Lawyer: Accused judge’s relationship with elderly woman ‘complicated’

A lawyer for Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Seeman, who’s charged with stealing from an elderly woman whose home was across the street from his in Berkeley, tells the Chronicle her client and the woman had a “complicated” relationship that law enforcement may not fully understand. Seeman, 57, who remains on the bench although banished to hearing small claims cases since felony charges were filed against him, has pleaded not guilty.

Add: His alleged victim, Ann Nutting, died in 2010. Seeman allegedly sold her art and barred her from her house from 1999 to 2007 while she lived at a hotel at the Berkeley marina.