Top New Bedford judge has been removed and residents deserve answers

It was recently brought to our attention that top appointed New Bedford District judge, Douglas Darnbrough has been missing from the court room. Earlier this week we received a tip from a reliable source making an allegation against the judge which caught our attention.

This led us to call the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct and ask if there is an active investigation, to which they replied, “all information is confidential”.

We then searched the New Bedford District Court website to find any information on whether Judge Darnbrough was actively taking cases, suspended, literally anything that could tell us where our top appointed district judge was. We ran into a dead end.

Early this morning the “NBC 10 Investigative team” released an article detailing the same struggles. They also received allegations which led them to investigate Judge Darbrough.

NBC-10 contacted the court on multiple occasions to no avail and even showed up to his home. According to there report, Judge Darnbrough has been on “vacation” since September 21st and now has been moved to Plymouth District Court.

There are so many questions that New Bedford residents deserve answers to. Why was the first justice of New Bedford removed? Who is now acting as first justice in New Bedford? Is Douglas Darnbrough permanently removed from New Bedford?

New Bedford residents deserve answers and transparency from our court system.