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Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct

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TikToking Bergen County Superior Court Judge Suspended TikToking Bergen County Superior Court Judge Suspended
TikToking Bergen County Superior Court Judge Suspended One of New Jersey's top judges has been suspended without pay over his TikTok accounts. A formal complaint by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct was filed last year against Bergen County Superior Court Judge Gary N. Wilcox.  The complaint cites Wilcox's 40 since-deleted videos posted under the pseudonym "Sal Tortorella" from April 2021 to March 2023. The complaint says that Wilcox recorded several TikTok videos in his chambers, including songs that contained profanity, graphic sexual references to female and male body parts, and/or racist terms.  In o…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
NJ Judge 'Abused Power And Prestige' Of Office By Letting Secretary Work From Home, Panel Finds NJ Judge 'Abused Power And Prestige' Of Office By Letting Secretary Work From Home, Panel Finds
NJ Judge 'Abused Power And Prestige' Of Office By Letting Secretary Work From Home, Panel Finds A New Jersey judge "abused the power and prestige" of his office by allowing his secretary to work remotely for six months, a state ethics panel has charged. Superior Court Judge Douglas Hurd could be disciplined by the state Supreme Court if the justices support a complaint filed earlier this week by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct. The unidentified secretary had moved out of state in late 2021 but was exempted from New Jersey's residency requirement, the committee noted. Hurd, in turn, knowingly violated state judiciary policy -- claiming that he believed it was his discretion…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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NJ Judge Who Called Men 'In Control' And Women Created 'On A Curve' Begins Unpaid Suspension NJ Judge Who Called Men 'In Control' And Women Created 'On A Curve' Begins Unpaid Suspension
NJ Judge Who Called Men 'In Control' And Women Created 'On A Curve' Begins Unpaid Suspension A New Jersey judge will be benched for a month beginning Wednesday for telling a domestic violence defendant that men are "in control" and that God created women "on a curve." The state Supreme Court suspended Municipal Court Judge Steven Brister for the month without pay for the way he told the man to consider women. “We get frustrated with the women human beings. Because we try to straighten out a creation ‘cause they was created with a curve," said Brister, a defense attorney who works as a part-time judge in East Orange and Newark, during a 2019 case. The judge later explained he was r…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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NJ Judge Charged With Covering Ties To Friend She Appointed To Handle $600,000 Estate NJ Judge Charged With Covering Ties To Friend She Appointed To Handle $600,000 Estate
NJ Judge Charged With Covering Ties To Friend She Appointed To Handle $600,000 Estate Passaic County Surrogate Bernice Toledo tried to cover up her appointment of a longtime friend and political ally as administrator of a $600,000 estate over the objections of the dead man’s cousin, state authorities charged. Toledo, 51, of Wayne first drew the attention of a state judicial ethics committee after she claimed that “all of the competent adult next of kin and other persons having a prior right to administer the estate had renounced [that] right,” Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said. “In reality, a relative of the decedent who had a prior right of administra…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Verdict: NJ Judge Who Suggested Rape Victim Close Her Legs Removed By State Supreme Court Verdict: NJ Judge Who Suggested Rape Victim Close Her Legs Removed By State Supreme Court
Verdict: NJ Judge Who Suggested Rape Victim Close Her Legs Removed By State Supreme Court A Jersey Shore judge who asked a rape victim whether she tried closing her legs to fend off the assault was permanently removed from the bench by the state Supreme Court. The justices unanimously agreed that “insensitive, threatening and discourteous, comments he made in his Ocean County courtroom – particularly toward the sex assault victim -- warranted the removal of Superior Court Judge John Russo Jr. He’s also prohibited from ever becoming a judge in New Jersey again. The former Toms River mayor had been suspended pending the final decision of the state’s highest court for asking the r…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NJ Supreme Court Suspends Englewood Judge Without Pay For Cursing At Staff, Favoring Defendant NJ Supreme Court Suspends Englewood Judge Without Pay For Cursing At Staff, Favoring Defendant
NJ Supreme Court Suspends Englewood Judge Without Pay For Cursing At Staff, Favoring Defendant An Englewood Municipal Court judge bypassed courtroom procedure, cursed at a staffer and committed other violations that make her “a serious harm to the administration of justice,” a state judicial panel charged. As a result, the New Jersey Supreme Court suspended Aishaah Rasul, 64, without pay on Wednesday pending the results of an ethics hearing. The complaint stems from a case in which a woman claimed two others assaulted her. Rasul acquitted one defendant after a trial while not issuing a finding for the other – apparently so that woman’s entry in the state’s drug court program wouldn’…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Ex-Bergen County Judge Fired From Superior Court After Abusing Power, Lying About It Ex-Bergen County Judge Fired From Superior Court After Abusing Power, Lying About It
Ex-Bergen County Judge Fired From Superior Court After Abusing Power, Lying About It The state Supreme Court has removed Passaic County Superior Court judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi after it came to light she had been interfering in a custody dispute and then lying about it, NJ.com reports. The order to remove DeAvila-Silebi -- formerly the presiding judge in Bergen County -- came when she chose not to fight the recommendation of a three-judge panel appointed by the court, the article says. An investigation found that DeAvila-Silebi misused her position to try to help a former intern involved in a custody battle, calling the Fort Lee Police Department in May 2015 requesting …

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by Cecilia Levine