/Nottingham.htm