A former Broome County judge has been ordered to pay $200,000 in compensatory damages after a federal jury ruled he discriminated against an employee.
On July 31, a civil case against 62-year-old Richard Miller II, a former Broome County Family Court judge, came to a conclusion when a federal jury in Syracuse found Rachelle Gallagher, a former court secretary for Miller, faced discrimination based on her gender while working for him.
The lawsuit, filed in December 2018, alleged a “toxic environment” created by the judge from 2015 to the summer of 2017.
After the jury reached its decision, Richard Miller’s attorney Thomas H. Miller said on his behalf the claims made in the lawsuit are “without merit.”
“He is grateful that this stage is over and that he can now move on with an appeal,” Thomas Miller said.
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Accusations against former Broome judge
Among the accusations against Miller were forcing Gallagher and the judge’s court attorney Mark Kachadourian to view pornography that included a nude photo of a coworker, making sexual demands, using graphic and crude descriptions of sexual acts and asking Gallagher to engage in sex acts with an unnamed elected official for political favor.
The lawsuit additionally argued Miller made comments about satisfying his own sexual desires and demanded Gallagher satisfy his sexual needs. Miller was also accused of making threats against Gallagher and Kachadourian if the harassment behaviors were reported.
The harassment allegedly began in January 2015 when both Gallagher and Kachadourian began working in Broome County Family Court. The lawsuit claimed both reported Miller to court administrators, but no action was taken at the time to investigate the misconduct.
Based on the evidence presented in the case, federal jurors didn’t find that Kachadourian was subjected to a hostile work environment or retaliation.
Gallagher and Kachadourian’s attorneys, Justin Quinn Davis and William J. Dreyer, did not respond to a request for comment.
A closer look: Investigation into Miller’s conduct
In the summer of 2017, Miller was removed from the bench and reassigned to other duties after an investigation into the alleged harassment was conducted by the Unified Court System.
In February 2020, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct determined the judge should be removed from office for numerous acts of misconduct, sexual harassment and failure to report and pay taxes.
After the commission proceedings began, Miller filed amended tax returns, amended his financial disclosure forms and filed a report with his court clerk. By March 2020, he was suspended with pay by the state Court of Appeals.
The decision stayed in effect until October 2020, when Miller was officially removed from the bench after the court found his conduct consistently exceeded the ethical bounds of judicial behavior.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Former Broome judge ordered to pay $200K in discrimination case
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