Mercer Municipal Judge Inappropriately Touched Clerk, Complaint Alleges

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — The Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct filed a formal complaint against a part-time judge serving Mercer County after he was accused of inappropriately touching a clerk.

R. Douglas Hoffman serves as a part-time judge at the municipal court in Robbinsville, where he was first appointed in 2010. He also serves as judge in five other municipalities – New Hanover, Wrightstown, Mansfield, Springfield and Southhampton.

The complaint, filed on Monday, alleges that Hoffman violated the code of conduct by drinking alcohol with a subordinate employee and touching her without consent.

The woman, identified only by her initials, began working as a violation clerk at the Robbinsville Township Municipal Court on April 2021.

Soon, the woman and Hoffman became Facebook friends. Hoffman often “liked” the woman’s Facebook posts "exchanged jokes, comments, and photos, some with sexual innuendo, and discussed weekend plans,” according to the complaint.

He later extended an invitation for her to visit his beach house and gave her his cellphone number after which they began texting, the complaint said.

On Oct. 15, 2022 the woman asked Hoffman if she could visit his beach house and he said she could, according to the complaint. The woman arrived at the house around 11:30 a.m. and Hoffman gave her a tour of the house.

They consumed alcohol over the next four hours and at one point were sitting within arm's length of each other on the couch watching a baseball game on the woman’s phone, the complaint said.

While seated on the couch, Hoffman asked the woman questions about her intimate relation with her boyfriend and touched her knee and upper thigh, without her consent, that made her uncomfortable, the complaint alleges.

The woman then left the house without her car keys and called her mother for a ride home, where she recounted the incident to her mother, the complaint said.

She immediately called her supervisor at the Robbinsville Township Municipal Court and reported what had occurred, the complaint said.

On Oct. 17 she met with the court administrator, a representative from Human Resources, and the business administrator to report the incident, authorities said.

The Advisory Committee said Hoffman’s alleged conduct violated multiple cannons of the code of conduct, including one that “requires judges to conduct their extrajudicial activities in a manner that would not demean the judicial office.”

The township is yet to respond to Patch’s request for comment.

Have a correction or news tip? Email sarah.salvadore@patch.com