State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janet DiFiore reportedly was facing an ethics investigation when she announced yesterday that she will retire at the end of next month.
That's according to the legal news service Law360, citing documents and an unnamed source.
The report says the state Commission on Judicial Conduct has been examining whether DiFiore improperly interfered in a disciplinary hearing involving Dennis Quirk -- the president of the state’s court officers union.
Quirk has been a critic of DiFiore and reportedly faced discipline for threatening to post copies of an old newspaper story at court buildings about an alleged affair involving DiFiore.
Law360 reports DiFiore wrote a letter to the hearing officer last year requesting Quirk be punished.