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Using a pseudonym," Superior Court Judge Gary N. Wilcox created 40 public TikTok videos, some containing profanity and graphic sexual terms for body parts, others with violent, misogynist and racist terms, a complaint against him alleges.
In one video, Wilcox wears a “Beavis and Butt-Head” T-shirt while walking through the county courthouse to the sound of the Nas song "Get Down," which concerns a courtroom shooting and the murder of a hospital doctor who treated another gang member, the complaint says.
The Harrington Park native -- a Harvard Law School graduate and former federal prosecutor -- began in Bergen as a family court judge following his appointment by then-Gov. Chris Christie in 2011.
In 2016, he was reassigned to adult criminal court and in 2018 he received tenure.
The offensive TikTok videos were posted between April 11, 2021 and this past March under the pseudonym “Sal Tortorella," the complaint filed by an attorney for the New Jersey Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct alleges.
“When an ex-girlfriend calls you 'Santa' because of your new white beard,” reads the text in one of the videos. In the background is Busta Rhymes’ "Touch It," about a woman giving oral sex, the complaint says.
In another video Wilcox is in a car wearing a “Freedom of Speech” t-shirt and lip-synching a line from the movie "Next Friday":
“Go ahead baby. You hittin’ them corners too god damn fast. You gotta slow this motha****a down. You understand? I almost spilled my [Cognac] on this $200 dollar suit, n****r. Come on, baby, keep it together."
Wilcox, who turns 59 next weekend, sports a suit and tie in his chambers in another TikTok video, lip-synching to "Jump" by Rhianna: “If you want it let’s do it. Ride it, my pony," says the complaint filed by the committee's disciplinary counsel.
And then: “All my life, I’ve been waiting for somebody to whoop my ass. I mean business! You think you can run up on me and whip my monkey ass? Come on. Come on!”
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A copy of the complaint can be found here: ACJC Complaint – In the Matter of Gary N. Wilcox, Judge of the Superior Court
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The advisory committee counsel contends in the complaint that Wilcox "exhibited poor judgment and demonstrated disrespect for the Judiciary and an inability to conform to the high standards of conduct expected of judges."
Seen as inappropriate and bringing "disrepute" to the judiciary, the committee attorney says, are videos "including references to violence, sex, and misogyny" that were recorded by the judge in his chambers and the courthouse, as well as in bed "wearing his judicial robes and/or partially dressed while lying in bed."The TikTok videos have since been removed.
The Advisory Committee now has several options, provided WIlcox cooperates.
It can issue private discipline. It can request that the state Supreme Court pursue public discipline, which includes a public reprimand, admonition, censure or suspension.
Removal from the bench is another option, but that is often a last resort.
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