The Legal Reader

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A former judge admitted Tuesday taking thousands of dollars in loans from lawyers to help pay gambling debts and giving some of her creditors preferential treatment in court.

Deborah A. Neal, 54, who resigned as a municipal judge in Kansas City last year, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud for failing to include the loans in an annual income report judges must send to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Neal admitted taking loans totaling more than $28,000 from lawyers and a company that wrote appearance bonds. Some attorneys felt compelled to make the loans out of fear of harm to themselves or their clients, U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said.

Prosecutors said Neal once acquitted an attorney charged with an ordinance violation and later sought a $5,000 loan from that attorney, then did not pay it back.

In 2000, she dismissed about 41 traffic citations that had been issued to another attorney, without the consent of a prosecutor, according to federal records.

Neal, a judge since 1996, took a paid leave of absence in August. She was hospitalized for depression and later resigned.

Details here from the AP via the Washington Post.

And The Kansas City Star reports: Lawyers who made loans to judge could face criminal, ethics charges