Virginia M. Amato Admonished

King County District Court Judge Virginia Amato told a man at his arraignment that he was "setting yourself up to be Bubba's new best girlfriend at the state penitentiary" — even though the misdemeanor charges in front of her meant he could not legally be sentenced to state prison at all.

The man was appearing on charges of misdemeanor domestic-violence assault and resisting arrest, with no felony convictions on his record. Amato didn't stop at the one remark. She continued: "the folks at the penitentiary have mothers and sisters and nieces and cousins that they do not want someone out there abusing, and they will take that out on you" — then added, "That may hopefully give you a graphic image to think about. And if you think I'm kidding, I'm not."

The Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct found Amato violated the Code of Judicial Conduct's rules on maintaining the integrity of the judiciary and courtroom decorum. Under a signed stipulation dated June 24, 2022, the Commission admonished her — the least severe sanction it can issue — and ordered her to complete one hour of ethics training on appropriate courtroom conduct, which she completed by September 2023. The Commission characterized the remarks as an isolated, out-of-character incident rather than part of a pattern.

Threatening a defendant with prison rape from the bench is a real and documented ethics violation regardless of how the Commission chose to weigh it. That the man in front of her couldn't lawfully be sent to the facility she was describing makes the remark not a warning grounded in the actual legal stakes of his case, but a graphic threat with no basis in what she could legally do to him.