Font ResizeWeber County Justice Court Judge Craig Storey's longtime court clerk says the judge admitted to some misconduct after she complained to the state's judicial watchdogs he had sexually harassed her.
But on Tuesday, she says, the Judicial Conduct Commission decided to admonish the judge in private and close the case. That prompted Marcia Eisenhour, 49, to go public with the incident, claiming while the judge is off the hook she is left to return to a hostile work environment.
Commission proceedings are secret unless the commission recommends public discipline and executive director Colin Winchester declined any comment.
But Ogden attorney Brenda Beaton told The Salt Lake Tribune that Storey, 55, admitted to the JCC that he wrote a sexually explicit poem about Eisenhour, described for her a dream in which she was washing dishes in the court's break room while naked from the waist up and that he had called and said he loved her after her father died.
Beaton said Storey did not admit to standing so close to Eisenhour while she worked that on several occasions his groin was against her thigh or the back of her head and neck.
Storey did not return phone calls made to his offices at the Weber County and Huntsville justice courts. Storey's attorney, Robert Echard, also did not return a call.
Eisenhour, who said she has worked with Storey for 24 years, said that in April 2007, while cleaning out the judge's office, she and
The poem, which refers to Eisenhour by name, talks about how Storey longs to have a relationship with her and calls it "torture" to have to remain "at arm's length when I want to hold you in my arms with all my might and strength."
The poem also makes sexual references about Eisenhour's body, and goes on to describe how Storey would like to remove her clothing and "behold [her] in the nude."
Eisenhour said she replaced the poem in Storey's desk and decided not mention it to him. But when the judge returned from a judge's conference, he handed Eisenhour the pad of paper containing the poem and asked her to file it, she said, apparently wanting her to read it.
Then, in January 2008, after Eisenhour's husband called the judge and confided that he and Marcia Eisenhour were getting a divorce, the judge initiated a conversation with Eisenhour about her personal problems and said he felt bad she had not come to him with them.
After finding out Eisenhour was getting a divorce, Storey started acting "differently," she told The Tribune .
She said the judge touched her with his groin in March 2008. He told her about the dream in which she was naked in April 2008.
And in May 2008, the judge accused Eisenhour of doing illegal drugs and being a bad employee, and he told other court employees about those accusations, Eisenhour said.
In early July 2008, the judge told Eisenhour she would have to get his permission to take vacation time, as well as tell him where she was going and with who she was going, Eisenhour said.
"That was the last straw," she said.
On July 10, 2008, Eisenhour spoke to Deputy Weber County Attorney Craig Allred, who launched an investigation, according to documents provided to The Tribune .
Even though the judge allegedly made admissions to county investigators, Eisenhour said she was told that because the judge was an elected official, they could take no direct action against him.
She said Weber County Attorney Mark DeCaria asked the Utah Attorney General's Office to take the case, but they declined to act.
Instead, Eisenhour was placed on paid administrative leave from August to December 2008, when county officials told her to return to work and that they had a "plan" to make her feel comfortable.
Storey's office was moved from the first floor to the third floor, the judge was told to stay away from Eisenhour and an employee was designated as a liaison to relay Eisenhour's communication to the judge.
But meanwhile, Eisenhour claims, the judge had "cried on the shoulders" of most of the other court employees and turned many of them against Eisenhour.
"I went from the frying pan into the fire," Eisenhour said. "I was in a bad situation trying to hold this in. Now, there is a hostile work environment with the other clerks, and the judge is very angry."
Beaton said they are seeking authorization to sue Weber County through the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which can award damages to cover Eisenhour's stress-related problems, which include migraine headaches and panic attacks.
Eisenhour decided to go public after the JCC cut a deal with Storey, declining to hear from about eight witnesses, including Eisenhour, who were ready to testify on Tuesday.
"I couldn't believe nothing was done," Eisenhour said.
Beaton says Eisenhour has no choice but to return to work. She needs the income to support her three children, as well as the medical insurance and the full retirement benefits that will be available in six years.
"I feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter," Eisenhour said. "I got caught up in a good old boys' network."
