A now-former Alaska judge has been accused of lying to officials about his interactions with suspected sex workers — just weeks after retiring amid unrelated allegations that included arriving late for a court hearing because he was watching a sporting event on TV.
Romano DiBenedetto, 57, was the subject of a 2023 complaint to the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct about his “use of Facebook in a way that implied Facebook friendships with apparent female sex workers and was easily publicly viewable,” to a charging document filed last week.
When questioned about it, DiBenedetto, who was appointed to the bench in 2017 and retained by voters in 2020, allegedly acted surprised and denied any involvement.
“He agreed to take steps that would eliminate the problematic public posts that created the appearance of impropriety and would work with court staff to ensure that his personal Facebook page would conform with expected standards,” commission Chairperson Amy Mead wrote.
But in February, the commission was informed that an analyst with the state Department of Public Safety had recognized DiBenedetto’s name in connection with “two separate closed criminal investigations into sex trafficking” in 2021 and 2023, according to the charging document.
“As part of the electronic data collection in those investigations, the judge’s phone number appeared once in each investigation,” Mead wrote. “Each call was to a different victim of the sex trafficking operation and was brief, lasting about 20 seconds.”
Mead also alleged that in DiBenedetto’s response to the 2023 complaint, he “misrepresented his knowledge of why the posts were on his Facebook page with the intent to affect the Commission’s actions.”
“Based on those false statements and misrepresentations, the Commission closed that complaint file,” she wrote.
The filing charges DiBenedetto, who formerly presided over Superior Court cases in Nome, with violating three sections of Alaska law governing judges’ actions and four canons of the Alaska Judicial Code of Conduct.
A request for comment sent to DiBenedetto’s court system email address, which is still on file with the Alaska Bar Association, bounced back with a message saying his account was no longer active. DiBenedetto’s Anchorage-based lawyer, John Cashion, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
Last week’s filing came after DiBenedetto submitted a March 27 letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, posted online by radio station KNOM, in which he said he he would retire on April 1, adding, “It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve the citizens of Alaska.”
At the time, DiBenedetto was facing a public reprimand after agreeing to the commission’s findings that he showed up late to an after-hours court hearing in January 2024 because he’d been watching an unspecified “televised sporting event.”
In his official bio on the Alaska Court System website, DiBenedetto listed his personal interests as fitness, running, hiking and “talking sports of all sort.”
He also didn’t contest findings that had a habit of canceling, moving or delaying hearings on short notice for personal reasons, and had mocked witnessed who testified in his courtroom by imitating their “ethnic voices” in front of courthouse staffers.
But earlier this month, the commission asked Alaska’s Supreme Court to hold off on imposing DiBenedetto’s agreed-up reprimand, saying it had “recently become aware of new, previously unreported, facts that affect its recommendation for discipline in this matter.”
DiBenedetto has until May 18 to respond to the latest charges against him.
