DOJ Finds Misconduct by Alaska Prosecutor Who Sexted Ex-Judge

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that an Alaska federal prosecutor who sent nude photos to disgraced former Judge Joshua Kindred committed “intentional professional misconduct” when she kept arguing cases in his courtroom.

Assistant US Attorney Karen Vandergaw, who has said she felt coerced into sending Kindred the explicit photographs over a months-long period, violated professional conduct rules by concealing her relationship with the judge and continuing to prosecute cases “despite a conflict of interest and without obtaining her client’s informed consent,” OPR said in a summary of its findings, released last month.

The professional responsibility office, which investigates alleged misconduct by Justice Department employees, also found Vandergaw intentionally misrepresented her relationship with the judge to both that office and to judicial investigators and assisted the judge in violating the judicial code of conduct.

The decision doesn’t name the assistant US attorney or judge involved, but the facts of the misconduct match the interactions between Kindred and Vandergaw. Alaska defense lawyers have also cited the OPR finding to raise conflicts of interest claims in at least one of Kindred’s past cases.

The office’s decision was published eight months after the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council released its findings in July that Kindred, a Trump appointee, had sexually harassed his former law clerk, created a hostile work environment for other employees, and had inappropriate relationships with female lawyers who appeared before him. The former clerk later worked with Vandergaw at the Alaska US attorney’s office.

Kindred resigned, and the judiciary referred him to the House of Representatives for impeachment, though House Republicans didn’t take up the matter. In January, the Alaska Bar Association filed a petition for formal hearing seeking Kindred’s disbarment, according to the Alaska Bar discipline system website.

Kindred’s actions also prompted requests by Alaska defense lawyers for new trials based on possible conflicts of interest. At least two criminal convictions have been vacated over the conflict.

Vandergaw later said in a court filing she sent the explicit photos after “feeling pressured to appease Judge Kindred given his inherent position of power and authority over me as a federal judge, his ability to influence decisions in the US Attorney’s Office, and his influence over my future.”

The professional responsibility office’s findings were cited Wednesday by federal defenders in a criminal case in Alaska federal court against a former nurse practitioner, who is requesting a new trial and she was sentenced by Kindred in 2023 to 30 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids.

In that case, the defense lawyer asked the judge to order production of call records and text messages between Vandergaw and Kindred.

The Alaska US attorney’s office notified the federal defenders on March 21 that Vandergaw was put on administrative leave, according to the filing. An email seeking comment from Vandergaw returned an “out of office” reply.

OPR noted that it had previously opened and closed an earlier inquiry into interactions between Vandergaw and Kindred after Vandergaw denied the relationship. The office reopened the inquiry after the judicial council released its report, in which Kindred also admitted that he’d received nude photographs from a senior prosecutor.

OPR referred its March misconduct findings to the Professional Misconduct Review Unit, the decision said.