The regional court in Traunstein, Upper Bavaria, is always the center of public attention. A complex murder trial is currently underway there in the case of the murdered student Hanna W. from Aschau. A victim of abuse is suing for damages from the Catholic Church, and at the same time the Traunstein judges are repeatedly conducting major smuggling cases. In all of this, the court has had to do without its president for months. He was temporarily suspended from duty in October.
Like that Traunsteiner Tagblatt reported and as a spokesman for the Munich Higher Regional Court confirmed to the dpa news agency, the responsible service court followed an application from the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office on October 13th. She had initiated proceedings against the Traunstein court president on suspicion of sexual harassment of an employee. In September 2021, after an “informal meeting” in the district court rooms, he is said to have hugged the woman and “kissed her unexpectedly on the mouth,” according to the public prosecutor’s office. The judiciary found out about the case in February 2022 through an internal contact point.
The court president denies the accusation and must be considered innocent until a possible conviction. He is challenging his interim suspension and trying to prevent details about the case from becoming public. Not only the judiciary in Traunstein is very reserved, but also that in Munich. The procedure is conducted there in order to rule out bias on the part of those involved. What is certain is that the Munich I public prosecutor’s office applied for a criminal order against the Traunstein court president at the Munich district court in May. The decision on this is still pending.
Regardless of the outcome of the criminal and disciplinary proceedings, the Traunstein court president has now applied to be retired at the end of January. His return had not been expected in Traunstein for a long time. Vice President Andrea Titz has been running the regional court’s business for a long time.