Tag:

Judicial Misconduct

Hackensack, NJ
News
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…

SHARE

by Cecilia Levine
Peekskill, NY
News
Peekskill City Judge Resigns After Making Sexual Innuendos, Remarks: Officials Peekskill City Judge Resigns After Making Sexual Innuendos, Remarks: Officials
Peekskill City Judge Resigns After Making Sexual Innuendos, Remarks: Officials A city court judge in Northern Westchester has resigned from his office and agreed never to return after being charged with making sexual innuendos and inappropriate remarks to staff and attorneys on multiple occasions, officials announced.  Peekskill City Court Judge Reginald J. Johnson announced that he would resign from his position effective on Monday, Sept. 30 following formal charges filed against him by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the organization announced on Friday, Sept. 20.  According to the commission, in August 2024, Johnson was served with…

SHARE

by Ben Crnic
Brentwood, NY
News
Courtroom Stunner: Judge Tosses Manslaughter Case Against Alec Baldwin In On-Set Shooting Courtroom Stunner: Judge Tosses Manslaughter Case Against Alec Baldwin In On-Set Shooting
Courtroom Stunner: Judge Tosses Manslaughter Case Against Alec Baldwin In On-Set Shooting Actor Alec Baldwin will not face criminal charges in connection with the on-set shooting that killed a cinematographer, CNN reports. In a stunning development Friday afternoon, July 12, a judge in Santa Fe, New Mexico dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin stemming from the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, citing prosecutorial misconduct, according to the outlet. Judge Mary Marlowe threw out the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again, after finding that law enforcement intentionally concealed evidence that prevented Baldwin from pr…

SHARE

by Michael Mashburn
Hackensack, NJ
Police & Fire
PUNITIVE DAMAGE: Bergen Judge Made Misogynist TikTok Videos In Chambers, In Bed: Complaint PUNITIVE DAMAGE: Bergen Judge Made Misogynist TikTok Videos In Chambers, In Bed: Complaint
Punitive Damage: Bergen Judge Made Misogynist TikTok Videos In Chambers, In Bed: Complaint A New Jersey criminal judge is accused of creating offensive videos in his chambers at the Bergen County courthouse in Hackensack, as well as partly undressed in his bed. 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 t…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Cherry Hill, NJ
News
Camden Judge Reprimanded For Saying He Doesn't Know Family Law, Failing To Wear Judicial Robe Camden Judge Reprimanded For Saying He Doesn't Know Family Law, Failing To Wear Judicial Robe
Camden Judge Reprimanded For Saying He Doesn't Know Family Law, Failing To Wear Judicial Robe A Camden County judge was publicly reprimanded by the New Jersey Supreme Court for misconduct while temporarily working in family court. On Tuesday, April 11, a Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct said State Superior Court Judge Michael J. Kassel's behavior constituted a complete departure from ethical standards. Kassel, who usually works in Camden County’s civil division, was temporarily assigned to the family division in April 2021. The advisory committee's report included numerous comments from the judge professing his ignorance of family law, such as: "I’m not an idi…

SHARE

by Jon Craig
Hamilton Township, NJ
News
NJ Judge Inappropriately Touched Clerk After Sharing Drinks At His Beach House, Complaint Says NJ Judge Inappropriately Touched Clerk After Sharing Drinks At His Beach House, Complaint Says
NJ Judge Inappropriately Touched Clerk After Sharing Drinks At His Beach House, Complaint Says A municipal judge from Mercer County is accused of violating judicial conduct after a law clerk says he touched her thigh inappropriately, according to a complaint filed by a state advisory committee. Filed Monday, April 10, the complaint says Judge R. Douglas Hoffman “demeaned the judicial office" in drinking alcohol with a subordinate employee and touching her without her consent. Hoffman has 20 days to respond. After the judge and the woman, identified as L.W., became Facebook friends, Hoffman would comment on her Facebook photos, sometimes with sexual overtones, and invit…

SHARE

by Jon Craig
Newark, NJ
News
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…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Brentwood, NY
News
Long Island Judge Under Investigation For Sexism, Favoritism Resigns Long Island Judge Under Investigation For Sexism, Favoritism Resigns
Long Island Judge Under Investigation For Sexism, Favoritism Resigns A Long Island judge has resigned after learning of a state investigation into allegations that he granted favors to friends facing the court and used sexist language toward women. Peter Gallanter, a judge in Nassau County, in Manorhaven Village, resigned on Monday, April 5, and agreed to never "seek or accept judicial office at any time in the future," the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said on Monday, April 26. According to the commission, in March 2021, the judge, age 60, was apprised that the commission was investigating complaints that he dismissed or reduced tickets…

SHARE

by Kathy Reakes
Edison, NJ
Police & Fire
Middlesex Judge Who Advised Woman To Sell Nude Photos To Playboy Should Be Censured, Panel Says Middlesex Judge Who Advised Woman To Sell Nude Photos To Playboy Should Be Censured, Panel Says
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. 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 …

SHARE

by Jon Craig
Englewood, NJ
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’…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Hackensack, NJ
News
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 …

SHARE

by Cecilia Levine
Mount Pleasant, NY
News
Area Judge Pleads Guilty To False Statement, Obstructing FBI Agents Area Judge Pleads Guilty To False Statement, Obstructing FBI Agents
Area Judge Pleads Guilty To False Statement, Obstructing FBI Agents A 59-year-old New City woman and former judge pleaded guilty on Thursday, April 26 for making false statements in connection with a loan application to buy a home in the Town of Monroe in Orange County. Federal prosecutors said that Lurlyn A. Winchester, a former Justice for the Town Court of Monroe, pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy, in federal court in White Plains,. She faces up to 30 years in federal prison and more than $1 million in fines when she is sentenced in August. Prosecutors allege that the Rockland County resident lied on her application in order to…

SHARE

by Jon Craig