A Detroit judge has put himself in the hot seat after sending a racy self-portrait to a woman who works under him.
According to Fox 2, a man was angered to discover a shirtless photograph of Circuit Judge Wade McCree on his wife's phone. The woman works with McCree as a court bailiff.
McCree, who said in the report that the claims he sent the photo to the woman amount to hearsay, wasn't apologetic, or embarrassed, by the photo.
"Hot dog, yep, that's me," he said to Fox 2. "There's no shame in my game."
McCree, who is married, comes from an esteemed judicial background: his late father, Wade H. McCree, Jr., was appointed the U.S. solicitor general by Jimmy Carter, according the University of Michigan Law School, where he taught in the 1980s. He made history as the first African American to sit on a Michigan court of record when he was appointed to the Wayne County Circuit Court in 1954.
The younger McCree was appointed to the Third Circuit Court of Michigan by Jennifer Granholm, according to the Detroit News. As a judge, he has a history of unorthodox decisions. In 2009, he sentenced men who were behind in their child support payments to watch episodes of daytime talk show "Maury" as part of their probation, according to the Associated Press. At the time, McCree said he was "trying to hold up a mirror" to the men to show them the ramifications of their behavior.
The man who found the photo of McCree on his wife's phone told Fox 2 he is filing a complaint with the prosecutor.
The situation echoes other "sexting" scandals that have recently marred the reputations of public officials. Last year, Rep. Anthony Weiner resigned after it was discovered he sent risque photographs of himself to a woman via his Twitter account. Detroit's former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigned in 2008 after sexually explicit texts between Kilpatrick and his top aide Christine Beatty were uncovered.
See the full report of Judge McCree's photo and response on Fox 2.