An Arapahoe County district judge who failed to disclose an extramarital affair with a clerk and faced a sexual harassment complaint has resigned from the bench.
District Judge John E. Scipione stepped down as part of an agreement with the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, which was investigating Scipione for violating the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct, according to court documents filed with the Colorado Supreme Court.
Scipione’s resignation “resolves the merits of the alleged rule violations,” according to a court notice filed Thursday and signed by Christopher Gregory, executive director of the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline.
As part of the formal inquiry, Scipione admitted to a year-long extramarital affair, when he was a magistrate, with a court clerk, according to court documents. There were also claims of sexual harassment against Scipione in which he referred to a second judicial assistant “using a derogatory term” and that he “openly discussed his involvement in an ‘alternative lifestyle.’ ”
The preamble of the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct states: “Judges should maintain the dignity of judicial office at all times and avoid both impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in their professional and personal lives.”
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