ST. FRANCIS ? A Cheyenne County magistrate judge has been found guilty of intimidating a man she had accused of snatching her purse in a bowling alley.

A six-person jury found that Tamera Zimbelman had intimidated a witness, Christopher Merklin, after hearing testimony from five people who contradicted the judge’s story.

Zimbelman had accused Merklin, then 21, of stealing her purse Dec. 22, 2001, from Cheyenne Bowl. The judge said she had “circumstantial evidence” that Merklin, of St. Francis, took the purse.

A police search of Merklin’s pickup the day of the alleged theft turned up nothing.

A few days later, Zimbelman’s estranged husband, Rell Dean Zimbelman, of St. Francis, and Scott Allen Baumfalk, of Kanorado, showed up at a house where Merklin lived with his parents and sister. They allegedly demanded the purse be returned.

Dennis Merklin, Christopher’s father, pressed criminal trespass and disorderly conduct charges against the two men. Rell Zimbelman was cleared of both charges in a December trial, but Baumfalk was found guilty of disorderly conduct.

Christopher Merklin told authorities before the trials that Zimbelman called him and told him to drop the charges or she’d take him to jail for burglary.

During Zimbelman’s trial, Asst. Atty. Gen. Athena E. Andaya said the magistrate judge had acted “unprofessionally” and was not able to separate her personal life from her professional life.

“She has the need to have a respectable appearance in the community, but her husband isn’t helping her with that, so she went to Christopher Merklin to stop a complaint being filed,” Andaya said in closing arguments Thursday.

Zimbelman is paid $40,000 as magistrate judge, plus she earns $5,700 a year more as the municipal judge for St. Francis and Bird City.

Zimbelman’s defense attorney Roger Falk, of Wichita, told jurors she had acted with “stupid or inappropriate behavior” but that it was not criminal behavior.

Falk has until April 14 to file an appeal.

Zimbelman could face up to six months in jail and a fine up to $1,000. Nyswonger set sentencing for 1 p.m. April 24.

Ron Keefover, spokesman for the court system, said all Kansas judges must follow the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct. A conviction violates that code.