Judge’s removal sought following incident at Brewster bar

By Ethan Genter

Posted Oct 6, 2020 

BOSTON — The state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct is weighing a hearing officer’s recommendation that a Probate and Family Court judge be retired or removed from his post in response to allegations that he inappropriately touched a court employee without her consent at a Brewster resort last year.

The commission held a virtual hearing Monday on the recommended discipline against Judge Paul Sushchyk, who was charged with engaging “in willful judicial misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and unbecoming of a judicial officer.”

Sushchyk denied intentionally touching the woman who filed a complaint claiming the judge pinched her buttocks while the two were at a judicial education conference at Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster in April 2019.

The commission will make its final recommendation to the Supreme Judicial Court within 90 days, Judge Julie Bernard said at the hearing.

The alleged incident happened at Bayzo’s Pub — a pub at the resort — after the conference’s daily events and a court-sponsored dinner.

The woman claimed that she was at a barstool at the table when Sushchyk came up behind her and grabbed her buttocks. She did not bring it up at the time, but soon left the pub and texted her sister about the incident, according to hearing officer Bertha Josephson’s report.

Sushchyk — who had a flask of whiskey at the time — denied intentional contact and supplied a written statement saying when he was visiting the woman’s table he placed a hand toward her chair at one point to try and steady himself and momentarily came in contact with a portion of her lower body, the report read.

Later, under oath, Sushchyk denied any contact with the woman, intentional or otherwise — an inconsistency Josephson pointed out in her report.

“Given his misconduct and the public awareness of it, it is extremely unlikely that he would be able to command the respect and authority essential to the performance of his judicial function,” Josephson wrote. “The sanction recommended is not an effort to punish Judge Sushchyk so much as an attempt to maintain the trust and confidence in the judiciary and the mechanisms designed to protect the public against judicial wrongdoing.”

At the hearing on Monday, attorney Michael Angelini read a statement from Sushchyk, who again denied nonconsensual, intentional physical contact and noted he has not faced any other allegations of inappropriate behavior.

“I have learned invaluable and hard lessons since the complaint was made against me,” Sushchyk said in the statement. “I have been reminded that while serving as a judge, I must conduct myself in a manner, at all times, befitting my office, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. I have been reminded that I must be cognizant and mindful of all acts and statements, and especially in social settings.”