Judge resigns over sexual harassment claim

Lienjiang County District Court head judge Chao Wen-yun yesterday resigned from the lead judiciary position in the island county, commonly know as Mazhu, after the alleged victim broke her silence to local news agencies on Wednesday.

The female judge told local media that her former supervisor, Chao touched her inappropriately at least 20 times — stroking her hair, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, bumping her leg with his knee under the table and even patting her on the thigh - over the course of seven months.

According to the victim, she was very uncomfortable but she had no where to turn because she was one of the only two judges presiding over the Lienjiang County District Court.

Unlike judges in other district courts, she was completely under the administration of Chou, who had total control over her evaluation, schedule, even case decisions. Furthermore, being a new judge only five months out of training, all her decisions had to be reviewed by her supervisor before they can be read in court.

Although she was too intimidated to speak up, she kept a written record of when and where the harassments took place. Last February's entry, for example, describes Chou allegedly asking the victim go to head judge's dormitory and try if his comforter was warm enough. Later on April 15, 2008 at a district court office dinner, Chou allegedly lifted up his shirt exposing his belly and asked the victim to touch it. After months of alleged harassment, the female judge filed an official complaint with the Control Yuan in March. In August, the Control Yuan finally completed its investigations and concluded that Chao initiated inappropriate physical contact with female coworkers.

According to the Control Yuan's official decision, Chao's actions have already violated conduct code of judges but to protect the victim's reputation the Yuan's members did not impeach Chao. Instead, the Yuan forwarded the case to Judicial Yuan for further disciplinary actions.

The Personnel Evaluation Committee at the Judicial Yuan is divided on the case and has yet to return a verdict. Some members believe that Chou should be suspended or removed from the bench, while others are still calling further investigation.

Another female employee had filed a complaint against Chou last year, claiming that he had sexually harassed her, said Lo Jung-chien, the head of internal affairs division at the Judicial Yuan. However, the division investigator sent to Mazhu could not find any witness to corroborate the complaint and closed the case based on insufficient evidence, explained Lo.

The alleged victim was transferred to another court unit after last August. Another female judge has been sent to replace her.

“Judges are supposed to uphold justice for the people. I can help others, but I can't find my own justice...I have lost my faith in the judiciary system,” the female judge said in an interview with The China Times.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email