MADISON, Wis. – The Social Security judge accused of sexual harassment and deciding disability claims on how attractive he thought the claimant before him was, once demanded the construction of $65,000 expanded bathrooms at the expense of his fellow Madison office staff members.
Administrative Law Judge John Pleuss pestered Social Security Administration Region 5 officials to build the expanded bathrooms for administrative law judges even as case workers and other staff members in the Madison Office of Disability Adjudication and Review missed out on annual bonuses because of the 2013 federal budget sequestration, according to emails obtained by Wisconsin Watchdog.
“Also, I have it on good authority that there will be no bonuses for any of the staff members this year,” wrote Madison Administrative Law Judge Joseph Jacobson in a May, 15, 2013, email to his colleagues.
“I think there will be some hard feelings if they don’t get bonuses yet the judges get to build their bathrooms,” Jacobson added, in an email arguing against Pleuss’ seemingly relentless campaign for the expanded ALJ bathrooms.
Indeed there were lots of hard feelings from staff members who were not only squeezed out of bonuses but literally squeezed out of needed space because of Pleuss’ bathroom obsession.
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