An Arkansas judge has been ordered by the state's top court to immediately be dismissed after he leaked confidential details about Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron's adoption of her son, according to court documents. The Arkansas Supreme Court also signed off on a lifetime ban that was agreed to by the circuit judge and the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission.
In January 2012, Faulkner County Circuit Judge Michael Maggio admitted posting details on "tigerdroppings.com," a Louisiana State University fan site, using the online name "geauxjudge," about Theron's closed-record adoption in 2012, according to documents that a judicial commission submitted to the state Supreme Court.
He wrote that his friend, another judge in the same court division where he served, was handling a single-parent adoption case involving Theron, and that she came to court wearing a "long brown wig, oversized clothes" so as not to be recognized, the commission's report says.
"I offered to be the baby daddy," Maggio wrote, according to New York Daily News. "Did she get herself a black baby? Yep," he continued.
The commission's report includes five pages of comments Maggio made in the social media forum on other cases, including statements on various aspects of gender, race and sexuality issues, eventually earning him ethical violations of at least 23 judicial codes, according to CNN.
The leaked details violated courtroom confidentiality standards, especially since Theron didn't confirm that she adopted a son, Jackson, until March 2012.
Since then, the Arkansas Supreme Court's disciplinary panel ordered him out of office and revoked his judicial powers, CNN reported. Maggio has admitted writing the posts, the state court said.
In March, Maggio issued a statement saying: "I take full responsibility for the comments that have been attributed to me. I apologize deeply for my lapse in personal judgment and for that, I have no excuse."
"The comments posted were not acceptable. These comments are not a reflection of who I am," the judge's statement said, according to CNN affiliate KATV.
A spokeswoman for Theron, who won an Academy Award for her role in the 2003 film "Monster," did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge's dismissal, NBC News reported.
