U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington appeared to have urinated on himself after crashing his wife’s Cadillac last fall and is accused of repeatedly lying to Michigan State Police troopers about whether he drank alcohol and failing field sobriety tests before registering a 0.27 blood-alcohol level ― high enough to be considered legally “super drunk,” state police records show.
“A, B, C, D, E, F, U,” Ludington, 72, said when asked to recite part of the alphabet during one sobriety test, according to body camera footage from the incident obtained by The Detroit News through a public records request.
The footage shows a belligerent judge slurring words, failing to follow orders and calling one trooper a “stupid son of a b—-.” The video and a police report detail a rare criminal case against a federal judge in Bay City who was appointed for life to handle criminal and civil cases for a large portion of the eastern half of Michigan.
During the Oct. 3 arrest, Ludington volunteered that he was a federal judge before being handcuffed on the side of the road in Northern Michigan. The stop was prompted by a witness who called 911 after watching the Republican-nominated judge crash into two signs along a curved road in Springvale Township, east of Petoskey.
The records and video from a trooper’s body camera emerged Friday, three weeks after The News exclusively reported that Ludington crashed his wife’s black Cadillac car near his $2.7 million vacation home in northern Michigan last fall, and that he has continued hearing cases for four months since.
The video shows Ludington inside the crashed Cadillac, his face obscured by airbags that deployed during the accident.
The trooper asks Ludington if he can exit the vehicle.
“I explained to Ludington that he had obviously been in a crash and he appeared to have urinated himself,” a trooper wrote in the police report.
“I’m not exactly sure why, uh, these deployed,” Ludington tells one trooper as he emerges from behind the airbags.
“You’re not sure why?” the trooper says. “Ok, well, the side of your car would indicate you struck something.
“Tom, how much have you had to drink today?” the trooper adds.
“Um, nothing tonight,” Ludington said before crossing his arms.
“I want you to be honest with me,” the trooper says. “Tell me how much you had to drink today.”
“Seriously, I don’t think I had anything,” Ludington said.
A subsequent blood test showed a 0.27 blood alcohol content, records show.
“So, what the hell are you doing?” the judge says while being handcuffed.
“I’m arresting you for operating under the influence, sir,” the trooper says. “You are very clearly intoxicated. I’ve got the odor of alcohol coming from you even though you say that you haven’t had anything to drink today. You were involved in a motor vehicle accident, you’re unable to follow simple instructions or take any of the tests that I’m offering you here.”
As he sits down in a state police SUV, Ludington had another question.
“Where are we going?” he asks.
“We’re going to jail, OK?” the trooper says.
“Stupid son of a b—-,” the judge says.
Ludington’s lawyer, Jonathan Steffy, did not respond immediately to a request for comment Friday.
A federal court spokesman, meanwhile, declined comment on Ludington’s current job status but the judge was signing court orders as recently as Wednesday.
Ludington was charged with operating while intoxicated and operating with a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 or more and released after posting $500 bond. In Michigan, it is illegal to drive with a blood-alcohol content of .08 or higher and the state considers 0.17 or higher as super drunk.
The super drunk crime is a misdemeanor but carries stiffer penalties of up to 180 days in jail and a one-year license suspension.
Ludington has a status conference in the case April 6. A trial is set for May 8.
Nominated by Republican President George W. Bush and commissioned to the lifetime appointment in 2006, Ludington handles civil and criminal cases at federal court in Bay City. He has a reputation for being one of the most courteous judges among the federal jurists in the eastern half of Michigan — but arguably the toughest when it comes to sentencing and treating convicted criminals.
Ludington drew attention during the first few years of the COVID-19 pandemic for rejecting requests from all of the more than 40 inmates who sought compassionate release as Federal Bureau of Prisons officials struggled to contain the spread of the virus.
The judge has handled high-profile cases in recent years, most notably the prosecution of a group of wealthy businessmen convicted of cheating Michigan taxpayers out of “a staggering amount of money.” In late November, more than a month after the car crash, Ludington sentenced three businessmen from state contractor Surveying Solutions Inc. to one year in federal prison for their roles in the $15.6 million scandal.
rsnell@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: ‘Super drunk’ judge Tom Ludington belligerent, slurring, video shows
Reporting by Robert Snell, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
