Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts wheeled out an impressive military record as she fought through a tough race in 2020 for a state judgeship in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Newspaper ads billed her as an accomplished veteran who had risen to the rank of captain in the U.S. Army, having served in three wars: Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan.
But those were lies, according to the Louisiana Judiciary Commission, which alleges that Foxworth-Roberts violated a host of ethical rules in winning her seat on the 19th Judicial District Court bench.
In records made public last week, the commission claims Foxworth-Roberts lied on the campaign trail and to the commission, while also trying to stymie its efforts to determine her true military history.
The commission received those military records in April. They show that Foxworth-Roberts was just 16 during Operation Desert Storm, did not serve in the military in any capacity during that time, never became a captain, and never deployed for combat.
And while she later became a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve, her honorable discharge in 2010 was “as a result of being twice nonselected for promotion to the rank of captain,” according to the Judiciary Commission.
“Your campaign ad claiming to be a veteran of three wars gave a false impression that you served in combat areas overseas,” the commission alleges.
Foxworth-Roberts is due to answer the allegations at a hearing scheduled for October. Both Foxworth-Roberts and her attorney, Clare Roubion, declined to comment Tuesday.
The Judiciary Commission can recommend discipline for judges to the Louisiana Supreme Court, from public censure up to removal from the bench.
In written responses to the commission, Foxworth-Roberts admitted she was not enlisted during Desert Storm, never deployed overseas or served in active combat, and wasn’t a captain.
Those responses contradicted multiple print ads in the Central City News during her campaign. The ads described her as a “proud U.S. Army Captain and Veteran of Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan Wars (enlisted as a private E-1 and rose to Captain).”
Foxworth-Roberts and the Judiciary Commission have tussled over the particulars of her campaign claims, however, most notably her work at the prominent Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland from 1993 to 1996.
Foxworth-Roberts said she provided medical care to soldiers who served in combat, including those treated for Gulf War Syndrome. By doing so, she could be said to have played a supporting, post-war role, her attorneys argue.
“There are many wounded soldiers who will verify that for them the war is not over because they must live with the consequences every day,” they wrote.
“The Special Counsel's view of what constitutes service is artificially restrictive and arbitrary and denigrates Judge Foxworth-Roberts’ 13 years of military service providing medical care to soldiers and their families.”
The Judiciary Commission said her military records reveal otherwise.
Foxworth-Roberts had not gone through nursing school yet when she worked at Walter Reed. There, her primary speciality was as a laboratory specialist, collecting and processing blood, the commission found.
She repeatedly rebuffed efforts from the Office of Special Counsel – which investigates judicial misconduct – to obtain her full military records, according to the commission. Once it received them on its own, the commission filed new misconduct charges against her.
The new allegations cite “this highly relevant factual information about (her) military service and her egregious false claims about said service in her judicial campaign and in her written responses and sworn statement.”
Foxworth-Roberts repeatedly claimed to have served during three wars
The 2020 campaign for the open Division “M” seat on the 19th JDC bench was contentious.
Four Democrats, including Foxworth-Roberts, vied to replace Republican Judge Beau Higginbotham.
Foxworth-Roberts won a runoff by 27 votes, then returned to the ballot a few months later seeking a full, six-year term. She won again, with 55% of the vote.
Throughout her campaigns, she advertised herself as an “attorney, registered nurse and Army veteran,” appealing to conservatives by also describing herself as “pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, and pro-law enforcement,” according to the Central City News.
The newspaper endorsed her. Woody Jenkins, the newspaper’s editor, said by phone Tuesday that they prepared the advertisement based on their “our understanding of the facts” and that the newspaper was more responsible for the exact language than Foxworth-Roberts herself.
Jenkins, who said he was interviewed during the Judiciary Commission case, said he found it to be overblown.
“From the standpoint of the readers, the only thing people were interested in was that she was a veteran, and she was,” Jenkins said. “That’s the significant part.”
Aside from Jenkins’ publication, Foxworth-Roberts said in a social media campaign ad that she “served our country for 13 years in the U.S. Army, as both an enlisted soldier and Commissioned Officer during Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan wars.”
She wore military attire in some ads. In one video, she wore an Army patrol cap while handing out food and supplies during the pandemic.
