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he Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct was about to convene an ethics hearing when Muller dropped her argument that the facts were wrong, according to an item in The New Jersey Law Journal.
However, it says Muller continues to refute an official complaint that accuses her of trying to use her standing as a judge to convince local police that they should have arrested state investigator Sgt. Warren Monroe of the Attorney General’s Office when he showed up at her and her husband’s home three years ago.
Monroe was investigating two letters of resignation from the Bergenfield Democratic Municipal Committee, one of which was considered by the panel in selecting a candidate to run for a state Senate seat. The complaint says both were alleged forgeries; both people accused of producing them were later exonerated.
Muller’s mother answered the door that May night and told the sergeant that Steven Muller and his wife were upstairs, according to the complaint. Monroe then walked up, called out Steven Muller’s name, and went back downstairs to wait, it says.
Her husband was talking with Monroe when Muller summoned police on a report of an intruder, even though the sergeant had shown her husband his official state identification, the complaint adds.
Monroe was driving away when Bergenfield police stopped him. They let him go after he explained the situation, the complaint says.
Three officers, including a shift sergeant, went to Muller’s home, according to the complaint.
At that point, police said, Muller insisted they arrest Monroe. They told her they couldn’t, and she told insisted that her position as a judge demanded it, the complaint says. She accused the sergeant of “not knowing how to do his job” and later filed trespassing charges against Monroe of trespassing, it says.
Muller, who was replaced a year later, still could be reprimanded or censured.
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