Pierce County prosecutors filed two felony charges Tuesday against one of the state’s chief witnesses in the criminal case against Superior Court Judge Michael Hecht.
Joseph John Hesketh IV, 25, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to one count each of residential burglary and first-degree trafficking in stolen property.
Prosecutors allege in charging documents that Hesketh broke into his mother’s home May 21 and stole music CDs belonging to her boyfriend. They further contend he sold eight of the CDs to a used music shop in downtown Tacoma.
His mother and her boyfriend told investigators Hesketh is addicted to heroin and has broken into their house before, according to charging documents.
When interviewed by a detective, Hesketh first claimed the CDs were his. He later admitted they did not belong to him but said his mother’s boyfriend had told him they “were garbage,” the documents state.
Police arrested Hesketh, who has a misdemeanor criminal history, Monday and booked him into the Pierce County Jail. Judge Frederick Fleming ordered Hesketh jailed in lieu of $15,000 bail despite a request from his father that his son be released on his own recognizance.
Hesketh is the admitted drug addict who claims Hecht threatened to kill him last summer during a confrontation in downtown Tacoma.
The state Attorney General’s Office has charged Hecht with felony harassment in the case.
State prosecutors contend the judge threatened Hesketh because he’d heard the younger man was talking about selling sex to him, according to court documents filed by assistant attorney general John Hillman.
Hecht has pleaded not guilty to threatening Hesketh and to a separate misdemeanor charge alleging he purchased sex from another young man. The judge is to go to trial in September.
The state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct also has charged Hecht with violating judicial canons by allegedly directing “threatening behavior” toward Hesketh after the judge came to believe he was “talking to others about respondent’s conduct with young male prostitutes.”
In a response to the commission’s charges, Hecht admitted he confronted Hesketh last summer after hearing Hesketh had been talking about him, but “I made no threats.”
A hearing before the commission is expected some time after the criminal matter against Hecht is resolved.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime
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