Michael Hecht

Pierce County, Washington has a new judge but he’s probably going to be playing a lot of Sudoku.

Michael Hecht is going to have a fair amount of free time on the bench.

The News Tribune says county prosecutors refuse to try criminal or civil cases in front of Hecht and he’s unlikely to get any juvie cases.

“We’ll try to assign him something else to do,” said Superior Court Judge Brian Chushcoff, who assigns cases. “We’re gonna try to at least keep him busy – I think the taxpayers expect that.”

So what problem do the prosecutors have with the new judge? He faces allegations that he patronized prostitutes and recently threatened one of them – a 24-year-old man. Tacoma police are investigating.

Hecht denies any criminal activity, although even the guy who says Hecht didn’t threaten anyone acknowledges he paid him for sex.

Hecht’s attorney says the allegations are politically motivated, first raised by supporters of Sergio Armijo, whom Hecht defeated in last summer’s election.

The initial allegations against Hecht stemmed from statements by two men who say Hecht paid them for sex. A third man, Joseph Robert Pfeiffer, said Hecht paid him for sex eight to 10 times over the past two years, always in Hecht’s law office.

But speaking to the News Tribune, Pfeiffer, 20, and in jail for other stuff, refuted the claim that Hecht threatened one of the men.

Pfeiffer knew Hecht’s phone number from memory and said he met the judge at Tacoma’s Antique Row. Sometimes he’d buy him a burger. Sometimes he’d take him back to his office for sex. The first time, Pfeiffer said, Hecht asked and paid afterward. After that, “It was understood,” Pfeiffer said. “At first he would ask, then he didn’t have to ask anymore. Then he would just set up a time. After that it was me calling him.”

“When I was homeless, it was just kind of my way to get by,” he said.

As for the guy Hecht allegedly threatened, that’s Joseph John Hesketh IV, 24, who told police that Hecht paid him for sex multiple times in the late 1990s.

By Kinky Moments math, that would have made Hesketh a young teenager at the time, which could end up being a bigger problem than the alleged threat.

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