HARTFORD, Conn. — The state Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered an unprecedented investigation that could lead to the removal or suspension of Superior Court Judge Alice Bruno, who has collected as much as $400,000 in salary while missing nearly 2 1/2 years of work for what she describes as health-related reasons.
The justices appointed Robert Devlin, the retired judge and federal prosecutor recently appointed as the state’s new Inspector General, to direct the investigation. He is given broad powers, including the authority to collect all of Bruno’s personnel and health records and order her to submit to further medical examinations, the ruling says. The order also requires all judges and judicial branch employees to cooperate with Devlin, something one judge called “significant and unprecedented.”
Bruno, 66, has been involved in a strange standoff for more than three years with the judges of the state judicial branch over her attendance and performance at work. The branch contends her prolonged absence while collecting a salary violates the code of judicial conduct by, among other things, undermining public confidence in the judiciary. She claims she has become incapacitated by an undisclosed health condition that has been aggravated by years of antagonism by senior administrators in the court system.
