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The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct announced on Monday, Oct. 23 that Benjamin L.F. Leavitt, who serves as a Justice of the Ossining Town Court, was admonished for trying to get his colleague to go easy on his mail carrier, who had received parking tickets unrelated to her job with the postal service.
According to the Commission, in September 2021, Leavitt was approached by his mail carrier, who told him that she was to appear in court in connection with various parking violations. In response to this, Leavitt sent a text message to his co-judge who was set to make a decision on her case.
In the message, Leavitt implied that his co-judge should consider lowering his mail carrier's fine, according to the Commission.
"If you could take her postal service into account when deciding whether or not to go lower on the fine than [the village prosecutor] is recommending that would be great," Leavitt wrote in his message.
The next day, Leavitt's mail carrier appeared before the co-judge and entered into a plea agreement with the village prosecutor to pay fines reflected by the negotiated agreement, which was not influenced by Leavitt, officials said.
In their decision announced on Monday, the Commission determined that Leavitt "violated his ethical obligations when he contacted his co-judge in an attempt to use his influence to assist his mail carrier…”
Because Leavitt's career has been "unblemished" up to this point, it was decided to admonish him for his conduct. Leavitt has since "promptly accepted responsibility for his misconduct," according to officials.
Leavitt has served the Ossining Town Court since 2020. His term is set to expire on Sunday, Dec. 31.
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