New trial ordered in Oklahoma City murder case because of judicial sex scandal
A divided appeals court on Thursday threw out a 2021 murder conviction because the trial judge and prosecutor had a secret sexual history.
Robert Leon Hashagen III has been serving a life sentence for the fatal beating of a 94-year-old Oklahoma City woman during a 2013 burglary. He is now 60.
An Oklahoma County jury in 2021 convicted him of first-degree murder after he was linked to the crime by DNA. He and the victim, Evelyn Goodall, had been neighbors.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals voted 3-2 to reverse his conviction and order a new trial because his constitutional rights had been violated.
The trial judge, Tim Henderson, abruptly resigned and came under investigation after being accused of sexual misconduct in March 2021. A special prosecutor decided last year not to file charges.
Henderson, 64, had been an Oklahoma County district judge since 2012 and was widely respected.
At least five women came forward and made accusations during the investigation. Two were prosecutors assigned to his courtroom. A third was a sheriff's deputy. Henderson — who is married — denied sexually assaulting anyone.
More: Former Oklahoma County judge admits to sexual conduct with second prosecutor
Why the appeals court was divided over murder case dismissal
The appeals court was divided Thursday because the judge's sexual relationship with the prosecutor in the murder trial had ended more than two years before.
The court majority said that fact did not "remove our concern as to the trial judge's potential bias."
"We find that the structural error cannot be found harmless as the sexual relationship between the trial judge and prosecutor 'affects the conduct of the entire trial and cannot be separated from it for the purpose of analysis,'" Judge William Musseman wrote for the majority.
In a dissent, Judge David Lewis complained the court was reversing "this conviction based on ethics rather than law."
"The failure of the judge and prosecutor to scrupulously avoid the potential for an error of this kind is indeed a betrayal of the high ethical standards to which all legal professions should aspire," Lewis wrote.
"But an objective appraisal of the probability of actual bias respects not only the defendant, but also the courts, the public, crime victims and family members on both sides who must collectively bear the heavy costs of reversal."
The appeals court identified the prosecutor only by her initials in keeping with its policy on victims of sexual assault.
"While it is not clear whether the prosecutor in this case was or was not a victim, we identify this individual through the use of initials out of an abundance of caution," the court wrote in a footnote.
He said their "consensual affair" ended in 2018 and that he remained detached, neutral and fair during his rulings in the murder case.
The prosecutor called their involvement sexual abuse. She said it began in April 2016 and continued until July or August of 2018.
She left the Oklahoma County district attorney's office in 2022 after Henderson was not charged.
In declining to file charges, special prosecutor Jason Hicks said the judge had "preyed on young women" but the evidence against him was insufficient to prove "any touching ... was not consensual or invited."
The conviction Thursday was the latest to be overturned because of the sex scandal. The first came a year ago when the Court of Criminal Appeals threw out a drug trafficking conviction.
In that case, Henderson had been in a sexual relationship with a different prosecutor at the time of trial.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC murder case goes back to trial because of judicial sex scandal
