Judge Bradley S. Knoll of Michigan struck his wife, was arrested in a courthouse parking lot, and pleaded guilty to domestic assault. The Michigan Supreme Court adopted the Judicial Tenure Commission’s misconduct findings and entered a consent order requiring his mandatory retirement effective July 1, 2026. He is currently suspended with pay and barred from presiding over domestic violence cases. He will not be removed — he will retire.
What happened on December 13, 2023
The facts are not in dispute. Knoll stipulated to them and the Michigan Supreme Court formally adopted them as findings.
Knoll became angry during a dispute involving his 12-year-old grandson. When his wife intervened, Knoll struck her with an open hand and slapped her head. The grandson called 911. Police responded, interviewed both witnesses, and arrested Knoll — in the parking lot of a courthouse. During that police interaction, Knoll told an officer: “Fuck you.”
He was charged with domestic assault under MCL 769.4a, pleaded guilty, completed probation, and had the case dismissed without a formal conviction entry. Michigan’s domestic assault diversion statute is designed to allow exactly this outcome. No permanent criminal record. The judicial discipline proceeding is what created accountability.
His conduct eroded public confidence in the judiciary. He failed to respect the law. He failed to treat others with courtesy and respect. These are stipulated facts the Michigan Supreme Court adopted, not allegations. The Court anchored the discipline order in Code of Judicial Conduct Canons 2A and 2B.
The discipline structure: retirement, not removal
The Michigan Supreme Court had more than one option. It could have removed Knoll from the bench outright. Instead, it accepted a consent agreement with the Judicial Tenure Commission, a structure that allows Knoll to retire on July 1 rather than face a formal removal order.
That distinction is not cosmetic. Retirement is a controlled exit. Removal is a public rupture. The consent agreement gave the Court documentation sufficient to justify the outcome while giving the institution control over how much exposure the proceeding created.
The criminal case closed without a conviction. The judicial discipline case ended Knoll’s career. That split is not accidental. The judicial system’s threshold question was not whether Knoll was convicted. It was whether he could still credibly sit in judgment of others. On that question, the Court concluded he could not.
A 12-year-old called 911. Police responded to an active domestic situation. An arrest occurred at a courthouse. That sequence left a public record. Had the incident remained entirely private, the institutional calculus would have been different. The child’s call to police made internal containment impossible.
The Court did not only discipline Knoll, it permanently restructured what he could do even in a post-retirement capacity. Barring him from domestic violence cases acknowledges, formally and in the record, that a judge who commits domestic assault cannot neutrally adjudicate domestic assault. That acknowledgment raises an obvious question about every domestic violence case Knoll presided over before December 2023.
The consent agreement does not address Knoll’s prior caseload. The formal record documents what he did and ends his tenure. It does not create any mechanism for review of cases decided before the misconduct became known, including any domestic violence matters he may have adjudicated.
“Suspended with pay” is doing structural work here
Knoll is currently removed from the bench. He is still drawing a full salary. He will retire on July 1 rather than being terminated. Each of those three facts is consistent with institutional discipline. Together, they describe a carefully managed exit.
The Court documented enough to justify the outcome. It structured the outcome to minimize institutional damage. Both of those things are happening simultaneously, and the formal record reflects the first while the structure reflects the second.
That is not an indictment of the proceeding. The discipline was real and it was warranted. It is an observation about how institutions protect their own legitimacy even when holding one of their members accountable. The robe still matters. The institution’s credibility still matters. Both of those pressures shaped this outcome alongside the documented misconduct.
What the In re Brown framework required
The Court applied the In re Brown factors (461 Mich 1291, 2000). That framework asks courts to weigh whether misconduct was part of a pattern or isolated, whether it occurred on or off the bench, its impact on the administration of justice, the degree of premeditation involved, and the harm to public trust in the judiciary.
On those facts, the Court concluded that Knoll’s conduct crossed the threshold where the robe no longer holds. The language the Court used, that his conduct eroded public confidence in the judiciary, is not boilerplate. It is the one finding the system protects most aggressively. Once the institution formally concludes that a judge has damaged public confidence, the discipline follows as a matter of structural necessity.
Sources and Documentation
Rita Williams, Michigan Judge Forced Into Early Retirement After Domestic Assault — While Still Collecting a Paycheck, Clutch Justice (Apr. 9, 2026), https://clutchjustice.com/2026/04/09/bradley-knoll-michigan-judge-suspension-retirement-domestic-assault/.
Williams, R. (2026, April 9). Michigan judge forced into early retirement after domestic assault — while still collecting a paycheck. Clutch Justice. https://clutchjustice.com/2026/04/09/bradley-knoll-michigan-judge-suspension-retirement-domestic-assault/
Williams, Rita. “Michigan Judge Forced Into Early Retirement After Domestic Assault — While Still Collecting a Paycheck.” Clutch Justice, 9 Apr. 2026, clutchjustice.com/2026/04/09/bradley-knoll-michigan-judge-suspension-retirement-domestic-assault/.
Williams, Rita. “Michigan Judge Forced Into Early Retirement After Domestic Assault — While Still Collecting a Paycheck.” Clutch Justice, April 9, 2026. https://clutchjustice.com/2026/04/09/bradley-knoll-michigan-judge-suspension-retirement-domestic-assault/.
