Watchdog Group Asks Judge to Resign

MINNEAPOLIS - A courtroom watchdog group is asking for Hennepin County District Judge Stephen Aldrich’s resignation due to several inappropriate comments he has made in the courtroom.

Three weeks ago in family court, reviewing a domestic violence order for protection, a transcript shows Judge Aldrich telling the husband and wife, "I’ve been married 45 years. We've never considered divorce, a few times murder, maybe."

A court watchdog group, called Watch, is calling for Judge Aldrich’s resignation. The joke lands flat, when you consider 21 women in Minnesota were killed last year in domestic violence. Many like Pam Taschuk, who was murdered last month, and had restraining orders against their partners.

And it's not the judge's first attempt at judicial levity. He made a comment to a man who'd been stabbed by his wife that he should do the barbecuing from now on.

Watch says Judge Aldrich once told a defendant, "I don't know if you're stupid or evil." He also called prosecution witnesses, "a bunch of drunkards."

When there was a clerical error in a file, he said, "with all the women running for president, there's no one left to make things right."

Normally complaints are brought to the Minnesota Board of Judicial Standards, but few are upheld, and few become public.

Judge Aldrich declined to be interviewed, but in a statement on this latest case, he said: “I am sorry for the offense occasioned by my comment. It has been taken somewhat out of context. I tried to use my humor to lower the tension in the courtroom and in retrospect I chose the wrong words."