Tennessee Judge Convicted of Sex Assaults Is Missing

The sordid saga of a Tennessee judge who sexually assaulted at least five women in his chambers has taken another strange twist, descending from a high-level dispute about the reach of federal law to a national manhunt for a criminal on the run.

Portly ex-judge David W. Lanier, who was freed by one federal court but sent back to prison by the U.S. Supreme Court, has disappeared.

This week, the U.S. Marshal’s Service issued a “Wanted” poster for his arrest.

“We know he’s been traveling in California and out West. We have some pretty good leads,” said Tommy Thompson, a deputy U.S. marshal in Memphis who is leading the search.

Lanier, 63, has been seen in Canada, Nevada and Florida in recent months--as well as in the small town of Dyersburg, Tenn., where he long reigned as a powerhouse figure.

The son of the county’s Democratic political boss and brother of the county district attorney, Lanier had been seen as virtually above the law until 1992.

After years of rumors about Lanier’s predatory behavior toward female employees and courthouse visitors, federal prosecutors in Memphis brought 11 charges of sexual assault, including two rapes, against him. His victims included court employees, job applicants, clerks and even a mother with a custody case before the judge. They testified he had pressed himself against them and grabbed them. Several said that he had exposed himself under his black robe and demanded oral sex.

On the witness stand, the jowly judge with the graying pompadour told jurors he had sex with several women but said they had all approached him.

“I have never forced myself on any woman at any time,” he said. “I’m a hugging-type person.”

The jurors apparently disagreed, convicting him on five counts. A trial judge gave him a 25-year prison term.

However, his conviction was overturned in 1995 by the U.S. appeals court based in Cincinnati, which ruled that there is “no general constitutional right to be free of sexual assaults.” Therefore, Lanier could not be charged with a federal crime for assaulting employees and female visitors while acting “under color of law.”

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed that opinion and sent the case back to be reconsidered by the appeals court.

The latest twist has again focused the victims’ anger on the federal appellate judges.

“They gave him his passport back knowing full well what would happen. Why did they think he wanted it back?,” said Sandy Sanders, a court employee in Dyersburg who testified against Lanier.

Nashville attorney Alfred Knight, who represented Lanier before the Supreme Court, says he has not spoken to him for months and has no idea where he is.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to comment on the case. It had given Lanier until Wednesday to report to federal authorities. When the deadline passed at 5 p.m., the court ordered all of his appeals dismissed.

For women’s rights groups, Lanier’s case gained national notoriety not only as a shocking example of judicial misconduct but also as an equally stunning example of official blindness to the problem of sexual assaults by powerful government officials.

Some of the federal judges who heard Lanier’s appeal made jokes from the bench about what crimes they could be charged with if they had been wearing their black robes at the time. One joked about whether the federal law would apply if a judge “beats the hell out of a . . . scalper for a ticket to the Reds game.”

Just a day after the oral argument, they ordered Lanier freed.

“This case has been an outrage at every stage of the process,” said M.C. Sungaila, an Encino attorney who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the California Women’s Law Center.

At first, Lanier acted with impunity because his brother was the local prosecutor. Officials in Nashville said state law did not give them the power to intervene.

While the FBI and U.S. prosecutors won convictions in Memphis, the U.S. appeals court for the region said they had no authority to bring such charges.

For its part, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with the 6th Circuit, but its opinion leaves the law hazy. The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 made it a federal crime for state officials, acting “under color of law,” to violate a person’s civil and constitutional rights. That law has been used against prison guards and police officers in brutality cases, such as the Rodney G. King beating case in Los Angeles.

But it remains unclear whether the law can be used in cases where the victims--such as the women sexually assaulted by Lanier--are not in official custody.

Now, neither the 6th Circuit Court nor the Supreme Court will issue a clear ruling on the question.

“In my opinion, they took the spineless way out,” said Sanders.

Despite the legal uncertainty, those who have followed the case closely expect Lanier will be apprehended soon.

“I don’t think he will surrender on his own, but I do think it’s just a matter of time,” said Sanders.

Thompson said his agents have spoken with several people who have seen Lanier, and he expressed confidence he will be captured soon.

“If not, we’ll go to ‘America’s Most Wanted,’ ” he said, referring to the national TV program that features fugitives.