Tempe Municipal Court judge arrested for allegedly stabbing wife 10 times
Sep 25, 2017, 4:15 PM | Updated: Sep 26, 2017, 9:20 am
Thomas Robinson (Photo: Chandler PD)
(Photo: Chandler PD)
PHOENIX — A judge from Tempe Municipal Court was arrested Friday for allegedly stabbing his wife 10 times at their Chandler home last month during a domestic violence incident.
Thomas Jeffrey Robinson was taken into custody by Chandler police and booked into jail on suspicion of 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of tempering with physical evidence.
According to court documents, police responded to the Chandler Regional Medical Center on Aug. 25 for a female patient with “multiple stab wounds.” Police then documented the wounds and interviewed Robinson and his wife, who was not identified in the documents.
Robinson at the time allegedly told police that he went for a walk around 6 a.m. that morning and left the door unlocked with his wife inside. Once he returned home, he told police that he found damaged items in the house and his wife was injured “with what appeared to be stab wounds.”
Robinson told police that his wife reportedly said an “intruder entered their home and stabbed her multiple times” and that he did not call police because his wife did not want him to call police or take her to the hospital.
The wife was interviewed separately, according to police documents, and reiterated her husband’s account that an “intruder entered the home and stabbed her.”
Nearly a month later, on Sept. 21, Chandler police received a call from a caller on an emergency crisis line, who said they were in contact with Robinson’s wife and allegedly “told them her husband had stabbed her,” the documents read.
Police then got in contact with Robinson’s wife, who said the stabbing had been “perpetrated upon her by her husband” and initially claimed it was a stranger because “she did not want [Robinson] to get in trouble.”
According to the police report, patrol officers went to Robinson’s home that same day and located “two objects with what appeared to be blood splatter on them.”
There have been “previous domestic disturbances” involving Robinson, the police report stated, and he is currently the subject of an order of protection.
Bond was set at $50,000 for the 55-year-old Robinson at his initial court appearance, where he didn’t have an attorney. He is expected to be back in court on Friday for a status conference.
The arrest was reported to the Commission on Judicial Conduct on Saturday and Tempe city officials have placed Robinson on paid administrative leave. He has filed for retirement, effective on Thursday, a City of Tempe statement said Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
