Tarrant GOP leader calls for judge to resign over sexual misconduct

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Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Tim O’Hare has called for the resignation of Justice of the Peace Russell Casey, who last week was reprimanded for engaging in sexual conduct with his chief clerk.

“His admitted actions are not what Tarrant County Republicans expect from their elected officials, not reflective of the values of our Party, and were wholly inappropriate,” O’Hare wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday.

Casey, a Republican first elected in 2007, could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. He serves in Precinct 3, which covers most of Northeast Tarrant County, and his term expires in January 2019.

Casey was sanctioned last week by a special court of review for his sexual conduct with his chief clerk and court manager from 2009 to 2014, according to the court’s written opinion.

Casey called the court’s decision “balderdash” in a phone interview Monday.

The woman had worked for the previous justice of the peace and continued working for Casey when he was elected in 2007. In August 2014, Casey began the termination process against the woman, and then she reported him to human resources, filed a federal lawsuit against him alleging sexual harassment and reported to the district attorney’s office that Casey had sexually assaulted her.

The Star-Telegram is not identifying the woman because of the nature of the case.

A Tarrant County grand jury later declined to indict Casey. He and the woman settled the federal lawsuit late last year, according to court records.

Casey said in a deposition that he and the woman had consensual sex twice and oral sex about 10 times, according to the court document. The encounters were either at the courthouse or at a conference related to court business.

The woman’s testimony told a different story — that the sex was less consensual than Casey claimed and that he tried to fire her days after she said “no more” to his sexual advances.

The woman testified that in the first incident, in 2009, Casey came into her office, locked the door and exposed himself to her. The woman, in shock, unlocked the door and started to open it, but he closed and locked it again. He then told her that people in the office disliked her and wanted her fired, and that he was the only reason she still had her job, according to her testimony.

Casey urged the woman to perform oral sex on him, promising to never bother her again, according to the woman’s testimony. She complied, and said she started crying. Casey told her to compose herself. She then went to the restroom and vomited, according to her testimony.

The woman said that from then until August 2014, Casey regularly exposed himself to her at the office, made similar statements about her being able to keep her job if she did what he asked, and asked her to perform oral sex on him, including one time while he wore his judge’s robe, the document said.

The woman said that if she refused his requests, Casey would yell at her at work, call her a “horrible court manager” and tell her she “didn’t do anything right.”

Casey also began asking her for sexual intercourse, and they had sex twice, according to her testimony. She said there were 18 other sexual interactions.

This report contains material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published May 17, 2017 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Tarrant GOP leader calls for judge to resign over sexual misconduct."