Chicago Judge Accused of Sexual Harassment, Trying to Kiss a Cop

Cook County Judge Mauricio Araujo has a history of inappropriate and unwanted sexual advances toward the women working around him.

Araujo made sexual advances toward a police officer seeking his signature on a search warrant, cornered a court reporter in an elevator and made demeaning remarks about a prosecutor, state judicial authorities charged in a complaint, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

The court reporter said that in the spring of 2012, Araujo approached her in an elevator at the Domestic Violence court building and asked her “how much money” she wanted to have sex with him – twice in the same month.

When the court reporter told Araujo that she had a boyfriend, the judge said that “did not matter.” When she told him she knew Araujo was married, he said, “It’s OK,” the Sun-Times reported.

The court reporter then did her best to avoid Araujo by taking the stairs instead of the elevator but never filed a complaint, fearing it would hurt her career.

Then in 2016, Araujo rushed a female police officer who had come to get his approval on a search warrant and tried to kiss her on the mouth and grabbed her and asked her to touch his butt.

But apparently, not even that is enough to get you fired.

After a female assistant state’s attorney complained about his behavior last fall, instead of being fired, he was reassigned from his courtroom duties to “administrative duties”.

The complaint against Araujo cites numerous complaints about his behavior from 2012 to 2018. Instead of removing him, he was allowed to stay near his victims, although at least he wasn’t in as much of a position of authority.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly, Araujo was also questioned by the FBI investigating a Chicago police unit led by two officers now under federal indictment for allegedly stealing money from an FBI informant.

A Sun-Times review of data showed Araujo signed off on 82 search warrants issued to the team run by Elizondo — nearly four times more signatures than the unit got from any other judge.

Related

Trending Now

Follow us

Most Popular

Join Our Newsletter

Get the top workplace fairness news delivered straight to your inbox