U.S. District Court Judge John A. Woodcock Jr., who presided over many trials involving Kennebec County individuals in federal court, is moving to senior status and creating a vacancy on the federal bench in Maine.
Federal judges can take senior status, or a form of retirement, after reaching the age of 65 and after 15 years of service in federal courts. Although their seats become vacant and the president appoints their replacements, they can still maintain an office.
Woodcock was chief district judge when he presided at the trials of both Carole and Marshall Swan of Chelsea as well as that of James Cameron, the state’s former top drug prosecutor who was convicted of child pornography charges and jumped bail while free during an appeal.
Woodcock also sentenced Wade Hoover of Augusta to 40 years in prison for producing and possessing child pornography, telling Hoover in July 2013, “It is hard for me to find words to describe your conduct in this case because your conduct is simply unspeakable. You have not merely violated the law, you violated the most basic moral code in society. You preyed upon young boys when they were vulnerable.”
Woodcock also presided over the defamation case of Paul Kendrick, the Freeport man who began a widely disseminated email campaign in 2011 against the American founder of an orphanage in Haiti, of sexually abusing the boys in his care.
Woodcock was chief district judge from 2009 to 2015.
A press release sent Thursday from the court indicated Woodcock told President Obama “he intends to take senior status on June 27, 2017.”
Woodcock was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in June 2003.
The press release indicates Woodcock, who was a partner in a Bangor law firm for 25 years before becoming a judge, plans to continue to hear cases, and relocate his chambers from Bangor to Portland.
His replacement will be nominated by the president and subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
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