Middlesex Judge Who Advised Woman To Sell Nude Photos To Playboy Should Be Censured, Panel Says

A Middlesex County assignment judge should be censured for suggesting a plaintiff in his courtroom sell nude photos of herself to Playboy magazine, the state’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct said.

Judge Alberto Rivas
Photo Credit: *LinkedIn*

A copy of the August 2019 complaint against Alberto Rivas, an assignment judge in Middlesex County.
Photo Credit: *Supreme Court of New Jersey*

Jon Craig

02/06/2020 8:05 p.m.

Rivas, a graduate of Princeton University and Rutgers Law School, has since issued an apology.

The panel’s recommendations, released on Wednesday, will go to the state Supreme Court for a decision on disciplinary action.

Rivas has been reprimanded twice before for making inappropriate comments from the bench, according to court records.

The latest complaint against the judge came last August after he presided over a dispute involving the girlfriend of a married man and his wife.

The girlfriend sought to have her boyfriend’s wife return what she claimed were explicit photos of herself. The girlfriend further alleged her lover’s wife sent the photos to her employer. She also feared the compromising pics would be shared on social media.

During a January 2019 court appearance, Rivas said he found the girlfriend's claims were an attempt to embarrass the man’s wife -- calling them a “complete fabrication."

According to a courtroom transcript, the judge doubted the girlfriend’s claim she didn’t know where the wife worked: “Baloney. That’s not true. If you’re screwing him -- let’s be frank now, because I should not be wasting judicial resources on this kind of malarkey. If you have been screwing him for these years, there’s no question that you know where she works. That’s how affairs work. This is not someone you just met."

Rivas added: “I will give you a piece of advice... The only person you should be sending naked pictures to are Hugh Hefner. He will pay you $100,000 for the use of them."

Rivas later issued an apology: “I regret the comments I made during the proceeding. . . .I felt the court was being manipulated, but I let my feelings about the case influence my language, tone and demeanor, all of which were inappropriate."

In July 2013, Rivas “displayed an injudicious manner” toward litigants in two separate cases. In October 2014, he exhibited “discourteous treatment” of a defendant in a criminal trial, also according to public records.

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