Summary Contempts Lead To Judicial Censure

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct imposed censure on a family court judge for misconduct that involved holding litigants in summary contempt “in contravention of statutory requirements.” In each of three matters, the judge “acknowledged that she was impatient with the litigants, that she did not properly warn them that they faced contempt, that she did not offer them the opportunity to make a statement on their own behalf before she executed the contempt rulings, and that she sentenced them without a proper mandate of commitment that specifically set forth the circumstances of their contempt so as to enable appellate review.”

The transcripts of the proceedings are included in the linked order and have a flavor of what one sees in the behavior of TV judges (“close your mouth” “listen to me” and “if you don’t shut your mouth right now, you’ll be leaving in handcuffs with the court officer”). The judge was remorseful and “assures the Commission that lapses such as occurred in the cases here will not recur.” (Mike Frisch)