It was all very un-Tico. A internal tribunal has fired a judge at the criminal court in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste province, for workplace harrassment of employees under her direction.

A group of employees filed a number of complaints of allegedly hostile actions that resulted in a closed hearing Oct. 26 that resulted in her dismissal. The tribunal termed the judge’s attitude “very grave.”

Despite the strong statements by the tribunal, the 35-year-old judge has filed an appeal. She called the complaints and the resulting dismissal “persecution.”

She otherwise would not talk with the national newspaper La Nacion. But the investigation of the judge’s behavior began more than a year ago. The judge was even transfered to another office in Santa Cruz in May of 2011.

This is not the first time. When she was working in 2001 at the court in San Jose, she was the target of similar accusations of “aggressiveness toward colleagues, vulgar behavior, disrespect toward subordinates and fellow judges.”

Nor was this all. The tribunal in that occasion found she “had a certain preference for commentaries of a sexual nature, even reaching the point where she touched another judge’s genitals.”

While she was fired in that case, she appealed then but the Superior Council determined that all the charges had not been proven although those of vulgar behavior and insulting language were proven. She was placed on two months’ suspension without pay.