“I am no stranger to being on the front lines during the call of duty,” Foxworth-Roberts said in the video.
The U.S. lifted bans on women serving in combat roles in 2015 — five years after her discharge.
In this screenshot from one of Judge Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts' campaign videos, she is distributing supplies while wearing an Army patrol cap. The Louisiana Judiciary Commission says Foxworth-Roberts has misrepresented her past military service by saying she served during Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. They said she never deployed overseas and was 16 years old during Desert Storm.
The Judiciary Commission also took issue with a 2020 speech she gave in Baker, in which Foxworth-Roberts called herself “a working veteran” and repeated her claim of serving “through three wars.”
Her lawyers have said she did serve “during” Iraq and Afghanistan and that she did not pay for the Central City News endorsement or get the chance to review the ads before publication.
They also say she has cooperated with the Office of Special Counsel’s investigation, submitting documents and voluntarily participating in a four-hour sworn statement and coordinating her husband’s participation in a sworn statement as well.
But her lawyers said she objected to a broad request from the Judiciary Commission for her military records.
“Judge Foxworth-Roberts suffered severe sexual, physical, mental, emotional, and psychological trauma during her military service, which she did not want disclosed,” her attorneys said in court filings. “She desired to maintain her privacy rights relative to anguish she encountered.”
Judge faced sanctions from campaign oversight committee, nursing board
Foxworth-Roberts has previously faced questions from oversight boards as both an attorney and as a nurse.
During the same race that has drawn the commission’s attention, her campaign ran advertisements calling her “The People’s Judge.”
The Louisiana Judicial Campaign Oversight Committee found that by referring to herself as “the peoples’ judge,” she misrepresented her identity by implying she was already a judge.
Foxworth-Roberts also faced sanctions from the Louisiana State Board of Nursing in 2004. Their records show she was found to have failed to comply with continuing education or competency requirements, and that she was practicing without a valid license.
Car burglary, insurance claim for diamond ring questioned
The Judiciary Commission has also questioned a car burglary that Foxworth-Roberts reported while she was on the campaign trail.
Foxworth-Roberts said burglars stole thousands of dollars’ worth of luxuries from her car in February 2020 in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood. But she moved her car several miles away to her house before she reported the crime, according to court filings.
When she called police, she did not tell them her car was burglarized several miles away, and when police showed up at her home, she said the break-in had occurred while her car was parked “like this,” in her driveway. The Judiciary Commission reviewed police body camera footage of the encounter.
“Despite the officer’s suggestion that your neighbors could be asked if they had cameras operating during the timeframe of the burglary, you made no effort to clarify that the break-in occurred several miles away,” the court documents say.
Foxworth-Roberts’ lawyers said in response that she acknowledged how law enforcement “could have been left with the impression that her vehicle was burglarized while parked on her driveway.” But they denied that she made false statements to the police.
The Judiciary Commission questioned why a criminal attorney would move a car from the scene of a crime, but Foxworth-Roberts’ attorneys said she did so for safety. They also said the burglary was one of two incidents of criminal activity directed at her campaign, and that the other involved “individuals armed with guns.”
Foxworth-Roberts told police that the burglars had stolen $3,000 in cash, a $3,500 Yves Saint Laurent purse with credit cards inside of it, a Macbook and a cosmetic bag containing $500 worth of makeup and $400 in cash. The next day, she followed up and also reported missing a Rolex watch, a $1,000 David Yurman bracelet, $500 shoes and more.
The commission said it received an anonymous complaint accusing Foxworth-Roberts of filing a false police report and false insurance claim about the burglary. The commission inquired about the incident in 2021, when Foxworth-Roberts initially told them she did not submit an insurance claim.
However, Foxworth-Roberts later acknowledged filing a homeowner’s insurance claim after the burglary, saying she filed it with her homeowner’s rather than car insurance because the stolen items were covered by that policy, regardless of her vehicle’s location.
The Judiciary Commission’s investigation later found that she filed two homeowner’s claims, including one for her diamond engagement ring, which she did not report to police.
“You have engaged in a serious pattern of providing misleading information, making false statements, evasiveness, and noncooperation throughout your campaigns for judicial office and your subsequent dealings with the Office of Special Counsel and the Judiciary Commission,” the court filings say.
