Three judges suspended following drunken shooting in car park after failing to get into strip club
Three judges from Indiana have been suspended after a drunken brawl following their attempt to get into a strip club.
Andrew Adams, Bradley Jacobs and Sabrina Bell were suspended over the incident, which happened outside a White Castle restaurant in May.
In an order published on Thursday, the Supreme Court said the judges’ “actions were not merely embarrassing on a personal level; they discredited the entire Indiana judiciary”.
They had ”engaged in judicial misconduct by appearing in public in an intoxicated state and behaving in an injudicious manner and by becoming involved in a verbal altercation,” the court said.
It said the judges were “yelling, using profanity, and making dismissive, mocking, or insolent gestures toward the other group”.
The three judges met up with a fourth man before an annual conference in Indianapolis.
Around 3am, they tried to go to a strip club called the Red Garter and found it closed so instead ended up outside a White Castle restaurant.
The fourth member of their group, another judge, went inside, while the three judges waited outside.
Two men then drove past in an SUV and one of them shouted out the window at Ms Bell, who responded by sticking up her middle finger.
The men, Alfredo Vazquez and Brandon Kaiser, then parked their car and approached the group, when a “heated verbal altercation” broke out.
The argument then turned physical as Adams fought with Mr Vazquez, at one point kicking him in the back, and Mr Jacobs and Mr Kaiser scuffled on the ground.
Mr Kaiser then allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Adams in the stomach and then unloaded two rounds into Mr Jacobs’ chest.
Both men needed emergency surgery.
Ms Bell said she was so drunk she could not remember sticking her middle finger up at the car, but ”concedes that the security camera video shows her making this gesture,” court documents say.
Mr Kaiser has been charged with 14 counts of aggravated battery and several other charges.
Both Mr Jacobs and Ms Bell were suspended for 30 days without pay.
Adams pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanour battery in September for kicking Mr Vazquez in the back and was sentenced to a year in jail, but was required to serve only two days.
He has been suspended for 60 days without pay.
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