BRIGHTON (AP) — A former judge who was removed from office for unethical conduct was sentenced to six months in jail Friday for committing perjury during her divorce case.
“I struggle to convey to you my remorse and shame that I feel because of what I’ve done,” Theresa Brennan said. “It was ignorant, foolish and wrong. I’m devastated. I’ve lost my career and I am a felon.”
Brennan was a judge in Livingston County for 14 years until the Michigan Supreme Court removed her last June.
She was accused of many ethics violations in how she ran her office as well as for a relationship with a state police detective during a murder trial.
Separately, she pleaded guilty to perjury in December. Brennan was accused of lying during a deposition about erasing data from her iPhone shortly after her husband filed for divorce in 2016.
Defense attorney Britt Cobb asked for probation, but Judge Paul Cusick wasn’t swayed.
“Even though you required others to tell the truth, you decided to lie,” Cusick said Friday, a reference to Brennan’s work as a judge.
Tom Kizer, who represented Brennan’s former husband in the divorce, attended the court hearing.
“We all make mistakes, people do,” he said. “But when you wait until you get backed into a corner before you start to admit your own culpability, then we have less sympathy.”
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