NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court on Thursday removed an East Baton Rouge Parish judge from the bench, finding that she lied to voters while running for office in 2020 and to police as they investigated a car burglary earlier that year.

The justices voted 4-3 to remove Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts from the 19th Judicial District bench and bar her from seeking office for five years. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Weimer said the former judge's misconduct "is serious and not isolated. She displayed a pattern of dishonesty."

In addition to her removal, Foxworth-Roberts must pay the commission $9,449.83 to cover the cost of the probe.

At a hearing in October, a lawyer for the Louisiana Judiciary Commission had said Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts could have likely avoided serious sanctions if she had been truthful while investigators looked into the complaints. Instead, the lawyer said, she took part in a "pervasive pattern" of lying throughout the probe.

Weimer wrote Thursday that Foxworth-Roberts neither acknowledged nor understood her wrongdoing.

Foxworth-Roberts' lawyer, Steve Irving, said the judge was under a lot of stress during the 2020 campaign. Her mother was fighting cancer, and the world was struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Irving also said the judge was confused by compound questions.

A lawyer for the judicial commission had said the case should have never come to this.

"We shouldn't have to teach a judge to be honest," Michelle Andrina Beaty-Gullage said.

According to the disciplinary investigators, Foxworth-Roberts claimed in campaign materials that she was an Army captain, while in fact she failed to reach the rank twice and was required to leave military service as a 1st Lieutenant. She said she served her country for 13 years, "as both enlisted soldier and Commissioned Officer during Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars."

"Respondent did not serve in any capacity during Operation Desert Storm, which took place in 1991, when she was only 16 years old," Weimer wrote. Embellishing her credentials "amounts to 'stolen valor.'" 

Irving argued that the now-former judge could claim the service because she later served troops while they were demobilizing. However, Justice Jay McCallum challenged him.

"Is it your logical proposition that if a naval or Army surgeon today performed surgery on a Korean War veteran, that he served in the Korean War?" he asked.

Foxworth-Roberts began a full six-year term in office Jan. 1, 2021, and the Judiciary Commission received a complaint within five months.

"Although she is still a relatively new judge, it does not take an experienced jurist to know that honesty is essential to being a judge," Weimer wrote. "It is also a vital attribute of a nurse, attorney, and Army officer, which were [her] professions prior to her election to the bench."

Investigators also said Foxworth-Roberts misled police officers investigating a burglary, saying her car was in her driveway when it was actually several miles away at the time of the crime. Investigators said she told police she didn't file a claim on her car insurance, but failed to say she filed a claim against her homeowner's policy.

Previously, the Supreme Court suspended 19th Judicial District Judge Eboni Johnson-Rose for her misapplying the law in significant cases. Johnson-Rose has since returned to the bench.

Justice John Michael Guidry said that, in that case, Johnson-Rose acknowledged making mistakes and negotiated her punishment. In Foxworth-Roberts' case, no pre-hearing settlement was reached.

The majority included Justice Will Crain, who was confirmed this week as a federal judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Had justices delayed their vote and Crain not been available, a 3-3 vote wouldn't have been enough for removal.

McCallum, in a concurring opinion, said justices searched for a less-severe penalty but "judicial canons have left no room for any lesser sanction." He said the ex-judge's actions during the investigation were worse than the initial allegations themselves.

Justices Piper Griffin and John Michael Guidry recommended a suspension without pay for the remainder of Foxworth-Roberts' term, which expires in December 2026. Griffin said the decision "disrupts the public's choice for service in the judiciary." She noted none of the allegations involved decisions Foxworth-Roberts made from the bench.

The full decision can be read here.