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Filed Monday, April 10, the complaint says Judge R. Douglas Hoffman “demeaned the judicial office" in drinking alcohol with a subordinate employee and touching her without her consent. Hoffman has 20 days to respond.
After the judge and the woman, identified as L.W., became Facebook friends, Hoffman would comment on her Facebook photos, sometimes with sexual overtones, and invited her to visit his beach house, the complaint says. Hoffman extended an open invitation to his beach house and on Oct. 15, 2022, the woman stopped by, the complaint says.
While there, the two drank whiskey, took shots and drank beer. They watched a baseball game seated close together on a couch in a family room, where Hoffman allegedly asked L.W. questions about her boyfriend, the complaint says. Then, he touched her knee and upper thigh without her consent, the complaint says.
The woman abruptly left his house, got a ride home from her mother and told her supervisor about the incident, the complaint says.
Hoffman is a part-time judge in Robbinsville, and in the shared courts of New Hanover, Wrightstown, Mansfield, Springfield and Southampton. The woman has worked as a violations clerk in Robbinsville since 2021.
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