TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appellate court has upheld a ruling that denies pension benefits to a former judge who served a federal prison term for having sex with a boy in Russia and bringing back a tape of the act.
The ruling was issued Monday by a state appellate court.
Stephen Thompson is a disabled Vietnam War veteran who presided over cases in Camden County from 1989 until shortly after his arrest in 2003.
A state pension board ruled the now 72-year-old judge should forfeit his $51,916 annual pension. Administrative law courts upheld the decision.
Thompson has argued his crime occurred just before his retirement, so that time period should be used only to calculate how much pension he should lose.
But the appellate court found Thompson’s misconduct wasn’t confined to that time period. /kga