Federal Court Judge Thomas Ludington In Trouble Again. This Time He Violated His Probation By Skipping His Drug And Alcohol Tests
Court documents show federal court judge Thomas Ludington is set to appear before a state court judge for violating his probation connected to a “super-drunk” DUI charge in Emmet County last year.
Court documents from the 90th District Court in Emmet County show Ludington is set for an arraignment hearing next Monday.
Federal Court Judge Thomas Ludington was sentenced last month to six months of probation. He was arrested last October and took a plea deal, pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of operating while intoxicated in exchange for dismissing one count of operating with a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 or more.
The Detroit News is reporting federal court Judge Ludington missed one of his twice-weekly alcohol and drug tests. The violation could lead to three months in jail or mandatory treatment.
The charges stem from a crash on Oct. 3, 2025, near Thomas Ludington’s vacation home in Emmet County. He reportedly struck two traffic signs before crashing on a rural road outside of Petoskey.
Ludington registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.27, well above the 0.08 state legal standard for inebriation and above the 0.17 threshold of being “super drunk.”
Video from Michigan State Police showed Federal Court Judge Thomas Ludington at the crash site and his subsequent arrest. He was sitting in the car after officers arrived and told one trooper that he “wasn’t sure why (the airbags) deployed,” the video shows.
After getting out of the car, he appeared to have a hard time understanding or following police instructions. When asked how much he had to drink that night, he hesitated for a second before he said, “Uh, nothing tonight.”
The video shows the trooper administering three sobriety tests that federal court Judge Thomas Ludington failed. When he was asked to pick a number between 19 and 21, he answered “15.”
The trooper showed him the damage to the right side of his vehicle and told Ludington that someone had called dispatch and reported seeing him strike two signs about a mile before the crash. Ludington told the trooper that he had no memory of that.
It also took the trooper multiple attempts to get a reading on the preliminary breath test because Ludington couldn’t understand the instructions, the video shows. At that point, he was placed under arrest.
Federal judges are given lifetime appointments. Ludington was appointed in 2006 by former President George W. Bush. He handles civil and criminal cases at the federal court in Bay City. For a federal judge to be impeached, Congress must pass a motion with a simple majority in the House of Representatives and a two-thirds majority in the Senate.
Ludington took a leave of absence in February after news of his arrest surfaced. He remains away on leave from the court while he is under investigation by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
