Gary D. Hicks is a married, two-term judge from Libby, where prior to his first election six years ago he worked as a car salesman.
Six named women and five “Jane Does” have so far come forward with complaints that Hicks made advances to them while they were appearing before his court as defendants in legal matters.
Sweet investigated, learned of additional complaints, and on May 23, 2007, passed the case to the state Division of Criminal Investigation.
The matter eventually worked its way up to the Judicial Standards Commission, Sweet said, who last fall called on Kalispell attorney Steve Berg to conduct an independent investigation.
“Motives can be tricky in a case like this,” Sweet said, “because judges generally aren't real popular with defendants.”
However, Sweet said, some of the women filing complaints “don't even know each other, but their stories are awfully similar.”
Attorney Tammi Fisher, who is representing Hicks, noted that Libby is a very small town, and she has no doubt news of the initial complaints carried through local rumor channels.
She said she required Hicks to take a lie-detector test before agreeing to represent him, “and he passed. If he hadn't, I wouldn't have taken the case, because I have a strong distaste for unethical behavior,” the former prosecutor said. “I'm convinced the allegations are unfounded.”
Although Hicks often
met defendants in court when no one else was present, Fisher said, “his door was always wide open. That was his policy.”
Looking through that door would have been three women clerks, who may or may not become parties to the complaint, Berg said.
In the official complaint, filed by Berg after his investigation, the women accuse Hicks of commenting on their physical appearance while they were in his court, and of looking upon them in a “lascivious manner.”
Hicks allegedly told some of the women that if they “desired to have sexual relations with an older man,” he was available, according to official records.
The judge reportedly visited some of the women at their homes or at work, and told one defendant she looked “cute in blue,” a reference to her jail uniform. Another said he told her she was “too beautiful to be in trouble.”
“There certainly was a sense that if they had sex with him, they'd be treated with leniency in his court,” Berg said.
In fact, one woman told investigators Hicks offered to “work with” her regarding her legal troubles, but only if she agreed to a sexual relationship. She said he later telephoned her at home, drove by her house, and left his personal card at her home with a request that she contact him.
Berg's formal complaint was filed April 8 with the Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court. He said the next step will be a scheduling conference to set legal dates, which will culminate in a formal hearing before the Judicial Standards Commission.
If Hicks is found guilty of the offenses, the commission could hand down punishment ranging from reprimand to removal from office.
The judge did not return phone calls from the Missoulian.
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