The Maine bar is weighing whether a former Bangor judge should be allowed to keep his license to practice law after he was accused of making unwelcome sexual advances toward two women at a conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Former Bangor judge Charles Budd speaks during a hearing Thursday held by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar. A three-member panel is considering if he can keep his law license after he was accused of making unwelcome sexual advances toward women. Screenshot from Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar hearing

During Zoom hearings this week, a three-member panel for the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar heard testimony from former District Judge Charles Budd, the women who say he harassed them and various probation officers, treatment providers and lawyers from the Adult Drug Treatment program that Budd used to oversee in Bangor. The panel said it will need to schedule a third day of testimony, but a date had not been set as of Friday.

The board initiated the process last year to determine whether Budd violated the bar’s code of conduct for attorneys after two women filed a civil lawsuit.

The panel heard this week from many people who attended the same Nashville conference in July 2022 for drug treatment courts. Their testimony supported some of the claims made by Samantha Pike, a treatment counselor, who said Budd sexually harassed her at the conference.

The witnesses also said Budd could be inappropriate in court, even treating defendants who appeared before him differently based on gender and physical appearance.

“With specific female drug court participants, he treated some of them differently based on, in my opinion, the way they looked and the way they presented themselves in court,” said Assistant District Attorney Maggie Gray, a prosecutor who worked with the Penobscot County drug court.

As Gray and others spoke, Budd often rolled his eyes, shook his head and even threw his hands in the air. Although his microphone was muted, he could often be seen making comments to his attorney, Melissa Hewey, who was sitting beside him.

Hewey declined to speak about the hearing Friday afternoon. Budd has denied doing anything inappropriate at the Nashville conference and during his time as a judge.

He joined the bench in 2015 after he was nominated by former Gov. Paul LePage. He previously worked as an attorney at Rudman Winchell.

Budd was placed on administrative leave in the fall of 2022, said Barbara Cardone, a spokesperson for the state judicial branch. When his term expired in early 2023, Cardone said Budd chose not to re-apply.

Cardone declined to address the allegations made during Budd’s bar hearing as they related to his time as a judge. Court officials have previously declined to discuss the claims made against Budd in a lawsuit Pike filed in November 2022 in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit was dismissed in June 2023, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is still considering whether to reverse that decision.

Pike’s lawyer, Laura White, said Friday that they are hopeful about the appeal and encouraged by the bar’s decision to investigate Budd’s actions. Still, she said, some of the hearing was uncomfortable, and the panel’s questions were sometimes prying.

“This is why more women don’t come forward,” White said. “It just leaves women with the sense that they’re not believed.”

THE ALLEGATIONS 

Much of the bar hearing this week focused on Budd’s interactions with Pike, who was the lead substance use treatment provider for the Penobscot County adult drug court.

Before the July 2022 conference, Pike said she felt their relationship was professional. She and several others said Budd regularly brought an assortment of donuts to court, including a separate bag of Boston Cream donuts for Pike.

She now wonders if that was favoritism, thinking back to complaints from her colleagues that Budd favored her recommendations over those from Gray, the prosecutor, and probation officers.

But once in Nashville, Pike said it was clear that Budd was drinking more than she thought was appropriate and pursuing her.

“I think that sets you up for so many different issues, having a judge out, in his role, drinking with his team,” Pike testified Friday. “I still feel that way, I think it’s inappropriate.”

One night, she said Budd followed her to her hotel room, saying his was across the hall – which wasn’t true. When she wouldn’t invite him inside, she said he asked her to get a drink at the bar downstairs. She said she agreed after trying to say no twice, because she was scared he might try to get into her room.

At the bar, she said he complained about his marriage and commented on the physical appearances of at least two drug court participants.

After the second night, Pike said she left the bar by pretending to go to the restroom and then calling for a ride back to the hotel. Budd later texted her that he felt he had been “ditched.”

“No more Boston creams for you,” he wrote in a text that an attorney for the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, Julia Sheridan, showed the panel Thursday.

OTHER WITNESSES

In his testimony Friday, Budd said their conversations were more innocent than Pike described, and that she misinterpreted many of his remarks.

When Pike said Budd referred to her in front of her colleagues as his “attractive friend,” Budd later said he had actually been referring to another judge.

“It’s a mean thing to have said,” Budd added, “because he’s bald.”

Budd denied ever “pursuing” Pike or having too much to drink.

Other witnesses said differently.

Ryan Auffant, then a case manager in the drug court, said the night Pike left the bar early, he was tasked with making sure Budd got back to his hotel safely.

Auffant testified that Budd “appeared under the influence.” He said that while he was waiting for an Uber, Budd wandered off and tried speaking to other women. In the car, Auffant said Budd complained about being “ditched.”

“At one point he did an impression of the Joker from Batman,” said Auffant.

Eric Legassie, who was Auffant’s supervisor, was also at the conference and testified Friday that he felt uncomfortable Budd had placed Auffant in this position, and tried reporting it to Maine Pretrial Services, who declined to act at the time because Pike wasn’t their employee (she worked for a treatment provider that had a contract with the court.)

Legassie said he was also uncomfortable for Pike.

“It’s not OK to be treated like that,” he said.

Natasha Irving, the district attorney for Waldo, Knox, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties, said the Nashville conference was her first time meeting Budd but within minutes of their conversation, he asked if she wanted to sleep in his room.

Irving testified that she took this as an inappropriate sexual advance. She said she felt humiliated, but she was hesitant to come forward out of concern she might have to one day appear in Budd’s court. Irving was also a plaintiff in Pike’s civil case against Budd, but decided not to appeal.

“I think in the moment there was just this kind of shock,” Irving testified. “But there’s a difference when this is a person of power in the system that you’re potentially going to see again.”

Richard Gordon, who oversaw treatment courts statewide, testified Friday that while Budd had appeared drunk, he thought that Budd’s comment to Irving wasn’t sexual.

“It was ‘Well, I’m in the hotel, there’s an extra bed if you want to stay here,’ ” Gordon testified. “Something along those lines.”