Judge Accused Of Crudely Talking About Prosecutor Off Court Duty

CHICAGO — A Cook County judge was placed on administrative duties after he allegedly made inappropriate comments about a prosecutor — a former law school classmate — because she didn't acknowledge him in court earlier this month. Judge Mauricio Araujo is accused of calling the lawyer a bitch as well as telling others that the two might have had sex while at Loyola University Chicago.

The allegations against the judge came in a complaint sent from State's Attorney Kim Foxx to Judge LeRoy K. Martin Jr., Araujo's superior, according to the Chicago Tribune. Martin pulled the judge off courtroom duty Thursday, but he didn't specify why, the report stated.

Because of the complaint, though, Cook County's 400 judges and 2,400 administrative workers now will be required to attend sexual harassment training next month, the report added.

Araujo, 53, has denied calling the prosecutor a bitch, and the judge told the Tribune he didn't believe he discussed whether he had sex with the woman while they were in law school. He graduated from Loyola in 1993.

The details concerning Araujo's alleged remarks were discovered through an investigation by Foxx's office that involved interviews with witnesses and the prosecutors. The findings were included in a memo attached to Foxx's complaint to Martin.

According to the complaint, Araujo allegedly made his comments Sept. 11 when a murder case the prosecutor was working had been transferred to the judge's courtroom in the Leighton Criminal Court Building. After the prosecutor stepped out, an upset Araujo was overheard telling a clerk in Spanish, "She acted like she didn't know who I was," the complaint states.

The prosecutor's lack of acknowledgment was brought up later in Araujo's chambers, this time with another prosecutor and a Chicago police officer, both men. That's when the judge allegedly referred to the woman as a bitch, and the other prosecutor jokingly suggested that she might not have recognized Araujo in his robes.

“[M]aybe it’s because I didn’t have sex with her, or maybe it’s because I did have sex with her,” Araujo responded, the complaint states.

Despite what witnesses said, Araujo told the Tribune he hadn't been upset by the prosecutor's lack of acknowledgment. But he did find it "weird" that the lawyer has ignored him while he's been at the Leighton courthouse for the past five years.

In her interview connected with the investigation by Foxx's office, the prosecutor said Araujo had "made unwanted sexual advances" toward her while the two were in law school and that she had not talked with the judge since then. However, Araujo told the Tribune he doubted that he had made such advances.

Two judicial panels will next weigh in on the matter. The Executive Committee for Cook County courts will discuss the allegations against Araujo Oct. 3, and the complaint also has been referred to the state's Judicial Inquiry Board, which handles judge misconduct.

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