Woodburn Independent Online

County judge resigns amidst investigation

Lynn Ashcroft says he’s done nothing wrong

• Published: 2/4/2010 10:08:54 AM
• Last Updated: 2/4/2010 10:11:11 AM

Courtesy of Oregon State Bar
Lynn Ashcroft

Marion County Circuit Court Judge Lynn E. Ashcroft resigned this week in the midst of a Department of Justice investigation.
 
“I hereby submit my unconditional resignation from the position of Circuit Court Judge for Marion County, Oregon, to be effective Feb. 2, 2010,” he wrote in a letter to the governor and Supreme Court chief justice.
 
Ashcroft stopped serving on the bench Jan. 27.
 
County and state officials have not named the agency conducting the investigation or released any details about the nature of the allegations. But Ashcroft told the Statesman Journal he had been contacted by Department of Justice investigators about allegations related to a woman who appeared before him in annex court in May 2008.
 
The women reportedly met Ashcroft six years ago, although Ashcroft told the Statesman Journal he did not remember her. In the 2008 incident, Ashcroft denied her court-appointed counsel and made an unsympathetic remark. The woman’s boyfriend recently had contact with Department of Justice investigators, allegedly through a drug investigation, and told investigators he had a tip regarding Ashcroft, the Statesman Journal reported.
 
Ashcroft told the Statesman Journal he resigned to avoid having to launch a public defense: “I didn’t resign because I did something wrong ... I resigned because it was the honorable thing to do.”
 
Ashcroft was appointed to the judgeship in June 2008 after the retirement of Judge Terry Leggert. He was then elected to the position, with a term set to expire Jan. 7, 2013.

The position can be filled either through an appointment by the governor or by election. In the meantime, judges from other counties are handling Ashcroft’s caseload.
 
Ashcroft graduated from University of the Pacific in 1979 with a law degree and worked in private practice for about 20 years before becoming a pro-tem judge. He has been a member of the Oregon State Bar since 1979. A member of the military, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and commanding general for the Oregon State Defense Force in 2004. He is also owner of a custom motorcycle design and fabrication shop, Ashcroft Motorcycles, in Salem.

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