Former Windham County Assistant Judge Patricia Duff has been barred from running for any public office after admitting to stealing public funds amid an administrative investigation. She is already on probation after pleading guilty to a felony crime of grand larceny.
The Vermont Judicial Conduct Board on Friday publicly sanctioned Duff for violating the state’s code of judicial conduct. The board said she violated the law, eroded public confidence in the judiciary and abused the prestige of judicial office for personal and economic interests.
Duff, 61, of Newfane, was first elected as a Windham County assistant judge in 2006. She resigned in June 2022, shortly after judiciary officials received complaints against her conduct.
Duff acknowledged collecting thousands of dollars based on falsified work hours and pocketing additional money intended for judicial training, according to the settlement stipulation in her administrative case.
Specifically, Duff admitted overreporting the hours she’d worked on court cases between February and June 2022, thus collecting from the county $8,500 to which she was not entitled. Information from her criminal case shows she had claimed payment for 352 court hours she never worked.
She also admitted to taking $4,800 that had been meant to cover her attendance and travel costs for a judicial conference last year. Duff did not attend the National Judges Association meeting in South Carolina, according to the judicial board complaint, yet she returned only $700 of the $5,500 that the Windham County treasurer gave her for the trip.
As a result of her conduct, the board prohibited her from running for any elected office, “either political or judicial, or otherwise,” her public sanction states. The board also prohibited her from having any further role in the judicial process, whether directly or indirectly, such as serving as an employee or even as a volunteer.
The stipulation noted that the judiciary has no record of prior ethical misconduct by Duff.
The judicial conduct board said it began investigating Duff after the Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, Paul Reiber, received an anonymous letter expressing concerns about her possible “lack of judicial and bench service.”
The board said fellow Windham County Assistant Judge Lamont Barnett also told judiciary officials Duff had falsified time sheets and was paid for court work she didn’t do.
In June, a Superior Court judge in Bennington County placed Duff on probation after she pleaded guilty to a felony charge of grand larceny. In exchange for her guilty plea, her sentencing was deferred for three years — during which would be on probation.
State prosecutors also asked the court to order Duff to repay Windham County for the money she took. Duff did not oppose the request.
Assistant judges are leaders of Vermont’s county government system. Each county has two independently elected assistant judges who are responsible for administering the county budget and other county government business.
Assistant judges also serve as finders of fact in civil and family court cases, alongside the presiding superior court judge, and so are also called “side judges.” The cases they handle include small claims and traffic tickets.
Officials said that in addition to Duff’s hourly pay of $24.20 for hearing court cases, she received a monthly salary of $1,700 for her county administrative job.
