Judge Apologizes in Boston Fiasco

By: (AP) A state judge apologized Wednesday for using court stationery to demand $3.2 million from the Boston Herald's publisher to avoid continued court wrangling over a libel case.

The apology came a day after the newspaper's lawyer filed a motion to vacate a jury's $2.1 million libel award for Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy, saying the judge had written threatening and intimidating letters demanding more money.

A jury in February found that the newspaper libeled Murphy in articles that portrayed him as lenient toward defendants and quoted him making insensitive comments about a 14-year-old rape victim.

Murphy said Wednesday he did not know that state law prohibited him from using court stationery to correspond about the case.

"In any event, I hereby publically (sic) and unqualifiedly apologize for the use of my Superior Court stationary (sic) to have written a personal letter ..." Murphy wrote in a letter sent to the Herald's rival, The Boston Globe.

The first letter, on court stationery, was written shortly after the jury's verdict and demanded a private meeting with Herald publisher Patrick J. Purcell.

"You will bring to that meeting a cashiers check, payable to me, in the sum of $3,260,000," says the letter, dated three days after the jury awarded the judge the $2.1 million. "No check, no meeting."

A separate, single page postscript warned Purcell that telling anyone about the letter would be "a BIG mistake."

A spokeswoman for the state Commission on Judicial Conduct would not discuss the issue involving Murphy and would not say whether a complaint was pending.

"There is no question in my mind whatsoever that it is improper for a sitting judge to use their stationery for personal business," said retired Superior Court Judge Robert A. Barton, who served five years on the conduct commission.

Murphy's lawyer, Howard Cooper, defended the judge's use of court stationery, saying that he was libeled and sued in his official capacity as a judge.